Gameloft Has Been Publishing Mobile Games for Years — What Are They up to Now?

Gameloft has taken considerable new instructions in publishing games following the achievement of 'Disney Dreamlight Valley.'

By Callie (Carlos) Cadorniga

Apr. 9 2024, Published 12:07 p.m. ET

Source: Getty Images

The trade of growing and publishing games is regularly cutthroat, and unrelenting, with many tales ending in doom and gloom for certain studios. Many giant names in gaming have suffered significant blows to their reputations during the 2020s including CD Projekt Red with their bug-ridden launch of Cyberpunk 2077 and Rocksteady Games' extremely arguable free up of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

However, even placing gold in gaming might lead to some tragic ends.

Gameloft turns out to be the best example of 1 such success-into-controversy tale. The long-running French publishing corporate has been lively since December 1999, principally growing shovelware titles across all kinds of mobile platforms. However, their fresh and surprising achievement in console gaming has led them to pursue greener pastures, albeit at the value of several branches. What's happened to Gameloft as of now? Let's take a brief look at their history.

Source: Getty Images

Vivendi bought out Gameloft in 2016

What happened to Gameloft? The writer is making a transition in gaming, but it surely comes at a value.

Gameloft was based in 1999 by Ubisoft co-founder Michel Guillermot. Throughout its early years, the publisher released dozens upon dozens of cellular video games for quite a lot of devices, courting all the long ago to cell phones with keypads. Their works come with a number of promotional tie-in video games for movies like Despicable Me and Cars, cellular versions of established gaming IPs like Assassin's Creed, and Nintendo DS fodder. Throughout this time, Gameloft gained some steady fulfillment in the cell video games area.

However, the publisher used to be frequently topic to grievance for its previous "quantity over quality" approach to publishing video games. As extra established and reputable studios started entering the mobile marketplace, Gameloft was once made to take care of complaints over their manner to in-game purchases. This would eventually lead to a adversarial financial takeover from media conglomerate Vivendi, which was once finalized in 2016. In the years following the buyout, several places of work have been shuttered with loads of employees being laid off.

In reality, Gameloft's fresh fulfillment in publishing has most effective worsened this pattern. In 2023, Gameloft released Disney Dreamlight Valley, a life simulation sport that stars a number of in style Disney characters and is lately available on all main gaming platforms, including consoles and PC. Following the game's sure reception and gross sales fulfillment, Gameloft published that they would be moving clear of cell game building and focusing more on console gaming.

Unfortunately, this shift in focus ended in the shutdown of Gameloft's Budapest workplace, which were active since 2012 according to a file by Hungarian information outlet HVG (translated through Game Developer). This can be adopted by two more closures in February 2024 in Toronto and Ukraine, totaling over 12 studio shutdowns in Eleven years between 2013 and 2024.

As of this writing, the company nonetheless exists as a subsidiary of Vivendi. The studio is these days set to unlock a new battle royale platforming game referred to as Divine Rush, which launched a pre-alpha public playtest between April 4 and April 8, 2024. Meanwhile, Disney Dreamlight continues to receive regular content material updates.

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