Fingersoft

Last updated
Fingersoft Oy
Company type Private
Industry Video games
Founded2012;14 years ago (2012)
FounderToni Fingerroos
Headquarters
Oulu
,
Finland
Key people
Jaakko Kylmäoja (CEO)
ProductsSee § Games
Revenue€23.2 million (2022)
Number of employees
115 (2023)
Parent Finger Group
Website fingersoft.com

Fingersoft is a Finnish video game developer based in Oulu. [1] It is best known for the mobile games Hill Climb Racing and Hill Climb Racing 2, which together have over 2 billion installations.

Contents

History

In late 2011, Toni Fingerroos [2] started developing mobile applications for Android devices. He established Fingersoft in 2012 [1] together with his girlfriend and Teemu Närhi, who became the company's CEO. [3] In February 2012 he published the Cartoon Camera app, which allowed users to edit their photos to look like sketches or drawings. The app quickly reached 10 million downloads. Fingersoft also published other camera applications that were downloaded tens of millions of times. [4]

Hill Climb Racing, published in September 2012, [5] was born out of testing physics. [4] One month after its Android launch, an iOS version of the game was also published. During the first 12 months, Hill Climb Racing reached over 100 million downloads. [6]

In 2013 Hill Climb Racing was the 10th most downloaded game in the United States and the 7th most downloaded game in the world. [7] In 2014 the company employed 12 people. [8] The company also began publishing games developed by other companies, such as the Fail Hard game by Viima Games Oy, [2] the Pick A Pet mobile game by the Irish company SixMinute [9] and the Benji Bananas game by Tribeflame. [10]

In September 2015, Fingersoft and the construction company Rakennusteho Group bought a city block in downtown Oulu. [11] In 2016 Fingersoft published Hill Climb Racing 2. Fingersoft renovated the premises of the Oulu game campus with Rakennusteho, [12] investing more than 4 million euros in the new premises. [13] Turnover in 2016 was almost 16 million euros. [14]

By the year 2018, games published by Fingersoft had been globally downloaded more than one billion times in total. [15] The company did not publish any new games, but its turnover was 21 million euros. [1]

In 2019 Teemu Närhi voluntarily resigned as CEO and became a programmer at Fingersoft. [16] Celine Pasula started as the CEO in late 2019 but was soon succeeded by Jaakko Kylmäoja in February of 2021. [17]

In early 2020 Fingersoft launched its game on Apple devices in China. [16]

Organization

Fingersoft's parent company is the Finger Group. Fingersoft's operations are divided so that Fingersoft Oy is responsible for operational game development and Hill Climb Racing Oy owns the hit game's IP. [14] In 2019 Fingersoft employed 55 people. [1]

Fingersoft operates in downtown Oulu on a campus where it has also collected other local game studios. Toni Fingerroos is on the company's Board of Directors. [16]

Games

The company has developed the games Hill Climb Racing and Hill Climb Racing 2. It has also published other games including Benji Bananas, Fail Hard and Make More. [18]

Hill Climb Racing was the 7th most downloaded mobile game in the 2010s globally. [19] Published in 2016, the Hill Climb Racing 2 game reached over 40 million downloads within the first two months. [18] The one billion gamers’ limit in the Hill Climb Racing games was exceeded in April 2018. The sum took into account the original game, its sequel, and a special version made for China. [14] In the Chinese market, Fingersoft cooperates with MyGamez - a company to whose development it has invested in. [20]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Oululainen peliyhtiö Fingersoft tähtää uusiin peleihin – tuotekehitystä on vahvistettu" [Oulu-based gaming company Fingersoft aims for new games – product development has been strengthened]. Kaleva.fi. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  2. 1 2 Juhana Rossi (2014-02-04). "Fingersoft Finds Simple Is Profitable". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  3. ↑ Leenastiina Simola. "Suomalainen hittipeli on edelleen rahasampo - uusi peli loppuvuodesta?" [Finnish hit game is still a money maker - a new game later this year?]. Kauppalehti. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  4. 1 2 "Suomalaisen hittipelin tekijä: Miljoonat lataukset eivät ole vain tuuria" [The maker of the Finnish hit game: Millions of downloads not just a fluke]. mtvuutiset.fi. 2013-10-18. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  5. ↑ Antti Lehmusvirta. "Oululainen peliyhtiö rikkoi sadan miljoonan rajapyykin" [Gaming company from Oulu breaks the one hundred million limit]. Kauppalehti. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  6. ↑ "Oululaista hittipeliä ladattu vuodessa yli 100 000 000 kertaa" [Hit game from Oulu downloaded more than 100,000,000 times a year]. MTV. 2013-10-17. Archived from the original on 2015-07-13.
  7. ↑ Christian Nutt (30 January 2014). "The most successful mobile games of 2013". www.gamasutra.com. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  8. ↑ "Temotek sai Oulun yrittäjäpalkinnon" [Temotek received entrepreneurship award in Oulu]. Kaleva.fi. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  9. ↑ "Fingersoft aloittaa yhteistyön irlantilaisen pelistudion kanssa" [Fingersoft begins cooperation with Irish game studio]. Yle Uutiset (in Finnish). 7 July 2014. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  10. ↑ Päivikki Pietarila. "Fingersoft: "Olemme olleet onnekkaita"" [Fingersoft: ”We have been lucky”]. Kauppalehti. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  11. ↑ "Pelialan koulutusta keskustan tuntumassa – yksityinen pelikampus tukee opetusta" [Game industry education near the city center – private game campus supports teaching]. Yle Uutiset. 15 December 2015. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  12. ↑ "Uutta pelialan menestystarinaa metsästetään Oulun pelikampuksella" [Hunting for a new game industry success story on Oulu Game Campus]. Yle Uutiset. 29 August 2016. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  13. ↑ "Kings of the Hill". GamesIndustry.biz. 23 January 2017. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  14. 1 2 3 Elina Lappalainen (26 April 2018). "Oululainen mäkiautopeli ylitti miljardin latauksen rajan - Ei tiedottanut vaan työntekijöiden kakkukuvat paljastivat" [Hill racing game from Oulu exceeded one billion downloads - Did not announce it, but employees’ cake pictures revealed]. Talouselämä. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  15. ↑ "Oululainen mäkiautopeli ylitti miljardin latauksen rajan" [Racing game from Oulu breaks one billion downloads’ limit]. Talouselämä. 2018-04-26.
  16. 1 2 3 Saara Koho (24 February 2020). "Celine Pasula haluaa tuoda luovuuden takaisin Fingersoftiin – omalla urallaan hän on kohdannut myös pettymyksiä" [Celine Pasula wants to bring creativity back to Fingersoft – on her own career she has also faced disappointments]. Talouselämä. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  17. ↑ "Fingersoft name Jaakko Kylmäoja as permanent CEO". 30 June 2021.
  18. 1 2 "Fingersoft's Hill Climb Racing 2 mobile game surpasses 40 million downloads". VentureBeat. 2017-01-23. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  19. ↑ "'Subway Surfers' was the most downloaded mobile game of the decade. See the top 10 here". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  20. ↑ Elina Lappalainen (21 May 2020). "Kiinan tiukasti säännellyille pelimarkkinoille on vaikea päästä – Menestyvät suomalaiset pelitalot Fingersoft ja Small Giant Games sijoittivat 1,5 miljoonaa MyGameziin joka auttaa niitä Kiinassa" [Hard to access the tightly regulated games market in China – Successful Finnish game studios Fingersoft and Small Giant Games invested 1.5 million in MyGamez, who will help them in China]. Talouselämä. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
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