Having invested in 14 game studios up until now, Supercell is looking to do more for players both in and outside of its own studios.
One focus of Supercell’s latest blog post was the backing of like-minded game studios, noting excitement to see the momentum behind Metacore’s Merge Mansion, Love & Pies from Trailmix, and Space Ape’s Beatstar. In addition to financial support, Supercell has provided hands-on support to these studios where requested.
Merge Mansion has surpassed 20 million downloads and Grandma Ursula, played by Kathy Bates, has seen popularity online following a series of films that Metacore has released. In May 2021, Supercell gave a $180 million credit line to scale the game.
As the debut title by Trailmix, Love & Pies was quick to reach one million downloads. It was also awarded Best Casual Game at the TIGA Awards in 2021. Supercell first invested $4.2 million in the London-based developer in 2018, more than three years before the launch of Love & Pies.
Levelling up
Rhythm game Beatstar launched at the end of August last year and in 24 countries, reached the number one position in terms of downloads. Globally, it is currently the top-grossing music game with more than one billion song plays, Supercell added.
The Supercell blog also noted that Space Ape has soft-launched a team shooter titled Boom Beach Frontlines, which is set in the same universe as Boom Beach.
Also in the blog post, Supercell brought attention to its Level Up program wherein six recent graduates have been brought together to develop a playable game. In the past, Supercell has primarily hired developers with lots of previous experience, but in order to learn from young talent, the Level Up program was created.
It started recently and will continue for a six-month period, with Supercell noting that it is now more open to applications from younger talent in permanent positions.
Also in the blog, Supercell outlined its 45 per cent revenue increase for 2021, reaching $2.24 billion, however it also drew attention to staff burnout across the board.
Earlier this week, we spoke with Supercell game lead Touko Tahkokallio about how Clash Quest strives to disrupt the match-three-dominated puzzle games genre.
