FuturLab the creators of the popular PowerWash Simulator series has joined Miniclip the company famous for its casual games and longstanding history in driving mainstream gaming forwards.
Miniclip aimed to ‘unleash the gamer in everyone’ when founded in 2001, using browser games to put a wealth of free fun in front of anyone with a few minutes to spare and play. By July 2009 their site hosted over 400 games.
Following a major investment in the company from Tencent in 2015 the company moved away from the browser, launching its own line of casual games on iOS and Android to great success. By March 2022, Miniclip announced that it had reached four billion downloads worldwide with their biggest hit, 8 Ball Pool, accounting for one billion downloads alone.
In June 2022 Miniclip accquired SYBO, the makers of Subway Surfers, the world’s most downloaded game.
Now that reach has just extended that bit further with FutureLab becoming part of the Miniclip fold – essentially bringing Miniclip into the PC and console publishing space for the first time.
Writing on their blog the company says, “Our mission to create universally soothing games is in perfect step with Miniclip’s goal to ‘unleash the gamer in everyone’. We’ve proved with PowerWash Simulator that games can transcend genres and make you feel, and we plan to bring you more games that make you go ‘ahhhhhhhh’.”
Meanwhile Saad Choudri, CEO of Miniclip says, “In March, we proudly welcomed the award-winning game studio, FuturLab, to the Miniclip Group. The success of PowerWash has catapulted the studio into a genre leader and pioneer in the market for ‘games that soothe’.
“Supported by a thriving and highly engaged community of PowerWash fans and with an exciting pipeline of growth opportunities in the soothing genre, FuturLab is a very welcome addition to our ever-growing, Miniclip Group.”
FutureLab CEO Kirsty Rigdenour CEO will continue in the role, leading the same team built over the past 20 years of activitiy. “We’re proud to say that we are now part of the Miniclip family! It’s exciting for us to charter a course that brings Miniclip into the PC/console space,” she says.
“Followers of the studio will notice not much has changed; we still have autonomy over our studio operations and the games we develop. However, this new security will allow us to bring you many more, great games in the years to come”.
“Finally, I’d like to thank Aream, Lewis Silkin and Lvl Up for doing all the hard work on the acquisition and of course, our players for their continued support.”
