Moblyng, a developer specializing in cross-platform HTML5 games for mobile devices, has laid off all 20 of its employees and closed after failing to "monetize enough to stay in business."
The company was one of the first to focus on delivering HTML5 games, which unlike Flash-based titles can be played on both social networks and on mobile devices. It believed the cross-platform nature of the language would eventually make HTML5 the dominant technology for online and mobile games.
Moblyng created a toolset enabling partner developers like Playdom and LOLapps to create games that were deployable across multiple online and smartphone platforms (e.g. iPhone, Android). It also began releasing its own HTML5 titles like
Social Poker Live on the Facebook HTML5 mobile platform in October.
Though the Redwood City-based company had received over $10 million in funding since opening in 2005, and its HTML5-powered titles were beginning to pick up in traffic, that wasn't enough to prevent its closure. Moblyng CEO Stewart Putney
explained to VentureBeat, "We did not monetize enough to stay in business."
Despite the firm shuttering, Putney still believes HTML5 will one day become a challenger to Flash: "I am very proud of the work we did, the HTML5 games are still live and we have a growing base of active users. I remain very confident HTML5 will be a great platform for social games and media, it is simply a question of when."
