Thumbs up for mobile gaming

A LIVERPOOL company has launched in a bid to give small mobile phone games developers a route to market.

Thumbstar Games launched last week, after three months of signing up developers and the companies that sell mobile games to consumers.

Martin Kitney, who has worked in the games industry for over 12 years, set up the company with private backing.

He says that because Thumbstar aggregates games from lots of developers around the world, it can offer games sales channels – mobile operators such as O2 or Vodafone, and companies that sell games through TV, magazine and online adverts – more choice with a library of games.

The approach makes it much more likely that the games of a small developer will be distributed, according to Mr Kitney.

“Each developer puts out an average of four titles a year. But a games provider needs more – we can give them ten or twelve a month,” he said.

The company, which employs three full-time staff, has 19 developers on its book and distributes to around 20 channels, at present but it wants to grow both.

Mr Kitney says winning a contract with a mobile operator would be the next big milestone for the company and it is in contract negotiations in Europe and the Middle East.

“But we need to have the right content first, and we are working to that now,” he said.

“We want to work with the developers.  Lots of large distribution companies focus on sales but we help with the PR and marketing of the games and give the titles exposure because it drives revenue for us too. We see it as part of the service.”

It usually costs around £4.50 for a customer to download a game. Thumbstar receives £1 from the sales channel and then splits it 50/50 with the game developer.