Rovio Entertainment Corp. has acquired a free-to-play (F2P) mobile games studio Darkfire Games (formerly Wargaming Denmark), focused on Role Playing Games (RPG).
Rovio acquired all of the outstanding shares of Darkfire Games for an undisclosed sum on June 3, 2020, and the wholly-owned Rovio subsidiary will become Rovio Copenhagen.
Rovio Copenhagen will continue to operate as an independent studio focusing on mobile RPGs. At present, the studio comprises 20 gaming industry veterans with vast expertise in making RPGs. As part of the acquisition, Rovio takes on the studio’s currently soft-launched mobile RPG, Darkfire Heroes. The game’s development will continue in Copenhagen, with Rovio providing synergies and support for the studio in central functions and areas such as user acquisition, technology, analytics and live operations.
“We are very excited to have Darkfire Games joining Rovio’s network of game studios. This strengthens our game genre mastery and expansion to Mid-Core games, where we see attractive opportunities in RPG’s. In addition, there is a great strategic and cultural fit for both teams. The talented team in Copenhagen will be a fantastic addition to Rovio’s already highly skilled flock,” says Kati Levoranta, CEO of Rovio.
The studio will continue to be led by Rune Vendler. Rune has an extensive career in mobile gaming and he has previously worked at companies such as Lionhead Studios, Hapti.co, IO Interactive and Wargaming.
“We are excited and proud to be joining Rovio, a company that shares our ambitions for high quality and innovative games. We’re looking forward to becoming part of the company that created a mobile game phenomenon in 2009 and has since grown to be one of the leaders in mobile gaming. We are also excited that we will be able to leverage Rovio’s vast skills and expertise to create fantastic RPG games,” says Rune Vendler, Head of Copenhagen studio.