Supercell (video game company) facts for kids
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Supercell's headquarters in Jätkäsaari
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Native name
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Supercell Oy
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Mobile games |
| Founded | 14 May 2010 |
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| Headquarters |
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Finland
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Key people
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Ilkka Paananen (CEO) |
| Products | See § Games |
| Revenue |  €1.89 billion (2021) |
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Operating income
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€734 million (2021) |
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Number of employees
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480 (2023) |
| Parent | Tencent (81.4%; 2016–present) |
| Subsidiaries | Space Ape Games (62%; 2017–present) |
Supercell Ltd is a Finnish company that makes games for mobile phones and tablets. It is based in Helsinki, Finland. The company was started on May 14, 2010.
Supercell's first game was a browser game called Gunshine.net. After that, they started making games for mobile devices. They have released five very popular mobile games: Hay Day, Clash of Clans, Boom Beach, Clash Royale, Brawl Stars, and Squad Busters. These games are free to download but let players buy things inside the game.
These games have been very successful. In 2013, Hay Day and Clash of Clans together made about €2 million (about $2.2 million US dollars) every day! Because of its fast growth, Supercell opened offices in other cities like Shanghai, San Francisco, and Seoul. In 2016, a big Chinese company called Tencent bought most of Supercell.
Contents
How Supercell Makes Games
Supercell focuses on making games that are free to play. They earn money when players choose to buy special items or advantages within the game. The company wants to create games that stay popular for many years. Their main goal is to design amazing games that players truly love, rather than just focusing on how much money they can make.
Game Development Process
Game development at Supercell happens in small teams called "cells." Each cell has about five to seven people. They start by thinking up new ideas. The CEO, Ilkka Paananen, reviews these ideas first.
After an idea is approved, the team develops it into a game. All other employees at Supercell get to play-test the game. If it's good, they test it in the App Store in Canada. If players in Canada like it, the game is then released worldwide. Sometimes, games that are being developed get cancelled, even if they were doing well in tests. This happens if the team feels the game won't be popular enough in the long run. The development team itself makes the final decision to cancel a project.
Supercell's Story
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Starting the Company
Before Supercell, two of its founders, Mikko Kodisoja and Ilkka Paananen, worked at another mobile game company called Sumea. Mikko Kodisoja helped start Sumea in 1999, and Ilkka Paananen became its CEO in 2000. In 2004, a company called Digital Chocolate bought Sumea.
Mikko Kodisoja left Sumea in 2010, and Ilkka Paananen followed soon after. Paananen wanted to create a game company where the people in charge wouldn't interfere with the game developers' work. So, Paananen, Kodisoja, Petri Styrman, Lassi Leppinen, Visa Forstén, and Niko Derome, who all knew each other from previous jobs, started Supercell in 2010. They began their business in Espoo, Finland.
Kodisoja and Paananen put €250,000 (about $270,000 US dollars) of their own money into the company. They also got a loan of €400,000 from a Finnish funding agency and investments from other companies. In May 2011, another company called Accel Partners invested €8 million (about $8.7 million US dollars) in Supercell.
First Games and Big Changes
The first game Supercell started making was a big online game called Gunshine. It could be played on Facebook using a web browser or on mobile phones. The first version of the game was ready in eight months.
In November 2011, Supercell decided to stop working on Gunshine. This was because players didn't stay interested in it for very long, it was too hard to play, and the mobile version didn't work well. At its best, the game had about half a million players. Supercell then decided to focus only on games for the iPad.
At the same time, the company was developing five new games. The first one released for public testing was Pets vs Orcs. This game and another called Tower were also stopped.
The Success of Hay Day
In May 2012, Supercell released Hay Day. This became Supercell's first game released around the world. Hay Day was Supercell's take on popular farm games like FarmVille. It was an easy-to-play farm simulator. Supercell added new features like making products and a production line. They also made sure the game was easy to play using a touch screen.
The game also focused on social features, letting players interact with each other. In just four months, Hay Day became one of the most profitable games in Apple's App Store in the US. It stayed one of the most profitable games worldwide for two and a half years. The game still gets regular updates and is kept running by a team of 14 people.
