Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Euronext: GFT | |
Industry | Video games |
Founded | 14 December 1999 |
Founder | Michel Guillemot |
Headquarters | , France |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | |
Revenue | 258,000,000 Euro (2017) |
Number of employees | 3,400 (2024) |
Parent | Vivendi (2016–present) |
Website | www.gameloft.com |
Footnotes /references [1] |
Gameloft SE is a French video game company based in Paris, founded in December 1999 by Ubisoft co-founder Michel Guillemot. The company operates 18 development studios worldwide, and publishes games for the mobile devices, video game consoles, and PC. Formerly a public company traded at the Paris Bourse, Gameloft was acquired by media conglomerate Vivendi in 2016.
Gameloft was founded by Michel Guillemot, one of the five founders of Ubisoft, on 14 December 1999. [2] [3] By February 2009, Gameloft had shipped over 200 million copies of its games since its IPO, [4] as well as 2 million daily downloads of its games via the App Store for iOS. [5] [6] Gameloft's chief financial officer (CFO), Alexandre de Rochefort, noted that the company's games generated about 400 times more revenue on iOS than on Android, partially because Google did not develop its Google Play storefront to "entice customers to actually buy products"; as a result of which Gameloft heavily cut its investments in Android games development in November 2009. [7] [8] In July 2010, Gameloft instead attempted to sell Android games directly through its website, avoiding the use of Google Play. [9]
In a May 2011 keynote, de Rochefort stated that he wanted to avoid moving the company to the NASDAQ stock exchange, as the U.S. games market appeared to be nothing more than a large economic bubble, especially when seeing Zynga's then US$10 billion total stock value. [10]
Gameloft's games have often been accused of being clones of other properties; [11] [12] [13] [14] when asked about it at the November 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, chief executive officer (CEO) Michel Guillemot stated "The videogame industry has always played around a limited number of themes. There is maybe one new idea a year." [15] [16] In response to many users commenting on Guillemot's remarks, Levi Buchanan of IGN defended Gameloft, stating that its games were usually well-polished, in contrary to the original concepts' games. [17]
By July 2014, Gameloft announced that they would focus more strongly on quality than on quantity, as was stated to have previously been the case. [18]
In April 2013, Texan company Lodsys filed a lawsuit against Gameloft, among other mobile game developers, for infringing its patent on in-app purchases. [19] Similar lawsuits were previously intervened by Apple Inc., who claim to have licensed the technology from Lodsys for usage in its App Store. [20]
In February 2012 and February 2016, Gameloft penned publishing contracts with GREE, Inc. and GungHo Online Entertainment, respectively, to facilitate its presence in the Asian market. [21] [22]
In October 2015, French media conglomerate Vivendi announced that they had acquired a 6.2% stake in Gameloft's stock, [23] which was quickly raised to 10.2% a few days later. [24] By February 2016, Vivendi had acquired 30% in the company, and launched a hostile takeover bid. [25] [26] In accordance with French law, Vivendi started a tender offer to acquire further shares. [27]
Following the announcement, Gameloft's board of directors strongly advised shareholders against selling stock to Vivendi to avoid the hostile takeover. [28] By May 2016, Vivendi had won over the majority of shareholders, enabling them to move forward in the takeover. [29]
The acquisition was completed on 1 June 2016, with Vivendi having acquired 56%, an absolute majority over Gameloft's ownership. [30] [31] Employees of Gameloft were presented with an open letter welcoming them to the new parent company's family. [32] [33]
Analysts believed that the takeover was just the first step towards also purchasing Ubisoft, another video game venture founded by Guillemot and his brothers, although Vivendi only held a 17.7% minority in that company at the time. [34] [35] [36] In response to Vivendi's actions, Guillemot announced that he would step down from his company and join his brother Yves Guillemot at Ubisoft to prevent it from also being taken over. [37] [38] Guillemot later clarified that his stepping-down would take effect on 29 June. [39] [40]
