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Supercell (company)

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Supercell
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryMobile games
Founded2010[1]
HeadquartersHelsinki, Finland[1]
Key people
Ilkka Paananen (CEO)[1]
ProductsFull list
Revenue
  • Increase €1.545 billion (2014)
  • €519 million (2013)
[2]
Number of employees
152 (2014)[2]
ParentSoftBank
Websitesupercell.com

Supercell is a mobile game development company founded in June 2010 in Helsinki, Finland. Ilkka Paananen is the company's CEO.[3] The company's debut game was Gunshine.net. In 2011, Supercell started developing games for mobile devices and has since then fully released three games: Clash of Clans, Hay Day, and Boom Beach.

Hay Day, Clash of Clans, Boom Beach, and Clash Royale are freemium games and have been very successful for Supercell, the first two generating revenue of $2.5 million a day in 2013.[4] Battle Buddies was pulled out of market due to poor monetization, despite getting positive reviews from critics.[5]

Accel Partners invested $12 million in Supercell in 2011.[6]

In October 2013 it was announced that Japanese company GungHo Online Entertainment and its parent SoftBank had acquired 51% of the company for a reported $2.1 billion.[7] On June 1, 2015, SoftBank acquired an additional 22.7% stake in Supercell, now owning the 73.2% of the company and becoming the sole external shareholder.[8]

On June 21, 2012, Supercell released Hay Day on iOS and in 2013 on Android. It gradually received popularity from advertisement.

On August 2, 2012, Supercell released Clash of Clans on iOS and in 2013 on Android. It was immediately popular.

On March 26, 2014, Supercell released Boom Beach on iOS and Android. The game is starting to become popular due to extensive advertising.[9]

In December 2015, Supercell released their biggest Clash of Clans update; town hall 11. This update sparked much controversy over the ethics of the company after a large majority of players saw a bottomless end to their efforts. The update only catered to those who had "maxed" base and could afford gems. Many players saw this move as an effort to increase revenue in a billion dollar company with only 152 employees. Although many players quit, Supercell has done little to improve the gameplay since this update. Many players in the clash community have dubbed this update "the death of clash" as well as "the power of greed". Supercell continues to promise changes to make the update more bearable however, CEO Paananen has said the game will only move forward with bigger updates. http://www.designntrend.com/articles/66690/20151215/clash-of-clans-town-hall-11-update-changes-supercell-finland.htm

On January 4, 2016, Supercell soft-launched Clash Royale on iOS in various countries.[10] Due to a combination of original gameplay and reusing characters from their video game Clash of Clans, it has gained massive popularity.

Games

Clash of Clans

Main article: Clash of Clans

Clash of Clans is the most super hit game of the company. It is an online strategy game where the one can attack on the other's base. It was worldwide released for iOS on August 2, 2012 and released on October 7, 2013 for Android. It is the top grossing of iOS and Android of all time.

Clash of Clans gameplay.

It has also received positive reviews from global audience. It has a score of 9/10 by Pocket Gamer and 4.5/5 stars from Gamezebo.

Discontinued games

  • Gunshine.net (later known as Zombies Online) – Supercell's first game and only non-mobile game, which was released in 2011.[11] The game's servers were shut down on November 30, 2012.[12]
  • Pets vs Orcs – The company's first mobile game, which was downloadable for a little over a month in 2012.[13]
  • Battle Buddies – The company's second mobile game, which was soft-launched in a number of countries in 2012, but was discontinued later in the same year.[14]
  • Spooky Pop – Soft-launched in Canada in 2014[15] and cancelled in 2015.[16]
  • Smash Land – Soft-launched in Canada and Australia in early April 2015.[17] Cancelled in July 2015.[18]

Gunshine.net cancellation

Pets vs Orcs cancellation

Battle Buddies cancellation

Spooky Pop cancellation

The Canadian soft-launch of Supercell's addition to its mobile line-up, Spooky Pop released in December 2014 pulled the plug on its match-three puzzle style game in 2015.[19] The app was removed from the Canadian App Store and those with previously downloaded copies trying to access the game will be met with a pop up message of the discontinuance on 9 February and its "full shut-down" on 10 March.[20] Supercell has since been described as conservative on the release of titles after the recent successes of Clash of Clans[21] and Boom Beach as opposed to many other mobile-development companies who attempt to pump out titles and ride the successes of their flagship games.[22]

