Who are they?
Founded by 3 close friends back in 2001, Ankama is a digital entertainment company that is based on a transmedia strategy. The transmedia strategy allows Ankama to spread out its created worlds across various mediums, namely manga series, magazines, animation shows and of course, games.

Each of this medium adds a little more detail to the world in question and as time passes, this imaginary world blossoms into an immersive world where players are free to interact and experience it. Ankama has its own game portal, called Ankama Games, as well. This nifty website displays all the games the company has to offer for potential players to view and choose from.

Headquartered in Roubaix, this French company refurbished an old textile factory into a modern, state-of-the-art studio in 2007. With 10,000 m2 of space for them to grow into, it is no wonder that “growing” is exactly what the company has been doing over these past years. How Ankama has managed to achieve such success? Well, let’s find out, shall we?

What do they do?
Ankama had come a long way since its inception. With the release of their very first game, Dofus in 2004, the company had managed to snag the title of “France’s first MMORPG”. The accolades don’t stop there either! Dofus had gone on and bagged a couple more awards including the Best Game and Public Choice Awards at the Flash Festival held in France.

Due to the popularity of their game, the game was translated into English in 2005. This change has opened up this amazing game to a wider range of audience and the reception the game received was incredibly overwhelming. From having 450,000 players prior to its English release, Dofus has attained the milestone of 10 million players worldwide within merely 3 years! In fact, Dofus still holds the title of “France’s most played MMOPRG” until today.

In 2012, Ankama went on to release their second MMORPG, Wakfu, which was developed in the same setting as Dofus, the Krosmoz. Similar to Dofus, the response this game received was amazing as well, bumping up their player base even further up the ladder.

Just recently, Ankama has released another hit game – this time a strategy title – called Krosmaster Arena. In this game, you’ll get to draft up a team of krosmasters and battle it out with other teams of krosmasters on various beautifully-crafted environments in the Krosmoz. They have also released a plethora of casual games in the years between their oldest and newest games, such as Tactile Wars, Striker Arena and Dofus Battles.

The success that Ankama enjoys is apparent. However, this begets the question of what has contributed to the rise of Ankama from a small partnership between 3 friends into the huge corporation that it is today. Well, one of the main reasons is that Ankama is strongly based on a transmedia strategy.

This means that every little bit of narrative that can be found scattered across a number of media, such as magazines, manga series, TV shows, and of course, games, brings something new to the table to enrich the fans’ understanding of the Krosmoz. Subsequently, this makes the world that Ankama has created to be extensively detailed. The link that connects all these mediums of entertainment manages to create an imaginary universe that is far more immersive and interactive.

It is obvious that their games contain high appeal values, particularly to their fans, and these values can primarily be attributed to its relaxed-form of gameplay and the colorful, anime-influenced graphics. Let’s not forget that the games are also peppered with off-the-wall humor that everybody can enjoy. After all, everyone loves a game that could make them laugh now and then!

Moreover, Ankama is a company that truly values its fans. The company has organized plenty of opportunities for their fans to interact with and meet the great minds behind the magnificent universe of the Krosmoz. There are friendly tournaments, signing events, and even Q&A forums. However, the most prominent event Ankama has to offer to their fans is the annual Ankama Convention. During this event, fans of Ankama’s many games and products will be able to meet the creators face-to-face in addition to being able to chat with other fans who love the Krosmoz as much as you do! Thus, it is unsurprising that the Ankama Convention manages to attract over 20 thousand fans worldwide year after year.

Last but not least, Ankama diversifies its gaming opportunities to give their brilliant games a higher chance of reaching more players and fans. They strongly support cross-gaming and have released different games on multiple platforms. For instance, the MMORPGs, Dofus and Wakfu, are focused on PCs, while the casual games (strategy, hack-and-slash and other genres) that they have released, such as Kwaan, Tactile Wars, Striker Arena and Dofus Battles, are targeted towards the mobile market. They have even release an adventure/beat ‘em up title based on Wakfu called Islands of Wakfu on the console platform (Xbox 360, to be exact).

What does the future hold?
In the future, you can definitely expect plenty more products, ranging from new mobile titles to more collectible Krosmaster figurines, from Ankama that will further enrich the wonderful yet fictional world they have created.

If you’re interested know more about the free-to-play PC games Ankama has to offer, do head on over to our Ankama Games List to find out more!