Who are they?
Based in Hamburg, Germany, Goodgame Studios one of the most popular games development and publishing company that provides amazing free-to-play, browser-based titles across both web and mobile platforms. They only market and publish games they develop in-house, though their games can be found on an extensive global partner network (7000+ partners with 20,000 websites) as well as through its portal! Since its foundation back in 2009, Goodgame Studios has grown to be a name to be reckoned with, not only on a national level, but also on an international level!

Furthermore, over the years, they have produced more than 10 games and counting in various languages (up to 25 different languages), including hit games like Goodgame Empire and Goodgame Big Farm. They also have over 260 million registered users that spanned over more than 200 countries with over 200 thousand new registrations each day!

Within these 6 years, Goodgame Studios now employs a talented pool of 1200+ employees from over 60 nations, bringing in world class skills, culture, and diversity. They are in fact the largest German employer in the gaming software industry and have been awarded with the title of being the “best place to work” (by entrepreneurial news portal, GrowthBusiness.co.uk)! Moreover, Goodgame Studios has also expanded its operations via subsidiaries in Tokyo and Seoul to better cater to their Asian players. With an upward trend to look forward to, it is no surprise that this company is certainly on the right track to achieve its vision to become one of the world’s leading gaming software developers.

What do they do?
Goodgame Studios’ portfolio includes mainly MMO and simulation games that offer a thrilling gaming experience for all its players! However, they didn’t get there straight out from Day 1! The company started with a relatively simple game, called Goodgame Poker, back in 2009.

From there, as their team of developers learned new skills and gained experience, they came out with their first MMO, Goodgame Gangster, in 2010, which is still running until today! The game allows you to live out the path of a young and upstart mobster, who is working hard to rise to the top of the underworld and become one of the most feared mob bosses in the city! In addition, they have released 2 more games, namely Goodgame Disco and Goodgame Café, making it a total of 3 games produced in a single year!

However, they truly hit the jackpot in August 2011 when they released their very first hit game, Goodgame Empire! This game is a free-to-play medieval castle-building MMO strategy game whereby players build up their castles and armies, and then use their said army to attack both computer-controlled and player enemies. Within a very short period of time, Goodgame Empire developed into one of the most popular MMO strategy games in the world and was reeling in accolades and nominations from prestigious awards, such as the German Game Developer Award, for being the “Best Browser Game” and “Best Casual Game”. The sudden upshot of player base in Goodgame Empire contributed to the studio hitting their milestone of having 50 million players in January of 2012. The company also began to get recognition from various entrepreneurial awards as well, including the renowned Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award (2011) and, more recently, the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 2014.

Spurred on by their success, they released 2 more games in 2012, namely a hit-and-miss Goodgame Galaxy and also the wildly popular Goodgame Big Farm, which were released around the exact time when Farmville 2 was released as well - farm games were all the rage among casual gamers at that time. Goodgame Big Farm subsequently went on and won the “Best Casual MMO” award.

Around that time, mobile apps have become the “next big thing” and in order to stay relevant with the times, Goodgame Studios gently tested the waters and ported their hit game, Goodgame Empire, over to the mobile market in January 2013. Renamed as Empire: Four Kingdoms, the game proved to be an instant hit among mobile gamers! Up until now, the game has around 1 million downloads and that number is still rising!

In 2014, Goodgame Studios celebrated hitting their next milestone of 200 million registered players. These players came from 200 countries and regions, showing that the company is one step closer to realizing their vision of being a renowned international games development company! With this in mind, they released another MMO strategy game, Shadow Kings – Dark Ages simultaneously, for both PC and mobile devices. Not to mention, in January this year, Goodgame Studios hit another milestone of 250 million registered players and it is pretty obvious that this number will only increase further as the years pass on!

Within a short span of 6 years, Goodgame Studios have grown from a Hamburg start-up into a globally successful technology company. What do they have or do that contributed to their meteoric rise? Let’s find out!

The most important factor for Goodgame Studios’ success is to produce fun and graphically beautiful (in a cartoony way) games that are backed with a sustainable free-to-play micro transaction business model. Taking Goodgame Empire, one of their most successful games, as a prime example, the game provide speed-ups for cash, instead of offering overpowered units or items, which is the dangerous “pay-to-win” pit hole that most free-to-play games fell into. This company is very unlike the other “greedy, money-grabbing” companies out there and they put their players first without sacrificing their profits to the point of bankruptcy. This delicate balance is indeed very hard to achieve and somehow, Goodgame Studios managed it!

Secondly, “data beats opinion” is a mantra at Goodgame Studios. They use all analytical and scientific approaches that they have on hand and leave nothing to chance when developing a game to ensure that their games are statistically games that people would enjoy playing with! With data driven decision making, they are constantly building up proven knowledge and expertise to be able to provide games that people will enjoy in the future instead of shooting blindly in the dark and relying on one-hit wonders.

Lastly, unlike other similar companies, Goodgame Studios aims BIG! They refuse to confine themselves nationally and, instead, seek any and every opportunity to further expand their business globally. For instance, back when they realized that their games are hugely popular in the Asian market as well, they immediately seized the opportunity to expand their offices to Asian countries. This also means that they constantly pinpoint communities where their game are very popular and localize the game – players always enjoy a game more if it is in their native language!

What does the future hold?
Goodgame Studios is continue on striving to achieve their vision of being a globally recognized games development and publishing company and due to this, they often and consistently (on an annual basis) come up with new games to further expand their reservoir of games. You can be certain that they are working on another title that will be released later this year

If you’re interested in the games that Goodgame Studios have developed, you can take a look at the Goodgame Studios Games List to find out more!