Creating Clash of Clans
Lassi Leppinen and Lasse Louhento led a team that had been working on a fantasy-themed Facebook game. When Supercell changed its focus, they decided to make a strategy game that would be simple and fun to play on a touch screen.
They developed Clash of Clans in six months, and it was released on August 2, 2012. In just three months, it became the most profitable app in the US. For 2013 and 2014, Clash of Clans was the most profitable mobile game in the world. The famous "clan wars" feature, where groups of players battle each other, was added to the game later in 2014.
In summer 2013, Supercell worked with a Japanese game company called GungHo Online Entertainment. They promoted each other's games in their own countries. Because of this, Clash of Clans became one of the most downloaded apps in Japan. Soon after, GungHo's chairman introduced Supercell's CEO, Ilkka Paananen, to Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank.
On October 7, 2013, SoftBank and GungHo bought 51% of Supercell's shares for €1.1 billion (about $1.2 billion US dollars). This was the largest price ever paid for a private Finnish company at that time.
New Games After Clash of Clans
After Clash of Clans and Hay Day came out in 2012, Supercell didn't release a new game for almost two years. The third game, Boom Beach, started being designed in autumn 2012 and was released in 2014. This new strategy game was tested at the end of 2013 and then changed a lot. It was very successful in the US when it came out in March. In 2015, Boom Beach became more popular than Hay Day on the charts.
In March 2016, Supercell released its fourth major game, Clash Royale. This game uses characters similar to those in Clash of Clans. Before Clash Royale, Supercell had stopped several other game projects, even two that were in their test phase. One of these was Smash Land, which a small team had worked on for 10 months.
In December 2018, Supercell released Brawl Stars around the world. This was their fifth major game and took 18 months to develop from its first release.
On December 15, 2021, Supercell announced they would open a new game studio in North America. This studio will make games for other platforms like PCs and game consoles.
On March 23, 2023, Supercell stopped its services for players in Russia and Belarus. This was in response to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Company Ownership
In October 2013, the Japanese companies GungHo Online Entertainment and SoftBank bought 51% of Supercell for about $1.51 billion. On June 1, 2015, SoftBank bought even more shares, increasing their total ownership to 73.2%. This made them the only outside owner of Supercell.
In June 2016, a group of companies called Halti S.A. bought 81.4% of Supercell for $8.6 billion. At that time, SoftBank valued Supercell at $10.2 billion. The Chinese technology company Tencent owned 50% of Halti S.A. In October 2019, Tencent increased its ownership in the group to 51.2%.
Space Ape Games
In 2017, Supercell bought 60% of Space Ape Games. This is a mobile game developer based in London. In 2021, Space Ape worked with Supercell to make a game called Beatstar. Later in 2021, Space Ape also developed Boom Beach: Frontlines, which was a spin-off game from Boom Beach. This game was tested in Canada in October 2021 and released in some other countries. However, on November 30, 2022, it was announced that Boom Beach: Frontlines would be stopped, and its servers shut down in January 2023.
