Gameloft facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Gameloft SE

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video games
Founded	14 December 1999; 25 years ago (1999-12-14)
Founder	Michel Guillemot
Headquarters	Paris , France
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Stéphane Roussel (chairman, CEO) Alexandre de Rochefort (CFO)
Number of employees	3,600 (2021)
Parent	Vivendi (2016–present)

Gameloft SE is a French company that makes and publishes video games. It is based in Paris, France. The company was started in December 1999 by Michel Guillemot, who also helped start Ubisoft.

Gameloft has 18 game development studios all over the world. They are well-known for making games, especially for mobile games like those on phones and tablets. In 2016, a big media company called Vivendi bought Gameloft.

History of Gameloft

How Gameloft Made Games

Michel Guillemot, one of the people who founded Ubisoft, started Gameloft on December 14, 1999. By 2009, Gameloft had sold over 200 million copies of its games. They also had 2 million daily downloads of their games from the App Store for iOS devices.

Gameloft's money manager, Alexandre de Rochefort, noticed that games made much more money on iOS than on Android. Because of this, Gameloft decided to spend less money on making Android games in 2009. In 2010, they tried selling Android games directly from their own website instead of using Google Play.

Some people have said that Gameloft's games often look very similar to other popular games. When asked about this, CEO Michel Guillemot said that the video game industry often uses similar ideas. He explained that maybe only one truly new idea comes out each year. However, many people agreed that Gameloft's games were usually well-made and polished.

By 2014, Gameloft announced they would focus more on making high-quality games. They wanted to make fewer games but make sure each one was really good.

To help their games reach more players in Asia, Gameloft made deals with other companies. They worked with GREE, Inc. in 2012 and GungHo Online Entertainment in 2016.

Becoming Part of Vivendi

In October 2015, a large French media company called Vivendi started buying parts of Gameloft. They first bought a small share, which quickly grew to a larger amount. By February 2016, Vivendi owned 30% of Gameloft.

Vivendi then decided to try and buy even more of Gameloft, even though Gameloft's leaders did not want them to. This is called a hostile takeover. Gameloft's board of directors told shareholders not to sell their shares to Vivendi.

However, by May 2016, Vivendi had convinced most shareholders to sell. This meant Vivendi could go ahead with the takeover. The deal was finished on June 1, 2016. Vivendi then owned 56% of Gameloft, which was enough to control the company.

Many people thought Vivendi might also try to buy Ubisoft. Ubisoft was another video game company started by Michel Guillemot and his brothers. Because of Vivendi's actions, Michel Guillemot decided to leave Gameloft. He joined his brother Yves Guillemot at Ubisoft to help prevent Vivendi from taking over that company too. Michel Guillemot officially left Gameloft on June 29.

On June 8, the Guillemot brothers sadly announced they were selling their remaining shares in Gameloft to Vivendi. This gave Vivendi even more control. After Michel Guillemot left, Vivendi set up a new team to run Gameloft. Stéphane Roussel, who worked for Vivendi, became Gameloft's new chairman and CEO. Alexandre de Rochefort, Gameloft's previous money manager, also took on more responsibilities. At this point, Vivendi owned almost all of Gameloft.

Gameloft's Offices and Studios

Gameloft's main office is in Paris, France. The company also has 17 game development studios around the world. These studios are the places where the games are actually made.

Gameloft Studios Around the World

In August 2011, Gameloft opened a new studio in New Orleans, USA. This was because the government of Louisiana offered tax breaks to companies that created new jobs.

However, Gameloft also closed some studios to save money. For example, in January 2013, their India studio in Hyderabad closed suddenly, leaving 250 people without jobs. Between June and August 2015, the Tokyo office laid off about 80 people, which meant the studio effectively closed. Also, in July 2015, the New York City office stopped all its work, and about 100 employees lost their jobs. Soon after, in September 2015, the Seattle studio closed, even though it had only been open for a year. In total, seven studios closed in 2015. Michel Guillemot said these actions were taken to cut costs after the company lost money.

In January 2016, Gameloft opened a marketing office in Nigeria to grow in that region. However, they also closed their Auckland, New Zealand, studio, letting go of about 160 employees. At that time, Gameloft Auckland was the biggest video game studio in New Zealand. Gameloft's studio in Valencia, Spain, closed in April 2016. Gameloft UK closed in December 2019. Gameloft Budapest, which started in 2012, closed in March 2023. More recently, in February and April 2024, Gameloft also cut jobs at its offices in Lviv, Ukraine, and Toronto, Canada.

Here is a list of some of Gameloft's active studios:

Gameloft Services

In October 2019, Gameloft worked with a mobile phone company called Telecom Italia. They launched a game subscription service called TIM I Love Games. This service lets people in Italy who use TIM Italy play many games on their Android and iOS phones.

Games by Gameloft

See also

In Spanish: Gameloft para niños