Mobile games firm Telcogames in administration
Blend of 3D games and aggregation hasn't paid off
We'd been hearing reports from various contacts that mobile games firm Telcogames was in trouble for a while, but it appears to be official now, with Mobile Games Blog publishing a letter from Menzies Corporate Restructuring confirming that the company is in administration.
"I write to advise that I was appointed Joint Administrator of the Company," it says. "It is the Joint Administrators' current intention to sell the business and assets as a going concern... as yet I am not able to give any information regarding the financial position."
Telcogames had two areas of business. It published 3D and smartphone mobile games including SiL and the excellent Flexis Extreme.
But it also acted as an aggregator of other publishers' mobile games, distributing them to operators and portals around the world in countries when the publishers didn't have any local presence.
Among its customers were EA Mobile, Glu Mobile, Hands-On Mobile, THQ Wireless and Digital Chocolate, as well as a host of smaller publishers and developers.
And it's this aspect of the company that could have a knock-on effect for the mobile industry as it's unclear who's a creditor of the company, and how much they're owed.
Could it be enough to put some smaller firms in trouble too?
Ironically it was only as recently as February this year that Telcogames had appointed industry veteran Juan Montes as the chairman of its board. He was previously the European boss of mobile publisher Jamdat before it was bought by EA Mobile (and before that held executive positions at Motorola and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe).
"2008 already feels like a year of change in the mobile industry and Telcogames are uniquely positioned to take advantage of this," he said at the time.
It appears he was, at least, half right.
