Aristocrat Leisure Limited announced that it has entered into a number of deals to further expand its digital game development capability, in line with its growth strategy.
The investments are strongly aligned to targeted genres, particularly the high-growth casual and merge segments where Aristocrat Digital already has a presence, and the social casino segment, in which the business has a market-leading position globally.
In total, three new studios will join Aristocrat Digital, deepening the business’ access to game development talent and studio capabilities in top-tier mobile game talent hubs across Northern and Eastern Europe. Details are as follows:
Aristocrat has agreed to acquire Helsinki-based free-to-play mobile gaming studio FuturePlay, which specializes in the growing merge/match 3 segment of the casual market. Founded in 2015, FuturePlay has released six games that have been played by over 140 million users around the world, including titles such as Merge Gardens, Idle Farming Empire and Battlelands Royale.
FuturePlay will operate under the existing leadership of Jami Laes, as a studio reporting within Aristocrat’s Plarium business. This will bring together Plarium’s best-in-class game development infrastructure and marketing expertise with FuturePlay’s casual mobile capabilities, enabling Plarium to expand and diversify their portfolio (which includes the global sensation RAID: Shadow Legends).
Given talent opportunities in the region, Aristocrat has established a further Helsinki-based studio, Northern Stars. Northern Stars will focus on the emerging hybrid casual genre under the world-class game development and studio leaders Minwoo Lee (ex EA, Rovio, Ubisoft) and Antti Nikander (ex Rovio). Minwoo and Antti bring a wealth of experience to the group, which will help us grow Aristocrat’s presence in Finland and further expand its game development capabilities.
Aristocrat also has acquired Playsoft, the Gdańsk, Poland-based mobile gaming studio specializing in the social casino genre. Playsoft has a year track record of over 13 years, developing more than 50 successful game titles for third-party partners. Playsoft will operate within the Product Madness business, and continue to be led by its founders Nicolas Bensignor and Pierre Olivier Monteil. The studio will help accelerate Product Madness’s pipeline and deliver innovation, while establishing a strong footprint for the company in another strategic European location.
“These deals are consistent with Aristocrat’s successful strategy of bringing more world-class game development talent and capability into the organization to expand our game pipeline and sustain our strong growth momentum in digital,” said Aristocrat Digital CEO Michael Lang.
“We are thrilled to welcome FuturePlay, Northern Stars and Playsoft to the Aristocrat Digital family, given their impressive track records in game development, creativity and innovation. Coupled with Aristocrat Digital’s ambitious strategy, global scale, marketing and investment capabilities, we look forward to helping our new colleagues reach new heights as part of Aristocrat.
“We will continue to be active in pursuing global talent and studio deals that accelerate our growth strategy, alongside our sustained, proven focus in driving organic growth and above-market results.”
