Aristocrat Leisure Ltd continues to bring more creative minds into the fold. The market-leading gaming and solution provider announced the acquisition of three different game development firms, which is aimed to strengthen its digital and mobile gaming footprints in Northern and Eastern Europe.

Aristocrat places more focus on the future of real-money games

In a press release on Friday, Aristocrat confirmed its take over of Futureplay, Northern Stars, and Playsoft. These studios will work closely with a team of experts from the company’s digital division in developing the next generation of real-money games with optimized mobile gaming capabilities.

Aristocrat aims to bolster its presence in three specific categories of games such as casual, merge, and social casino segments. The company considers casual and merge slots as segments of high growth potential, so much more it is already maintaining a presence in this category. Social casino games, meanwhile, remain at the top of Aristocrat’s priorities mainly because Aspire maintains a market-leading position in this particular niche.   

Three News Studios

The Helsinki-based Future Play is a mobile game development studio that supplies free-to-play mobile gaming to B2C operators. The studio holds a credible reputation for producing exceptional games that appeal to the casual market, including the merge/match-three segments. Aristocrat acquired the studio to enhance its existing content for this particular segment, in which FuturePlay titles like Merge Gardens, Idle Farming Empire, and Battlelands Royale emerge as the top-performing games. 

Northern Stars, another up-and-coming studio based in Helsinki, develops real-money games belonging to the hybrid casual genre. This type of game has been steadily gaining traction because of its straightforward mechanics. Aspire, which becomes the market leader in this segment, sees a bright future for hybrid casual games as more players get exposed to this kind of game. 

The gaming giant also has high expectations for Playsoft, which focuses on producing social casino games. The studio will operate under the umbrella of Aristocrat’s Product Madness business, aiming to produce innovative and highly engaging social casino titles for its growing customer base in Europe. 

Aristocrat also named the people who will lead these newly acquired assets going forward. Jami Laes assumes the top executive post for Future Play, while Minwoo Lee and Antti Nikander will together oversee operations of Northern Stars. Lastly, Nicolas Bensignor and Pierre Olivier Monteil will share managerial duties at Playsoft. Lee has an impressive credential, having worked for several prominent game development studios, including EA and Ubisoft. Nikander looks to apply his vast working experience at the Rovio games studio  

Quotes from the Press Release

Michael Lang, CEO, Aristocrat Digital, talked about the impact of the company’s recent acquisition of assets: “These deals are consistent with Aristocrat’s successful strategy of bringing more world-class game development talent and capability into the organization to expand our game pipeline and sustain our strong growth momentum in Digital.”

Lang added: “We are thrilled to welcome Futureplay, Northern Stars and Playsoft to the Aristocrat Digital family, given their impressive track records in game development, creativity, and innovation. 

“Coupled with Aristocrat Digital’s ambitious strategy, global scale, marketing and investment capabilities, we look forward to helping our new colleagues reach new heights as part of Aristocrat.”

“We will continue to be active in pursuing global talent and studio deals that accelerate our growth strategy, alongside our sustained proven focus in driving organic growth and above market results.”