Green Jade Group has announced that it is shutting down its online games studio.
In a recent Linkedin post, the CEO and Chairman of Green Jade Games, Benedict McDonagh, thanked those that have helped the games developer since its inception but noted the firm never found its hit title.
Founded in 2017, McDonagh noted that Green Jade was created to address the idea of former Mr Green CEO and Chairman of Green Jade Games Jesper Kärrbrink of “how to change the face of gambling content”.
The organisation had to figure out what worked, what doesn’t work and what gave them hope for the future, with the CEO adding that the journey has been an “epic experience”.
McDonagh also highlighted former Commercial Client Relations Manager Luke Dimech showing him, Kärrbrink and Business Administrator Caroline Dingli a block-wood-puzzle game from the App Store that inspired the arcade skill game Jade Puzzle.
The CEO also stated that the game that he has the most pride in is Hammer of Fortune.
“It was the first story-driven slot with chapter after chapter of narrative played out in alignment with players spinning, tracking the battle of Brin vs Gunhild and, on top of all this, we believe it was the first slot that combined skill with RNG – requiring the player to align their loot chests in order to trigger the bonus,” he said.
Green Jade was able to build up a company of over 20 nationalities across five continents, earning licenses in the UK, Greece and Malta. However, McDonagh noted that it was never able to find its hit.
In October last year, Green Jade did announce a business merger with GameCo, but now the company is shutting down.
“Given that I’m writing this letter, you will understand that we didn’t ever find our hit. We didn’t ‘luck out’ with a perfect recipe of timing, maths, features, and front-end and we didn’t iterate to a base of good earners quickly enough.
“Whilst I’m gutted beyond my ability to communicate through my writing, I am not morose, in fact, I am delighted that we achieved so much more than we could have imagined when first started dreaming.
“We built a world-class platform, with features no one else has replicated, integrations with amazing aggregation partners, gained licenses in the UK, Greece, and Malta, and boasted 100% uptime I think, practically forever.”
McDonagh thanked the gaming industry for its support and the casinos for taking a chance with its titles. He also praised former Chief Product and Technology Officer Dirk Camilleri and former Chief Commercial Officer Mark Taffler for their “excellent leadership”.
The CEO also spotlighted Green Jade’s development partners who helped them understand their problems and being “an important part of the solution”. He also acknowledged the people that joined the company and made it “a wonderful place to work”.
“I will continue to champion those that want to do it differently, that see the world a little askew like we did, and I’ll applaud everyone that ‘makes it’ even more vociferously now that I know just how freaking hard it is to succeed,” McDonagh concluded.
No mention was made of whether Green Jade will sell its individual game titles, modules or IPs to the market.