Thunderful Group

Thunderful Group AB is a Swedish video game holding company based in Gothenburg. It was founded in December 2017 by Brjánn Sigurgeirsson and Klaus Lyngeled, in conjunction with Bergsala Holding, as the parent company for their Gothenburg-based game development studios, Image & Form and Zoink. Thunderful was expanded into the Thunderful Group in December 2019, taking over Bergsala Holding's distribution subsidiaries. The group is made up of operational units for development, publishing, and distribution.

Thunderful Group AB
Joint venture
IndustryVideo games
FoundedDecember 2017 (2017-12)
Founders
  • Brjánn Sigurgeirsson
  • Klaus Lyngeled
Headquarters
Gothenburg
,
Sweden
Key people
  • Brjánn Sigurgeirsson (CEO)
  • Klaus Lyngeled (CCO)
Owners
  • Bergsala Holding (50%)
  • Brjánn Sigurgeirsson (25%)
  • Klaus Lyngeled (25%)
Number of employees
170 (2020)
SubsidiariesSee § Operational groups
Websitethunderfulgroup.com

History

Image & Form and Zoink, two independent video game developers based in Gothenburg, developed a close relationship when their founders and chief executive officers (CEOs), Brjánn Sigurgeirsson and Klaus Lyngeled, respectively, became best friends.[1] Although the two studios were separated by the Göta river, Sigurgeirsson and Lyngeled met frequently due to the small size of Gothenburg's indie scene.[1] Among other things, Image & Form and Zoink shared testing activities and marketing capabilities.[1] Image & Form had previously been 50%-acquired by Bergsala Holding (the holding company of Bergsala, Nintendo's exclusive distribution partner in Sweden) and when Sigurgeirsson eventually introduced Lyngeled to the company, they agreed Bergsala Holding to also acquire half of Zoink.[1]

Sigurgeirsson, Lyngeled and Bergsala Holding decided to merge the two studios and created Thunderful as the parent company for them in December 2017.[2][3] The company is jointly owned by the founding parties, of which Bergsala Holding holds a 50% stake and Sigurgeirsson and Lyngeled each 25%.[2][4] Sigurgeirsson and Lyngeled became the CEO and chief creative officer (CCO), respectively, of Thunderful, while both remained CEOs of their individual studios.[3][5] The move was announced in January 2018, at which point Thunderful had 46 employees.[3][5] Alongside the merger, a publishing arm, called Thunderful Publishing, was also set up to handle third-party game publishing.[4] Ed Valiente, the former business development manager for Nintendo of Europe, joined Thunderful as head of publishing in April 2018 and became the managing director for Thunderful Publishing.[4][6] In July 2018, Thunderful additionally acquired Rising Star Games, Bergsala Holding's previous publishing arm.[2][4] With the deal, Valiente, in addition to his role at Thunderful Publishing, also became the managing director for Rising Star Games, replacing Martin Defries, who left the company.[2][4]

In December 2019, Bergsala Holding combined its distribution businesses—Bergsala, Amo Toys Nordic, and Nordic Game Supply—with Thunderful, creating the Thunderful Group.[7][8] The new Group was reorganized into three operational groups: Thunderful Development, containing Image & Form and Zoink; Thunderful Publishing, containing Thunderful Publishing AB and Rising Star Games; and Thunderful Distribution, containing Bergsala, Amo Toys Nordic and Nordic Game Supply.[8] Thunderful Group remained under the shared ownership of Bergsala Holding, Sigurgeirsson Lyngeled, and kept its headquarters in Gothenburg.[7] In February 2020, Thunderful Group announced its acquisition of Guru Games, a developer based in Skövde.[9] By this time, Thunderful Group had 170 employees.[9]

Operational groups

Thunderful Development

Image & Form

Image & Form International AB was founded by Brjánn Sigurgeirsson, who acts as its CEO, and an unnamed co-founder in 1997.[4][10] Sigurgeirsson had collected experience in web design after working from Tokyo and San Francisco, and when he applied for several jobs of the same type in Gothenburg and would have gotten all of them, he established Image & Form as a two-man multimedia and web operation to capitalise on this industry.[11] While Sigurgeirsson intended to call the company Imagenation, his co-founder wished for it to be called Monkey Business; a vote between their friends was to resolve this dispute, though a third suggestion, "Image & Form", received the best reception.[10]

The business soon expanded with web-based game production, and in 2002 it was contracted to complete an edutainment game project for a Norwegian publisher.[11] After that project was finished, the two companies continued co-operating for games made entirely by Image & Form.[11] This continued as a side-business for Image & Form until 2007, when the publisher asked for speed up production to produce eight games per year, up from previously one game in 18 months.[11] The series was sold to a Danish publisher that eventually closed in 2009.[12] Through this development, Image & Form created 30 edutainment games in the same series between 2007 and early 2010.[11] Image & Form's portfolio diversified when it released its first iOS game, Gyro the Sheepdog, in late 2009.[11] Following onto this, Image & Form also released Mariachi Hero, Hugo Troll Race, and, in October 2011, Anthill.[11] Its most successful series of games, SteamWorld, started with the release of SteamWorld Tower Defense on Nintendo DSi in 2010.[11][13] In late 2011, Bergsala Holding acquired 50% of the company, and Image & Form became Bergsala Holding's primary development arm.[11] As of April 2019, Image & Form has 25 employees.[14]

