Fishlabs boss Michael Schade has responded to yesterday's strongly-worded criticism of his company by rival HandyGames.

The criticism followed Fishlabs's announcement earlier this week that it's abandoning the operator portals in favour of distributing its new mobile games through other channels.

Schade is clearly keen not to ignite a further war of words with HandyGames, stressing that Fishlabs's announcement was focused purely on its strategy, rather than advising rivals to follow suit.

"Truly, we are happy for anyone who is making good profit from operator channels these days," he says. "And our existing games can still be found on the operator channels."

But he says Fishlabs is committed to its new strategy of focusing on alternative channels, including handset makers, hardware firms and its own distribution network that includes pirate sites.

"We believe in the kind of games we do, and millions of (illegal) gamers worldwide do too," he says. "We are focusing on channels were quality and innovation is rewarded."

The full wording of Schade's new statement is below.
Statement from Michael Schade, Fishlabs

First of all, our blog was only about what we as Fishlabs are going to do based on our experience of more than four years in this industry. Truly, we are happy for anyone who is making good profit from operator channels these days. And our existing games can still be found on the Operator Channels.

However, if our games that have been rated broadly as some of the best Java games in the market don't make enough revenue to justify their development there is something fundamentally wrong with this business.

Sure, you could argue we should create less high-end games covering more handsets and cheaper to develop. But apart from the fact that we believe in the kind of games we do, and millions of (illegal) gamers worldwide do too, we are 100% sure that companies like ARM, Nvidia and other 3D hardware specialist but also handset manufacturers will make sure that developers likes us are doing well creating outstanding games to make a difference and to justify their investments in better technologies at the end of the day.

Hence, we are focusing on channels were quality and innovation is rewarded. So no worries about Fishlabs we don't rely on selling our games D2C solely. We have a few Games in the pipe for 2009 but that's another story...