Space Ape Games bolster global success with Japanese launch
London games studio Space Ape Games has exceeded USD$12 million in revenue and 5.5 million downloads for its mid-core, multi-player, real-time strategy game Samurai Siege within its first six months.
Having launched globally on iOS and Android in October 2013, the multi-player game became profitable during beta in Australia and – upon global launch – rocketed to the top of the Grossing Apps charts. Samurai Siege reached number 1 grossing strategy game in 40 countries, and top five in the grossing App Charts across 136 countries. Currently available in 9 languages across 149 territories with a 4.6 out of 5 average rating, Samurai Siege was also released in Japan on May 1st. It featured on the App Store and reached number 3 in the download charts having been fully localised for the Japanese market.
John Earner, Founder & CEO of Space Ape Games commented: “We are very proud of the global success of Samurai Siege, especially given our company is so young. We have employees from 17 nationalities including Brazil, China, Japan, and the US and when your product is live in 149 countries, that is important”.
“With Samurai Siege we’ve made the difficult first step of making a hit. Now we’re focused on that 2nd step of scaling up to two teams: one continuing to improve upon Samurai Siege each week, and the other developing a new title. We are also very keen to build strong communities within our games, we admire Riot Games approach and are looking to replicate that with our mobile fans.”
Based in Soho, London, Space Ape Games is an independent gaming studio backed by some of the industry’s leading investors including; Accel Partners, Initial Capital, Connect Ventures, Northzone and Silicon Valley Bank. The company was founded in July 2012 by gaming and tech start-up veterans John Earner, Simon Hade and Toby Moore, who between them have decades of experience on some of the biggest games on Facebook and the Internet.
Having moved the 45-strong team to a new studio in Soho Square earlier this year, Space Ape plan to scale steadily with success, treading the balance of making games they love, with what the community wants. Drawing on their backgrounds at leading companies including Playfish, Sony PlayStation, EA, Skype and Mind Candy, the team have big ambitions and are working on their second project for launch later this year.
