Earlier this week, it was reported that flash gaming stalwart Miniclip was closing down. Although this was met with nostalgia from many users, it soon emerged that this information was inaccurate - rather than shutting down, the company is instead shifting its focus to mobile, as mobile gaming has proven to be the most successful branch of the company.

In an interview with CityAM, Saad Choudri discussed this move.

“We’ve always followed where the players go and the players are going onto mobile,” he said.“With a computing device in your pocket, it just made more sense that you would just consume more there.”

“People will go to what is convenient at the time. Gaming is no longer that niche hobby like 20-30 years ago. Now it’s very much in the consumer mind.”

This move shouldn’t come as a surprise, and doesn’t represent a complete shift in focus. Despite being arguably best known for online games, the company started publishing mobile games over a decade ago, and following the acquisition Subway Surfers publisher Sybo earlier this year Miniclip is one of the biggest names in mobile gaming, and the fourth most downloaded gaming company on iOS and Android.

Survivors guilt

Choudri states that the company feels a degree of guilt regarding its success during the pandemic, stating that this success came at the expense of industries such as music or cinema, both of which were adversely affected by pandemic restrictions.

Despite the emergence of VR technology, Choudri affirmed his belief that mobile gaming will remain dominant for at least another decade, and any shift to VR gaming will come as a result of the increased accessibility of the technology on mobile devices.

“It is still the early adopters who will buy the META quests and be willing to spend that sort of money,” he stated. “There’s a lot of investment going into that space and I think that it will certainly grow. Whether consumers will engage with it in a way that Mark Zuckerberg thinks they will do, remains to be seen.”

In August, we listed Miniclip as one of the top 50 mobile game makers of 2022.