Spil Games

Spil Games is a Dutch video game developer based in Hilversum. The company publishes free-to-play games for Android and iOS devices, as well as for the Facebook Platform.[1]

Spil Games
FormerlySpill Group (2001–2008)
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
Founded2001 (2001)
Founders
  • Peter Driessen
  • Bennie Eeftink
Headquarters
Hilversum
,
Netherlands
Key people
Erol Erturk
Parent Azerion(2020–present)
Websitespilgames.com

History

Peter Driessen and Bennie Eeftink founded Spill Group in 2001.[2][3] The company launched its first games website, spelletjes.nl, in 2004.[2]

In 2007, Spill Group acquired a majority share in the Chinese game development company zLong and began producing games. In 2007, portals were also expanded to the US and UK.

The 2008 acquisition of the MMO (massive multiplayer online) site/community, onrpg.com, moved the company into the MMORPG segment.

In July 2008, Spill group changed the company name and rebranded to Spil Games.

In total, Spil Games expanded its segmented and localized approach with more than 50 websites where people can play games online in 20 languages.

In May 2014 the company announced that it will let go of a substantial portion of its workforce – 90 out of 240 full-time positions – as a result of a move from website to mobile and tablet games.[4]

In September 2014, the company reorganised, closing its Dutch development studio and concentrating on mobile game publishing.[5]

Turnaround

In February 2015, a new CEO was appointed. Tung Nguyen-Khac had been CEO of the gaming division of the German television company ProSiebenSat1. Venturebeat said of the move: "With the mobile-gaming industry growing to $25 billion in 2014, it's not surprising that a company like Spil would look for new leadership to help get a bigger piece of that action."[6] On 16, August, 2016 Spil Games announced it achieved 100 million downloads in the last 12 months. PocketGamer said of the announcement that Spil "had originally hoped to reach this milestone by the end of 2016, and has now revised its goal up to 150 million for the end of the year"[7]

By February 2017, the company had achieved 200 million mobile downloads.[8] This grew to 250 million by July 2017.[9] The company announced it hit 300 million installs in March 2018 with the growth being 95% organic. VentureBeat stated this is, "a testament to the company's method of testing titles on the web and then reposting the most popular titles as mobile apps.[10]

On 24 May 2018, it was announced Spil's COO Timm Geyer had been named the company's new CEO.  As reported by PocketGamer.biz[11] his focus will be building on Spil's strategy of bringing its most successful web IPs to mobile.

New games

In the first part of 2016, the company announced and launched several game brands. In February 2016, it purchased the rights to the classic game Creatures[12] In April 2016, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell announced that he would be working with Spil to develop several new mobile games.[13] In May 2016, Spil Games acquired the browser game portal Mousebreaker.[14]

Europacorp, Luc Besson's film studio, selected Spil Games to create the official mobile game for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, the director's upcoming $180M sci-fi movie.[15] The company revealed the first details about the game in May 2017.[16]

Facebook chose[17] Spil Games as a launch partner for Instant Games on 29 November. Spil's Endless Lake is one of 17 games to be featured in Instant Games where players can play games directly on Messenger or their Facebook News Feed. Three weeks later Facebook named Endless Lake as on its Games of the Year.[18] Spil Games launched its second Instant Games, Tomb Runner, in April 2017.[19]

In May 2017, Spil Games launched Operate Now: Hospital a hospital simulation game for iOS and Android.[20] The game exceeded 10 million installs in 6 months.[21]

Spil Games published Mahjong Crimes in November 2017; a new game bringing together Mahjong solitaire and the murder mystery Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.[22]

In June 2019, Azerion acquired Spil Games' mobile games division, alongside a 5% stake in the company itself, to undisclosed terms.[3][23] Azerion subsequently acquired the remainder of Spil Games in February 2020 and installed Erol Erturk as managing director.[23]

Audience

In mobile, the company started from nowhere and had 50 million installs in 2015.[24] By February 2017, the company had achieved 200 million mobile downloads.[25] In March 2018 the company hit 300 million installs.[26] Installs are driven by games like the Troll Face Quest series, which has racked up 100 million installs, Uphill Rush, which has garnered 25 million downloads, and Operate Now: Hospital, which has 15 million.[27]

References
  1. "Home". Spil Games. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  2. Scheltens, Gijs (5 September 2014). "Spil Games ontslaat werknemers interne gamestudio". Gamer.nl.
  3. Handrahan, Matthew (20 June 2019). "Spil Games sells mobile division to Azerion". GamesIndustry.biz.
  4. "Spil Games rond reorganisatie af en sluit interne studio | Nieuws | Entertainment Business". www.entertainmentbusiness.nl. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  5. "Nieuws week september 1 2014 (36) | Entertainment Business". www.entertainmentbusiness.nl. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  6. "Spil Games gets new mobile-savvy CEO to oversee social-gaming transition from Facebook". VentureBeat. 19 February 2015. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  7. Cowley, Ric (16 August 2016). "PocketGamer.biz".
  8. "Jobs in Games: Spil Games' Franz Stradal on how to get a job as a VP of Content". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  9. "VALERIAN: CITY OF ALPHA Is Now Available For Free on iOS and Android! Watch The NEW Trailer! | Rama's Screen". www.ramascreen.com. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  10. "Spil Games hits 300 million mobile game installs without much paid advertising". VentureBeat. 8 March 2018. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  11. "Spil Games promotes from within for new CEO". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  12. "Spil Games announces Creature Family, a F2P reboot of the AI classic for 2017". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  13. Levy, Ari (28 April 2016). "Atari founder Bushnell jumps into mobile with Spil Games". CNBC. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  14. Cowley, Ric; Editor, Deputy. "Spil Games acquires male-oriented browser game portal Mousebreaker". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 28 May 2018. {{cite web}}: |last2= has generic name (help)
  15. "'Valerian' Mobile and Web Games to Be Created by Spil Games". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  16. "Exclusive: First look at new Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets mobile game". SyfyWire. 10 May 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  17. "King, Zynga, Konami and more launch 17 games on Facebook's Instant Games platform". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  18. "How Facebook Instant Games powered Endless Lake to 12 million users in three weeks". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
  19. "Spil CEO on Facebook Instant Games: "We think it has the potential to be a massively significant gaming platform"". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
  20. Yildiz, Sinan (27 May 2017). "Operate Now: Hospital Updated: Reduced Building Costs, Fixed Missions and Better Dialogues - AppInformers.com". App Informers - iOS, Android, and Amazon Appstore News. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
  21. "Spil Games' surgery simulator Operate Now: Hospital racks up 10 million downloads in six months". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
  22. "Play a Familiar Game in a Whole new way in 'Mahjong Crimes' -". The Good Men Project. 9 November 2017. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
  23. Partleton, Kayleigh (12 February 2020). "Azerion fully acquires Spil Games". Pocket Gamer.biz.
  24. "MCV UK". MCV UK. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  25. "PocketGamer.biz".
  26. "Dutch publisher Spil Games racks up 300 million downloads on mobile". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  27. "Spil Games breaks 300 million downloads". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
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