Voodoo (company)

Voodoo SAS (also referred to as Voodoo.io) is a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris. The company was founded in 2013 by Alexandre Yazdi and Laurent Ritter, and focuses on free-to-play "hyper-casual games" for Android and iOS. As of August 2020, games released by Voodoo were collectively downloaded 3.7 billion times. Voodoo has been criticised for copying concepts from other games.

For the luxury personal computer brand, see VoodooPC. For the amplifier design company, see Voodoo Amplification.

Voodoo SAS
TypePrivate
IndustryVideo games
Founded2013 (2013)
Founders
  • Alexandre Yazdi
  • Laurent Ritter
Headquarters
Paris
,
France
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Alexandre Yazdi (CEO)
  • Gabriel Rivaud (VP, games)
ProductsHole.io
Owner
  • Alexandre Yazdi and Laurent Ritter (majority stake)
  • Tencent (minority stake)
Number of employees
60 (2018)
Websitevoodoo.io

History

Voodoo was founded in 2013 by Alexandre Yazdi and Laurent Ritter.[1] The two founders, who were friends from high school, had previously founded mobile application services company Studio Cadet in 2012, with the intent to become a publisher later.[2] Yazdi serves as chief executive officer for Voodoo, while Gabriel Rivaud is the vice-president of games.[3] According to Rivaud, the company was in turmoil for its first four years in operation and opted to change its business strategy thereafter.[3] Using data it gathered from its previous games, it designed its newer games to attract more players.[3]

Through 2017, Voodoo quadrupled in staff count, reaching 80 employees, and expected to grow to 150 people by the end of 2018.[1] In May 2018, American banking company Goldman Sachs, through its West Street Capital Partners VII fund, invested US$200 million in Voodoo.[1] It was the largest fundraising in the French technology sector since 2015.[1] Yazdi and Ritter retained control of the company.[1] At the time, Voodoo had, asides from its Paris headquarters, offices in Montpellier and Strasbourg.[1] A development studio in Berlin, Germany, was established in December 2018, headed by general manager Alexander Willink.[4] The studio started out with roughly ten people, looking to eventually expand to 40 employees.[4] The Berlin studio later hired key employees from developers Blizzard Entertainment, King, and Mamau.[5] A publishing office in Istanbul, Turkey, was announced in August 2019 and is headed by publishing director Corentin Selz.[6] This continued with the opening of a Montreal development studio in November 2019, led by Mehdi El Moussali, a former producer for Gameloft.[7] Voodoo also acquired Shoreditch-based developer Gumbug in December that year.[8]

In July 2020, Tencent was looking to acquire a minority stake in Voodoo, which at the time was still majority-owned by Yazdi and Ritter.[9] Tencent acquired a minority stake to undisclosed terms in August. At this time, Voodoo was valued at $1.4 billion .[10] According to Yazdi, this deal would help Voodoo to extend their games into the Asia-Pacific market.[11] Voodoo subsequently opened offices in Singapore and Japan later that month, headed by Julian Corbett and Ben Fox, respectively.[12] The company announced an investment in Istanbul-based developer Fabrika Games in September 2020,[13] and acquired Paris-based OHM Games in December.[14]

Games

Games published by Voodoo were downloaded a total of 2 billion times by April 2019.[15] In December 2019, Voodoo games had 2.6 billion downloads, 300 million monthly active users, and 1 billion individual players.[8] The games reached 3.7 billion downloads by August 2020.[10]

Games released by Voodoo include Helix Jump, Baseball Boy, Snake vs Block, Hole.io, Aquapark.io, and Purple Diver.[8] The majority of its games are free-to-play "hyper-casual games" developed for the Android and iOS smartphone operating systems.[16] Voodoo announced in November 2019 that it intended to move past hyper-casual games with the opening of its Montreal studio.[7]

