Comments on: Mochi Media is Joining the Shanda Games Family!

By: GamesKoop

GamesKoop — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:40:28 +0000

So I should be glad that more manga-dressup-jigsaw-ben10 will come to mochi ?

NO thank you :(

By: Circular_Logic

Circular_Logic — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:17:30 +0000

Hmm… I think it’s too early to make judgments, but this seems a little suspicious. Hopefully, Mochi will retain its integrity and not be an overt sellout. I hope this won’t be too bad for game makers like me.

By: S

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:33:58 +0000

“Shanda clearly stated that they will use mochi to distribute their games to lure players to their own websites.”

Should have been

“Shanda clearly stated that they will use mochi to distribute their games AND to lure players to their own websites.”

By: S

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:02:36 +0000

I hope it stays the way it is, because else small time hobby developers like me won’t have a chance any more.

Shanda clearly stated that they will use mochi to distribute their games to lure players to their own websites.

99.999% of the developers are not the top ones lucky enough to be able to sell their games to Shanda or get other special deals.

As I understood the not so detailed statement from Shanda, the 18 fund is for purchasing intellectual rights to games. Not really for helping developers in any other way than buying their games.

But let’s see. For the top developers, they can always earn from sponsorships anyway. For the rest of us, we are out of luck if we don’t have a good ad provider like mochi has been so far.

By: eichwulf

eichwulf — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 04:01:16 +0000

Just as google is pulling out of China, Mochi is going there, very interesting …

By: Bob Ippolito

Bob Ippolito — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:00:43 +0000

Jameson and I are committed to Mochi, as is the entire team. Every employee of Mochi is staying. We’re still very passionate about what we do. Personally speaking I’m not doing this for the money, I love my job. We chose Shanda Games specifically because they wouldn’t screw up Mochi and that we could continue to love our jobs for years to come (Jameson and I are already at year 5). Not only is the team staying, but we’re not ripping out any features or anything silly like that. Mochi is still Mochi, the only difference is that it’s now a wholly owned subsidiary of Shanda Games. We’re in the same office, in the same country, with the same staff and the same goals.

I can’t speak about the details of the transaction as it is confidential information but what I can say is that you are simply making stuff up. We are not making any cuts and if we were cutting expenses we certainly wouldn’t be hiring right now (we are hiring). We have a ton of features in the pipeline and support is improving as we scale it up, but I still respond to many support requests myself just as it has always been.

The Mochi team and Shanda Games both want us to do exactly what we have always been doing and we’re both very excited about what was in our pipeline before the deal, but we’re also collaborating on helping Mochi work better in China and helping Shanda Games break into the global marketplace. All of these things are very good things for indie developers because we will be improving our platform, helping developers directly with the “18 fund”, etc.

In any case, I’d rather prove that this is a good thing by continuing to provide awesome services and build great products rather than commenting on speculation. I’m sure Jameson will have some things to say when he’s finished traveling but that’s it from me.

By: limex

limex — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:38:19 +0000

Do you know where I can play one of Shanda’s “advanced casual games”

By: OldGuy

OldGuy — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:59:54 +0000

Having been around a long time I’ve seen many “partnerships”. This is not a partnership, it is an acquisition and in the long run spells the end of new features and exciting things coming from Mochiads. Mochiads will die a slow, painful death and here’s why:
1. The guys sold and made a bunch of money. Good for them. Well deserved. Passion gone.
2. The main players in Mochiads are likely on an “earn out” where they need to stick around for 2 or 3 years and if they do stand make a bunch more money at the end if they meet certain profitability targets, etc. They will do what they need to make there $ but will be starting new ventures on the side for their next big thing.
3. In order to make the earn-out and targets set by Shanda they will stop spending money resulting in less features, worse support, etc.

Contrary to the spin put out this is what happens. I have seen it many times. Time to move on. Mochiads will soon be a shell of it’s former self.

Good luck and congrats!

By: S

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:07:26 +0000

This is not a partnership. Shanda bought mochi. They are in control now, and what they intend to use mochi for, is to use it as their tool for getting traffic to their own games and sites. They stated that quite clearly in the quotes in the news article at this url:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704081704574653430020773954.html?mod=WSJ_PersonalTechnology_LEFTTop

Shanda says they are going to use mochi to distribute their own games.

They also say they are going to use mochi to try to lure players to their own more profitable multiplayer games.

By: MAX

MAX — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:05:05 +0000

@NPGAMES: Mochi made kind of evilish decision by taking this deal – and I`m sure they know it ;) Think, why should they promote independent games, if Shanda games has its own big (and fast growing!) portfolio? Guess who`s games gonna get the fattest deals, and exposure? It is not Christmas, and Shanda Games is not Santa – they paid 80mln $, and I`m sure they have many ideas how to get it back with profit. It is major conflict of interest, and my fear is, that in process so called Mochi community will change into background noise for Shanda Games products…