“In with the old,” says mobile games startup GameClub. The company has raised $2.5 million to rerelease old premium iOS games that are no longer playable at Apple gadgets.
Watertower Ventures, BreakwayGrowth Fund, Ride Ventures, GC Tracker, CRCM Ventures chipped in to fund GameClub’s initiative.
Super QuickHook by RocketCat Games
iOS keeps evolving with constant updates and improvements, leaving many obsolete features behind. In 2018, Apple dropped support for 32-bit devices shutting the door on many legacy titles from the platform’s early days.
GameClub plans to modernize over 50 titles, including Run Boo Run, Cubed Rally World, Chopper 2, Zombie Match Defense, Wooords, Sword of Fargoal, and Hook Champ. To that end, the startup will team up with the original game creators like Vlambeer (Super Crate Box), Venan Entertainment (Space Miner), and Fluttermind (Incoboto).
“Many great premium game developers have been driven away from mobile, despite a lot of demand for their games, because of the lousy monetization models available to them. We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t believe that GameClub can make premium mobile game makers successful again. We’re building this for them and their fans.”
GameClub CEO Dan Sherman
Sherman adds that updating the source code is not even the biggest challenge in some cases. He cites a lot of investigative work when it comes to figuring out who owns the rights.
Currently, GameClub uses early access program to get feedback from the community. Rereleases will appear on the App Store. GameClub is yet to be finalize the financial model, but the tiles will not be free-to-play. In addition to reintroducing old premium titles, the company intends to work on the original IP as well.