Chinese gaming giant enters Europe

Having conquered the Chinese market in three years, mobile games developer Skymoons will launch its entry into the West from a new studio in Edinburgh.

An image from Journey of the Flower. [China Daily]

Founded in tech hotspot Chengdu in 2014, Skymoons is the company behind the popular mobile game Journey of the Flower. The developer has accrued more than 180 million users, though it is less well-known among gamers in the United States and Europe than it is in China.

"Our games have achieved very strong performance in China, and we are looking to build our new games to cater to a global audience," explained Jason Chiu, Skymoons' senior director of corporate development.

The company has officially opened up operations in Edinburgh, under the leadership of former Reload Games managing director Michael Boniface, who is looking to hire 21 employees during the next six months.

"China's really driving the mobile market," Boniface said. "From my perspective, we historically made console and PC games because they are popular in the markets we deal in. I think the huge appetite for mobile titles in China is driving through to the West."

In 2015, the Chinese mobile games market became the largest in the world. That year, it generated $7.1 billion, up 57 percent on 2014, according to a report released last year by technology companies Newzoo and TalkingData. The report estimated total revenue of $10 billion for 2016, and anticipated an increase to $13.9 billion by 2019.

Edinburgh is one of the UK's biggest technology hubs, and the Scottish capital is home to Codebase, Britain's largest startup incubator. Nearby Abertay University in Dundee is the only European university ranked in the Princeton Review's 2015 list of the top 25 schools for the study of game design.

In December, the university entered into a cooperation agreement with a new digital arts school in Beijing opened by Chinese video game developer Perfect World. A five-month course in Beijing prepares Chinese students for a master's program in games development on the Dundee campus.

"These things stacked up in terms of attracting investment from Skymoons," Boniface explained. "We've got high-quality graduates coming through who are potentially bilingual. There are a lot of reasons why Scotland makes sense."

The Edinburgh studio will develop a multiplayer mobile game in the coming months. Boniface said Skymoons' goal is to complement existing games with original and acquired titles that are better suited to Western tastes. The firm recently bought the global rights to develop a game based on the 2013 Dreamworks animation The Croods.

"Their current games are very Chinese-centric. Their biggest game, Journey of the Flower, is based on a Chinese TV show," Boniface explained. "This is part of their drive to expand. They want to create more Westernized titles and invest in IP (intellectual property) that has more of a global reach."

He said Skymoons is globally focused.

"We are both acutely aware that we are going to come across cultural business differences and I think, actually, both sides are quite excited by this."