December 15th, 2008 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | 3 Comments »
Jamie Conyngham and David Kainer have started a new mobile games company called Dojo. Sounds familiar? That might be because DoJa was a Java version used for i-mode games. Clever choice for a name, but there's more…
The company launched with the claim that their 'Cubed Addict' game, which is still in Beta according to the press release, is the first mobile game to connect both PC and Mobile gamers. Sorry guys, but MGB was at the E3 2005 and met a few Korean companies that had already did this a few times, which makes it nothing new.
If we ignore the not so original name, and the not so true claim to have the first mobile game that connects both Mobile and PC gamers, we are left with the technology that is used by the company. When keeping in mind that Jamie Conyngham was part of TelcoGames, it's no surprise that when most of that company went to MED Ltd, Jamie took Viva-La-Mobile with him. This deal clearly went under our radar.
The games that Dojo creates, are freely available to consumers. The company expects the revenues to return via in-game adds and micro transactions. To boost the userbase, the PC versions will be connected to popular platforms like Facebook.
David Kainer, Dojo CTO and co-founder of Dojo explained: “A mobile user in Russia can now play against a mobile user in the UK or PC user in the USA for free and in real time. Dojo does not discriminate which network you are on, nor which internet device you are using.”
Jamie Conyngham, CEO and co-founder of Dojo, added: “What users are telling us is that this Cubed Addict game is, as the name suggests, hugely addictive! In fact, the Dojo global concept is something that awakens the primitive competitive instinct in people and gamers across the world are hooked. It’s fun and satisfying.”
Dojo Media Ltd is founded in 2008 and is fully owned by Viva La Mobile Pty Ltd. The company has offices in both London and Sydney (so Jamie didn't go Down Under).
In an interview with Pocket Gamer, Jamie also says that the platform will be open to other mobile game developers. When it comes to pulling in advertisers, Dojo hopes to sign it's own deals next to sighing up ad networks. Read the full interview over at PG.biz.
The only thing these guys should go down under on, is each other 😉
So Jamie Conyngham keeps playing while David Kainer is paying. At least he can’t damage the entire industry this way 😉
This is the dark side: Telcogames and its various managers have done more bad to the industry than most other disasters combined. The “buy-out” had a bad smell (even worse when reading the above), MED isn’t paying their dues, and now an ad-financed next big thing on the back of Viva-La-Mobile’s multiplayer platform? Run, people, run!