Foxconn developing mobile games, first title coming in six months

Taiwanese manufacturing company Foxconn is looking to dabble in mobile games, according to a report on Bloomberg.

During a meeting with media last Thursday in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Foxconn chairman Terry Gou said the company is looking to move away from contract manufacturing for large companies — such as Apple — and towards products and services of "higher-value."

Gou said the company is currently developing several mobile titles, with the first one — developed in conjunction with Transformers Online and Dungeon Keeper Online studio NetDragon — slated to be released within six months. According to Gou, the joint development effort with NetDragon is proof of the company's new commitment to creating games.

He also announced the company has a team dedicated solely to working with HTML5 and that the company would also prioritize cloud computing services moving forward. In June, Foxconn announced a collaboration with Mozilla to create devices that will run the latter's HTML5-based OS, Firefox.

Foxconn has the been the subject of much controversy over the past few years. In 2010, Foxconn reported 18 suicide attempts from its employees, 14 of which resulted in death. These suicides were widely speculated to be the result of employees being forced to work long hours in inhuman conditions for low pay. Last spring, reports of poor working conditions at Foxconn pushed Apple, one of Foxconn's biggest partners, to join the Fair Labor Association. In fall 2012, Nintendo began investigating the same Foxconn plant, which had reportedly hired underage interns.