The publisher’s successful FlatOut franchise will be the cornerstone of the deal with mobile specialist Xendex, which also includes Empire’s Big Mutha Truckers and Combat Chess IP.

And European marketing manager Rob Noble believes that the time is right for Empire to spread its wings.

"The mobile gaming sector is no longer an experiment," he said. "Now is the time to achieve incremental revenues and sustained profit streams. The global mobile handset market is growing at around 25 per cent per annum. And the increase in processing power of handsets plus the gamers’ acceptance from of paying for quality gaming experiences based on popular franchises means that the market will become increasingly significant in the next five years."

The titles will be developed in 3D and 2D, in five languages, and will include FlatOut, FlatOut 2, FlatOut Ultimate Carnage, Big Mutha Truckers, BMT Truck Me Harder and Combat Chess.