Entrepreneurs, Harri Myllylä and Jonne Castrén, have launched Star Arcade, their latest mobile social gaming venture that will target the next billion mobile gamers coming from the developing markets of Africa, Latin America, South East Asia and India.

The company will provide free-to-download multi player mobile games which work on phones regardless of the operating system, network, or the country where the consumer is located in. “We are offering entertaining social games to the vast majority of global consumers whose first experience of accessing the internet and playing games is going to be on a mobile phone,” says Myllylä, who is CEO of the new venture. 

The first phase of the launch is focused exclusively on delivering social gaming experiences over the mobile channel, and does not offer services over the fixed internet, except for the purpose of user registration. Games available at launch include Star Tic Tac Toe, Star Mancala, Star Ayo and Star.

Star Arcade is delivering games using a combination of freemium and ad-funded business models that enable consumers to experience most of the games for free, and give them the choice of paying a small premium for some games. “We are seeking partnerships with game developers, publishers and mobile operators who want to get their games to the consumer’s device for free and as a second step look at monetising them for premium features, level upgrades, virtual goods and payments for related games,” explains Myllylä.

Star Arcade’s development hub is in Finland, with offices in the UK and W. Africa. The company says it plans to take advantage of the growing media and entertainment industry in Africa and Asia. It  has received its first round of funding from an Investor group based in Africa.

The Star Arcade mobile social gaming community has existed in a beta stage for the last three months, and with minimal marketing, has attracted hundreds of thousands of registered users, mainly from India, South East Asia and Africa. The company says it now plans to introduce new games and make the community available in several regional languages.