Smash Land cancellation

Smash Land was launched on a limited basis in Canada and Australia on April 1 of 2015.[23] However, on July 1 of that year, Supercell announced on its official forum that it had decided to cancel development of the game.[24] Smash Land remained available for download until September 1, at which point it was permanently removed from online distribution platforms.[24]

Marketing

During Super Bowl XLIX in February 2015, Supercell spent $9 million to grab a 60-second runtime in front of 118.5 million viewers. According to the The Guardian, the Clash of Clans advertisement was one of the most popular advertisements of the 61 spots aired on NBC.[25] The commercial dubbed, "Revenge" featured Liam Neeson doing a parody from the movie Taken by seeking revenge in a coffee shop for a random player destroying his village. The commercial has reached a total of 102.1 million[26] views on the game's official YouTube channel so far,[27] and it was the most watched commercial on YouTube in 2015.[28] Despite the success of the commercial, Supercell has seen a marginal increase in downloads following the advertisement due to the game's consistent high ranking on downloads and grossing charts.[29]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Studio Profile: Supercell". Edge. Future plc. 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  2. ^ a b Pietarila, Päivikki (March 24, 2015). "Supercell meni kirkkaasti yli miljardirajan". Kauppalehti (in Finnish). Retrieved March 24, 2015.
  3. ^ Is this the fastest growing game company ever 17 April 2013 Forbes
  4. ^ The $2.4 Million-Per-Day Company: Supercell
  5. ^ A first look at Supercell’s tablet-only combat title Battle Buddies 7 March 2012
  6. ^ "Breaking Supercell Raises 12m From Accel Partners". ArcticStartup.
  7. ^ Clash of Clans maker Supercell raises $2.1bn to become the next Nintendo October 15, 2013
  8. ^ http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/01/softbank-buys-another-23-of-supercell-shares-now-owns-73-of-the-mobile-gaming-giant/
  9. ^ "Boom Beach is one of the most popular game on Google Play Store".
  10. ^ Clash Royale Soft Launch Announcement January 4, 2016
  11. ^ Vilpponen, Antti (February 16, 2011). "Supercell Combines The Very Best In Finnish Gaming". ArcticStartup. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
  12. ^ "Zombies Online/Gunshine.net Shutdown notice". Gunshine.net. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  13. ^ Seufert, Eric Benjamin (6 January 2014). "What is Supercell's strategy with Boom Beach?". Mobile Dev Memo. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  14. ^ Lappalainen, Elina (29 November 2012). "Epäonnistumistakin voi juhlia - Hittipeliyhtiö Supercell hautasi floppinsa samppanjalla". Talouselämä (in Finnish). Talentum. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  15. ^ Kärkkäinen, Henrik (December 3, 2014). "Supercell julkaisi Spooky Pop -mobiilipelin Kanadassa". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). Sanoma Media Finland. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  16. ^ http://yle.fi/uutiset/supercell_veti_spooky_pop_-pelin_markkinoilta/7793697
  17. ^ Squires, Jim (April 1, 2015). "Supercell Soft-launches Smash Land in Canada". Gamezebo. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  18. ^ "Smash Land Announcement". forum.supercell.com. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
  19. ^ "Supercell Cancels Spooky Pop".
  20. ^ "Spooky Pop, Supercell's match-three puzzler, has been cancelled".
  21. ^ "Clash of Clans Astuces Instructions". www.astucesaclashofclans.fr. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  22. ^ "Clash of Clans". Clash of Clans. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  23. ^ "Clash of Clans Maker Supercell soft-Launches 'Smash Land' in Canada".
  24. ^ a b "Smash Land Announcement".
  25. ^ "Clash of Clans mobile game was most popular Super Bowl ad in 2015".
  26. ^ Clash of Clans: Revenge (Official Super Bowl TV Commercial) on YouTube
  27. ^ "'Clash of Clans' Is One Huge Hit".
  28. ^ Juvonen, Anna (December 31, 2015). "Suomalaisyrityksen mainos vuoden katsotuin YouTubessa". Kauppalehti (in Finnish). Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  29. ^ "Forget Liam Neeson and Kate Upton — even the 'worst' Super Bowl game ad worked".
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