On 8 June, the Guillemot brothers announced that they were regretfully selling their ownership in Gameloft to Vivendi. [41] [42] The transaction awarded Vivendi another 21.7% in Gameloft's capital. [43] [44] After Guillemot departed from Gameloft on 29 June, Vivendi set up a new board of directors for the company, with Vivendi's present chief operating officer (COO), Stéphane Roussel, appointed Gameloft's chairman and CEO, and Gameloft's previous CFO, de Rochefort, additionally taking over the management of the company's 39 subsidiaries. [45] At that point, Vivendi owned 95.94% of Gameloft's share capital. [46]
Gameloft is headquartered in the 9th arrondissement of Paris and operates 17 game development studios worldwide. [47] [1]
In July 2011, Glenn Watson, lead programmer of Gameloft's Auckland offshoot, stated that the company's management created a "constant sense of urgency" at its studio, having employees regularly work 12- to 14-hour days. [48] A new studio in New Orleans was opened in August 2011, taking advantage of tax breaks granted by the government of Louisiana in July 2009 to establish 150 new jobs. [49]
On 29 January 2013, Gameloft's India studio in Hyderabad was closed midway through the workday, leaving 250 people unemployed. [50] [51] [52] Between June and August 2015, Gameloft's Tokyo location laid off roughly 80 people, effectively closing the studio. [53] Additionally, on 8 July 2015, all operations at the company's New York City office were halted, and as many as 100 employees were laid off. [54] [55] Shortly after, in September 2015, Gameloft's Seattle studio was closed down and its 15 employees were let go. [56] [57] [58] The studio was opened just a year prior to its closure. [59] [60] [61] Seven studios were closed in total in 2015. [62] [63] Guillemot stated that these actions were taken to accommodate its "ambitious cost reduction program", instantiated after the company saw a net loss of €16.6 million in the fiscal year that ended on 30 June 2015. [64] [65]
In January 2016, Gameloft opened a Nigerian marketing office for regional expansions, [66] and shut down its Auckland studio, firing roughly 160 employees. [67] [68] At the time, Gameloft Auckland was New Zealand's largest video game studio. [69] Gameloft's Valencia, Spain, location was shuttered in April 2016. [70] In July 2017, Gameloft appointed John-Paul Burke as country manager for its subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and Ireland. [71] Gameloft UK later closed in December 2019. [72] Gameloft Budapest (founded 2012) was closed in March 2023. [73]
On February 22, 2024, Gameloft cut 38 jobs from its Lviv office in Ukraine and an unknown number of employees from its Toronto office. [74] On July 10, 2024, the Cluj office was closed and its 136 employees were laid off. [75]
Name | Location | Founded/acquired | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
Gameloft Barcelona | Barcelona, Spain | 2006 | [76] |
Gameloft Bucharest | Bucharest, Romania | 2000 | [77] |
Gameloft Kharkiv / Gameloft Kharkov | Kharkiv, Ukraine | 2007 | [78] |
Gameloft Montreal / Gameloft Montréal | Montreal, Canada | 2000 | [79] |
Gameloft Brisbane | Brisbane, Australia | 2014 | [80] |
Gameloft South-East Asia |
| 2004 | [81] |
Gameloft Lviv | Lviv, Ukraine | 2014 | [82] |
Gameloft Sofia | Sofia, Bulgaria | 2005 | [83] |
Gameloft Toronto | Toronto, Canada | 2011 | [84] |
Gameloft Paris | Paris, France | 2022 | [85] |
FreshPlanet | New York City, United States | 2018 | [86] |
The Other Guys | Buenos Aires, Argentina | 2020 | [87] |
In October 2019, Gameloft announced a partnership with mobile operator Gruppo TIM to open TIM I Love Games, a games subscription service for Android and iOS, exclusive to Italy and TIM customers. [88]
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016.
Ubisoft Entertainment SA is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include Assassin's Creed, Driver, Far Cry, Just Dance, Prince of Persia, Rabbids, Rayman, Tom Clancy's, and Watch Dogs.
