As much as commentators might pitch HTML5 as the future of mobile games development, judging when to throw your weight behind the platform is no easy task, as evidenced by the now departed Moblyng Games.

The 20-strong California-based outfit had made cross-platform development – facilitated by HTML5 – its mainstay, allowing studios to target multiple platforms at once.

Its games included Social Poker Live, World Racer Live and WeeMee Life for iPad.

The firm had its backers too, closing investment rounds of over $10 million, fuelled by the likes of Motorola. However, when it came to generating cash, Moblyng fell short.

No early advantage

"We did not monetise enough to stay in business," CEO Stewart Putney told VentureBeat, in an email detailing the outfit's closure.

"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."

Indeed, as well as increasing support from developers, HTML5 has been buoyed of late by news Adobe is to focus on the language, halting development on its Flash Player moving forward.

Yet, Moblyng was no wide-eyed first mover, having secured partnerships with the likes of Disney-owned Playdom to bring Mobsters and Sorority Life to multiple platforms – something that makes its demise harder to bear for HTML5 advocates.

Money matters

Nevertheless, Putney himself believes HTML5 remains the platform likely to dominate in the future, suggesting Moblyng simply moved before the business could support the wealth of developers looking to make money from it.

He concluded, "We just unleashed a group of kick-ass HTML5-focused professionals into the market, so my hope is they will help the HTML5 ecosystem develop that much faster."

[source: VentureBeat]