Shanda Games, the online gaming subsidiary of Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited is about to discontinue MochiMedia China business after announcing closing down Ju Xin (Big Stars), an online Karaoke platform as part of a broader move to streamline and restructure its portfolio, according to people familiar with the matter.
Shanda Ju Xin has been in operation since 3 years ago, the team said on its official website that “due largely to general market condition and the game’s status quo”, it would take down all the game’s servers and eventually shut it down by February 6th of next year.
MochiMedia, the San Francisco, CA based, Accel Partners funded company that helps game developers around the world to monetize and distribute their games was acquired by Shanda Games for $60 million in cash and $20 million in equity. Shanda had high hopes for MochiMedia as the gaming vendor was counting on the distributor to internationalize Shanda’s game pipeline. However, things didn’t pan out as Shanda hoped, MochiMedia China discontinued support service from this June on, and now is said to completely discontinue its China business.
Insane, aimless and blind expansion has characterized the Chinese online gaming giant’s growing path over the past few years, and now it is time to slow down and shed off some burden.