Ubisoft Blue Byte GmbH is a German video game holding company owned by Ubisoft. It was founded in October 1988 by Thomas Hertzler and Lothar Schmitt as a developer and was best known for developing the Anno and The Settlers series. The studio was acquired by Ubisoft in 2001. Related Designs was merged into Blue Byte in 2013, and a third studio in Berlin was established in 2018. Since 2019, Ubisoft Blue Byte acts as the parent company of Ubisoft's three German studios, which became branded as Ubisoft Düsseldorf, Ubisoft Mainz and Ubisoft Berlin. The three studios comprise 695 employees as of August 2024.
Miniclip is a Swiss mobile game publisher and former browser game website that was first launched on 30 March 2001. It was started by Robert Small and Tihan Presbie with a budget of £40,000. In 2008, Miniclip was valued at over £275 million. In 2018, the company gained over $400 million in revenue through its mobile gaming hit, 8 Ball Pool.
Massive Entertainment AB is a Swedish video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Malmö. The company has been fully owned by Ubisoft since 2008. The studio is known for Tom Clancy's The Division, The Division 2, Ground Control, and World in Conflict.
Vivendi SE is a French mass-media holding company headquartered in Paris. It owns Groupe Canal+, Havas, Gameloft, Prisma Media, Vivendi Village, and Dailymotion, and is a majority owner of the Lagardère Group. The company has activities in television, film, video games, book publishing, print press, communication, tickets, and video hosting services.
CCP ehf., doing business as CCP Games, is an Icelandic video game developer based in Reykjavík. Novator Partners and General Catalyst had previously collectively owned a majority stake in the company, and in September 2018, CCP was acquired by South Korean video game publisher Pearl Abyss for US$425 million. CCP Games is best known for developing Eve Online, which was released in 2003 and has since been maintained.
Jade Raymond is a Canadian video game producer, best known for helping create the Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs franchises, as well as building Ubisoft Toronto and Motive Studio. In March 2021, Raymond announced the founding of a new independent development team called Haven Studios, which was later acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment in July 2022, making them a first-party developer for PlayStation Studios.
Vivendi Games was an American video game publisher and holding company based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1996 as CUC Software, the publishing subsidiary of CUC International, after the latter acquired video game companies Davidson & Associates and Sierra On-Line. Between 1997 and 2001, the company switched parents and names multiple times before ending up organized under Vivendi Universal. On July 10, 2008, Vivendi Games merged with Activision to create Activision Blizzard.
Behaviour Interactive Chile Ltda. was a Chilean video game developer based in Santiago. The company was founded as Wanako Games in 2002, by Esteban Sosnik, Tiburcio de la Cárcova, Santiago Bilinkis, Wenceslao Casares. The studio was first acquired by Vivendi Games in February 2007 and ended up under Artificial Mind and Movement in December 2008. When Artificial Mind and Movement was renamed Behaviour Interactive in 2010, Wanako Games was renamed Behaviour Santiago. Behaviour Santiago was shut down on 20 November 2017.
Pivotal Games Limited was a British video game developer based in Corston, England.
Ubisoft Divertissements Inc., doing business as Ubisoft Montreal, is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Montreal.
GamersGate AB is a Sweden-based online video game store offering electronic strategy guides and games for Windows, macOS, and Linux via direct download. It is a competitor to online video game services such as Steam, GOG.com, and Direct2Drive.
Ubisoft Quebec is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Quebec City. The studio was established in June 2005 and is best known for its work in the Assassin's Creed franchise.
PlayStation Studios is a division of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) that oversees the video game development at the studios owned by SIE. The division was established as SCE Worldwide Studios in September 2005 and rebranded as PlayStation Studios in 2020.
Yves Guillemot is a French businessman who co-founded Ubisoft with his brothers Claude, Michel, Gérard and Christian in March 1986. He currently serves as the company's chairman and CEO.
Skull and Bones is a 2024 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Singapore and published by Ubisoft. The game revolves around piracy and naval warfare with a fantastical setting in East Africa and Southeast Asia during the late 17th century, the peak of the historical Golden Age of Piracy. It was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on February 16, 2024, after multiple delays and developmental difficulties, to mixed reviews from critics.
Stillfront Group is a Sweden-based company specialized in the acquisition and management of mobile and browser game studios.