Games Supercell Has Made
| Title | Year | Availability | Description |
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| Gunshine.net (later Zombies Online) | 2011 |  |
This was Supercell's first game and their only game not made for mobile phones. It was a game played in a web browser. Its servers were shut down in November 2012. |
| Pets vs Orcs | 2012 | |
This was the company's first mobile game. It was available for only a short time in 2012. |
| Battle Buddies | 2012 | |
Supercell's second mobile game. It was tested in some countries in 2012 but was stopped later that year. The game was removed because it didn't make enough money, even though critics liked it. |
| Hay Day | 2012 (iOS) and 2013 (Android) |  |
Supercell released Hay Day for iOS devices in June 2012 and for Android devices in November 2013. |
| Clash of Clans | 2012 (iOS) and 2013 (Android) | |
Supercell released Clash of Clans worldwide for iOS in August 2012 and for Android in October 2013. This online strategy game lets players build bases and train troops to attack others. It is one of the highest-earning apps on both iOS and Android. |
| Boom Beach | 2014 | |
Supercell released Boom Beach for iOS and Android in March 2014. |
| Spooky Pop | 2014 | |
Spooky Pop was tested in Canada in December 2014 and stopped in March 2015. Supercell removed the game from the Canadian App Store in February 2015, and it was fully shut down in March 2015. |
| Smash Land | 2015 | |
Smash Land was released for a short time in Canada and Australia in April 2015. However, Supercell announced in July that they would stop developing the game. It was removed from app stores in September 2015. |
| Clash Royale | 2016 | |
Supercell first released Clash Royale for testing in some countries in January 2016 (iOS) and February 2016 (Android). It was launched globally for both iOS and Android in March 2016. |
| Brawl Stars | 2018 | |
Supercell announced Brawl Stars in June 2017. It was first tested in Canada on iOS. It was then released in Finland, Sweden, and Norway in January 2018. The Android version came out in June 2018 in several countries. The game was released worldwide in December 2018. |
| Rush Wars | 2019 | |
A test version of Rush Wars was launched in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand in August 2019. In November 2019, it was announced that the game would not continue and would shut down later that month. |
| Hay Day Pop | 2020 | |
Hay Day Pop was released for testing in March 2020 in certain countries. In November 2020, Supercell announced they would stop the game. Its servers were shut down in February 2021. |
| Clash Quest | 2021 | |
Supercell announced Clash Quest in April 2021. It became available for testing in some Nordic countries in April 2021 and in the Philippines in May 2021. In August 2022, Supercell announced that development of the game had stopped. Its servers were shut down in September 2022. |
| Clash Mini | 2021 | |
Clash Mini was announced in April 2021. It became available for testing in several countries in November 2021. In March 2024, it was announced that development of the game had stopped. Its servers were shut down in April 2024. |
| Clash Heroes | – | Unreleased | Clash Heroes was announced in April 2021 as a new game in development. |
| Everdale | 2021 | |
A test version of the world-building game Everdale was launched in several countries in August 2021. In October 2022, Supercell announced they would stop developing Everdale. Its servers were shut down in October 2022. |
| Boom Beach: Frontlines | 2022 | |
This game, set in the Boom Beach world, was made by Space Ape Games. It was tested in Canada in October 2021 and expanded to more regions in August 2022. The game was stopped in November 2022, and its servers were shut down in January 2023. |
| Squad Busters | 2024 | |
This game was announced in February 2023. It had a few test periods in Canada, Mexico, and Spain. It was soft-launched (released in limited countries) in April 2024 in Canada, Spain, Singapore, Mexico, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Supercell plans to release it globally in May 2024. |
| Flood Rush | 2023 | |
Flood Rush was announced in May 2023. It was available for a test from May to June 2023 in some countries. In August 2023, Supercell announced they would stop developing Flood Rush. |
| Mo.co | 2023 | |
Mo.co was announced in October 2023. It was available for a test in the United States in October and November 2023. |
Marketing and Awards
Supercell has done some big marketing campaigns. In February 2015, during the Super Bowl XLIX (a very popular American football game), Supercell spent $9 million for a 60-second TV advertisement for Clash of Clans. The ad, called "Revenge," featured actor Liam Neeson acting like his character from the Taken movies. He was seeking revenge on a player who destroyed his village in the game. This commercial was very popular and became the most watched commercial on YouTube in 2015.
In 2020, Supercell worked with an animation studio called Psyop to make a short film called Lost & Crowned. This film was uploaded in September 2020 and was even considered for an Oscars award.
Supercell has also won many awards. In 2012, they were named the best Nordic start-up company and the Finnish game developer of the year. In 2013, they won the Finnish Technology Educator award. In 2014, a research company chose Supercell as Finland's most trusted company.
Images for kids
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Supercell's headquarters in Jätkäsaari
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Ilkka Paananen, one of Supercell's founders, in 2021
See also
In Spanish: Supercell (empresa) para niños