Zoink

Zoink AB was founded in 2001 by Klaus Lyngeled, who acts as its CEO.[4][15] Lyngeled had initially started developing games when he and some friends produced a pinball game for the Amiga.[16] They later got together with a similar team based in Norrköping and, together, founded Unique Development Studios.[16] When Lyngeled got tired of working for Unique Development Studios, he moved to the United States to work for Shiny Entertainment.[16] He worked on Messiah and Sacrifice but when he began working on Enter the Matrix, he faced, among other things, issues with his visa, wherefore he returned to Sweden, where he founded Zoink.[15][16] By 2003, Zoink was working on animated films, later advertisement films, and finally advertisement games; clients for the latter included Sony, The Coca-Cola Company, Cartoon Network, and Google.[16] Zoink's first full game was The Kore Gang, revived after its original Xbox version had been cancelled for six years.[17] Zoink's breakout title was Stick It to the Man!, later spawning a spiritual successor, Flipping Death.[15] As of May 2018, Zoink has 25 employees.[15] In 2018 Zoink released a new game, Fe. Its next title, Lost in Random, is scheduled for a release in 2021 for the Nintendo Switch.[18]

Guru Games

Guiding Rules Games AB (Guru Games) is based in Skövde, Sweden.

Thunderful Publishing

Thunderful Publishing AB

Thunderful Publishing AB was created alongside Thunderful and is in charge of the group's third-party publishing operations.[4] Ed Valiente acts as its managing director since April 2018.[4]

Rising Star Games

Rising Star Games Limited was founded on 10 July 2004 and is based in Hertfordshire.[19] It was set up by Martin Defries as a joint venture between Bergsala Holding and Japanese publisher Marvelous Entertainment.[20][21] Marvelous Entertainment sold its 50% share in Rising Star Games to Intergrow, another Japanese publisher, in January 2010.[22] Rising Star Games opened a United States office based in California in January 2012.[23] Thunderful acquired Rising Star Games from Bergsala Holding in July 2018, at which point Ed Valiente became its managing director and Defries left the company.[4]

Thunderful Distribution
  • Bergsala
  • Amo Toys Nordic
  • Nordic Game Supply
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References
  1. Skrebels, Joe (25 January 2018). "Two Best Friends Are Running Two of Europe's Most Exciting Developers". IGN. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  2. Kerr, Chris (3 July 2018). "UK publisher Rising Star Games acquired by Thunderful". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  3. McFerran, Damien (25 January 2018). "Image & Form And Zoink! Games Join Forces Under New Company Thunderful". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 6 October 2018. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  4. Dring, Christopher (3 July 2018). "Thunderful acquires UK and US publisher Rising Star Games". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 10 May 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  5. Dring, Christopher (25 January 2018). "Image & Form and Zoink merge to form new games label". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  6. Taylor, Haydn (9 April 2018). "Jobs roundup: Dave Haynes installed as director at Vive X Europe". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  7. "Super Mario is now a part of the Thunderful Group" (PDF). Thunderful Group. 30 January 2020.
  8. "Our operations". Thunderful Group. 2020.
  9. "Thunderful Group acquires game developer Guru Games" (PDF). Thunderful Group. 6 February 2020.
  10. Bonds, Curtis; Ronaghan, Neal (15 May 2013). "Image & Form Games Interview with Brjann Sigurgeirsson". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on 14 May 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  11. Whitehead, Thomas (27 April 2013). "Developer Interview: Image & Form on SteamWorld Dig, 3DS Development and Working With Nintendo". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  12. Kiepels, Caroline (7 March 2016). "Ångdrivna robotar rusar på topplistorna" [Steam-powered robots rush on the leaderboards]. Di Digital (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  13. Taylor, Haydn (12 February 2019). "Image & Form: The steam-powered journey to self-sufficiency". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  14. Watts, Steve (8 April 2019). "SteamWorld Quest: From Edutainment To Indie Powerhouse". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  15. Garst, Aron (23 May 2018). "How Zoink Games combined Monkey Island and Rayman to make Flipping Death". Red Bull. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  16. Arnroth, Thomas (13 September 2013). "Speldoldis från Göteborg kliver fram" [Game-gambling from Gothenburg is emerging]. Computer Sweden (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  17. Whitehead, Thomas (20 February 2014). "Interview: Ripstone and Zoink on Prioritising Fun in Stick It To The Man". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  18. Burch, Jennifer (19 June 2020). "Lost in Random will be rolling the dice on Nintendo Switch in 2021". Nintendo Wire. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  19. Halloran, Karen (10 July 2014). "Rising Star Games Is Now Ten Years Old". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 27 September 2017. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  20. Sheffield, Brandon (25 February 2009). "Interview: Marvelous' Wada Talks Style Challenges Of Western Development". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  21. Dring, Christopher (1 March 2019). "Merchandise firm Numskull forms games publishing division with Rising Star vets". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  22. Martin, Matt (25 January 2010). "Marvelous sells stake in Rising Star Games". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  23. Newton, James (26 January 2012). "Rising Star Games To Open American Office". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 27 September 2017. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
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