Telcogames Acquires Fathammer
London, United Kingdom and Helsinki, Finland 06 June
2006 - Telcogames, a global publisher, developer and
distributor of mobile games, today announced that it has
acquired Fathammer, the Helsinki based developer of advanced
mobile games. The acquisition establishes Telcogames as the
global market leader in mobile smartphone games, and expands
the reach of Fathammer's games portfolio further
globally.
"Combined with our Magic Productions acquisition, this deal
positions Telcogames as a world leader in publishing,
development and distribution of native and advanced mobile
games. Fathammer immediately adds 24 exclusive 3D titles to
our portfolio, most of which have not been distributed yet.
Fathammer will continue producing superb 3D games for 3rd
parties, such as Disney's Narnia and Eidos' Tomb Raider, as
well as their own original IP", says Jamie Conyngham, CEO of
Telcogames.
"Fathammer has six years of experience in developing mobile
3D games, which makes our development team the pioneers in
this field. Our talented game development studio is a perfect
complement to the unparalleled distribution channels of
Telcogames", says Annariikka Lönnberg, Managing Director of
Fathammer.
The deal is positive for the mobile game end-customer, and
helps move the sector forward by setting the quality bar
higher. Fathammer's High End native games will immediately
start to be distributed by Telcogames to consumers via
carriers, off-portal and retail channels. The games are true
3D games taking advantage of carriers' faster data networks.
Currently mobile games tend to be around 40K-200K in file
size; Fathammer's new portfolio of titles range from 100K -
16MB, with the majority of the games ranging from 1 - 5 MB.
Consumers will get a deep, high quality 3D mobile gaming
experience.
"We see the combination of Telcogames and Fathammer as a
natural next step in the development, forming a company,
which is better positioned to capitalize on market
opportunity. Telcogames management team has clear vision and
proven execution capability, key criteria for us, when
considering the transaction", says Kimmo Korpela, Director of
3i.
Additionally, the acquisition gives Telcogames two new
territories of operations in Finland and Korea. Finland being
one of the leading countries for wireless innovation, and
Korea leading the world in advanced mobile games. Telcogames
has already begun distributing games in Korea and China via
Fathammer Asia contracts with SKT, KTF and Digital Red.
Founded in 2000, and based in Helsinki, Finland and Seoul,
South Korea, Fathammer has gained wide industry recognition
with its advanced 3D mobile games. Their games portfolio
offers a versatile mix of intense and casual games in a wide
range of genres. Fathammer supports all major mobile
platforms including BREW, Java, WIPI, Symbian OS and Windows
Mobile.
Since it was founded three years ago, Telcogames has
established itself as the leading "Off-Portal" distributor
globally, as well as supplying to many of the world's Tier 1
- 3 carriers. In Q4 last year, Telcogames acquired Magic
Productions development studio in France to strengthen its
publishing activities for native smartphone games ported from
console classics. The recent addition of Fathammer original
IP and 3D titles consolidates Telcogames position as the
leader in publishing and distribution of native smartphone
games.
Fathammer will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of
Telcogames. Fathammer's current employees will continue with
Telcogames in Helsinki and Seoul. The X-Forge® middleware
part of Fathammer has been sold to a third party. Annariikka
Lönnberg, Fathammer's current General Manager, has been
promoted to Managing Director of Fathammer. She will report
to Lewis MacDonald, COO of Telcogames in London. Fathammer's
current investors, 3i and Nexit Ventures, will become
investors in Telcogames.
- ENDS -
Notes to Editors
- Mobile content trends: Premium mobile content market to hit $43bn by 2010 (iSuppli research)
- Mobile gaming growth: US revenues will increase from $600m in 2005 to $1,500m in 2008 (IDC)
- Smartphones: Comprise the fastest growing proportion of the "mobile terminal" market, with sales expected to double year-on-year in 2006, reaching 200 million by 2008. Of the 180m mobile terminals shipped in Q1-05, 8,4m were smartphones. (Gartner, Linux)
- Smartphone OS shares: Symbian 76,2 %, Linux 13,7 %, PalmOS 4,6 %, Windows 4,5 %, RIM 1 % (Gartner/05)
- Global shipments of Symbian OS phones during Q1, 2006 rose to 11,70m; year-on-year quarter growth of 73 % (Q1 2005 - 6,75m) (Symbian)
- Cumulative shipments of Symbian OS phones since Symbian's formation reached 70.5 million phones (Symbian)
- 10 licensees are currently shipping 66 different Symbian OS phone models to more than 250 major network operators (Symbian).
About Fathammer
Fathammer is a leading publisher and developer of advanced
mobile games for multiple platforms and carries a growing
portfolio of high quality 3D mobile games. Fathammer is also
the developer of the industry proven X-Forge® game
development system and toolkit, which help game developers
create advanced mobile games fast and with reduced risk.
Fathammer is privately owned, and has offices in Helsinki,
Finland and Seoul, South Korea. For more information, please
visit www.fathammer.com
About Telcogames
Headquartered in London, Telcogames is a global publisher,
developer and distributor of quality mobile games across all
major formats, including Symbian, Windows Mobile, Linux, J2ME
and Brew. It distributes mobile games to tier 1 - 3 carriers
globally and is regarded as the leader in "off-portal"
distribution. Telcogames portfolio of games consists of the
best mobile games from over 100 different companies.
Telcogames has two internal studios, Magic Productions, which
ports console games to native mobile devices, and Fathammer,
which is a leading 3D mobile game production company, as well
as creator of its own high quality 3D games for multiple
platforms. Telcogames is privately owned, and has offices in
London, Düsseldorf, Helsinki, Liverpool, Norrköping, Paris,
Seoul, Taipei and Tel Aviv. For more information, please
visit www.telcogames.com.
For more information, please contact:
Irene Nyberg (press)
Telcogames, London
press@telcogames.com
phone +44 7747 844 854 or +358 40 741 4067
Jamie Conyngham, CEO
Telcogames, London
jamie.conyngham@telcogames.com
phone +44 7887 530 869
Annariikka Lönnberg, Managing Director
Fathammer, Helsinki
ansu@fathammer.com
phone +358 50 331 2535
Kimmo Korpela, Director
3i Nordic plc
Kimmo.Korpela@3i.com
phone +46 (0)70 34 888 19