Criticism

Voodoo has been criticised for producing games that copied game concepts of indie games. Such games include Infinite Golf (copied from Desert Golfing), Twisty Road (from Impossible Road), The Fish Master (from Ridiculous Fishing), Flappy Dunk! (from Flappy Bird), Rolly Vortex (from Rolling Sky), The Cube (from Curiosity: What's Inside the Cube?), and Hole.io (from Donut County).[17][18][19] In the case of Hole.io, the game copied the core gameplay mechanic of Donut County, in which the player controls a hole in the ground to consume objects within the environment, progressively growing larger to be able to consume larger objects.[17][20] Ben Esposito had been working on Donut County for more than five years when Hole.io released in mid-2018, prior to Donut County's own release.[19][21] In a response to an inquiry from Variety, Voodoo stated that Hole.io was not a clone of Donut County, although both were in the same sub-genre of games.[19]

Accolades
  • Best Publisher (nominated) – Mobile Games Awards 2018[22]
  • Best Publisher – Mobile Games Awards 2019[23]
  • #20 on Pocket Gamer.biz's "Top 50 Mobile Game Developers of 2018"[24]
  • #5 on Pocket Gamer.biz's "Top 50 Mobile Game Makers of 2019"[25]
  • #16 on Pocket Gamer.biz's "Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2020"[26]

References
  1. Dèbes, Florian (28 May 2018). "Levée de fonds record pour la PME française du jeu vidéo Voodoo" [Record raising of funds for the French video game SME Voodoo]. Les Echos Start (in French). Archived from the original on 28 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  2. Colas des Francs, Ophélie (3 September 2014). "Quiz Run lève 280.000€ en crowdequity" [Quiz Run raises 280,000 € in crowdequity]. Les Echos Entrepreneurs (in French). Archived from the original on 26 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  3. Takahashi, Dean (29 May 2018). "Voodoo raises estimated $200 million from Goldman Sachs for mobile games". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 20 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  4. Valentine, Rebekah (12 December 2018). "The search for creativity at Voodoo's new Berlin studio". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 26 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  5. Forde, Matthew (2 July 2019). "Voodoo brings on Blizzard, King and Mamau hires for Berlin studio". Pocket Gamer.biz. Archived from the original on 3 July 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  6. Forde, Matthew (1 August 2019). "Interview: Hyper-casual specialist Voodoo opens new Istanbul studio". Pocket Gamer.biz. Archived from the original on 5 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  7. Batchelor, James (13 November 2019). "Voodoo opens Montreal studio as it expands beyond hypercasual games". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 13 November 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  8. Takahashi, Dean (11 December 2019). "Voodoo acquires mobile game studio Gumbug in London as it exploits hypercasual growth". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 11 December 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  9. Betz, Brandy (14 July 2020). "Tencent eyes stake in game developer Voodoo – Bloomberg". Seeking Alpha. Archived from the original on 15 July 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  10. Liao, Rita (17 August 2020). "Tencent takes minority stake in French casual games maker Voodoo". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 17 August 2020. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  11. McAloon, Alissa (18 August 2020). "Tencent picks up minority stake in hyper casual game publisher Voodoo". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 19 August 2020. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  12. Valentine, Rebekah (26 August 2020). "Voodoo opens Singapore, Japan offices". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 26 August 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2020.}
  13. Partleton, Kayleigh (4 September 2020). "Voodoo invests in Istanbul-based developer studio Fabrika Games". Pocket Gamer.biz.
  14. Partleton, Kayleigh (21 December 2020). "Voodoo acquires Paris-based studio OHM Games". Pocket Gamer.biz. Archived from the original on 21 December 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  15. Chapple, Craig (9 April 2019). "Voodoo racks up two billion mobile game downloads". Pocket Gamer.biz. Archived from the original on 16 April 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  16. McAloon, Alissa (29 May 2018). "Mobile dev Voodoo secures an estimated $200M investment from Goldman Sachs". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 26 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  17. D'Anastasio, Cecilia (25 June 2018). "Indie Games Are Getting Cloned Before They're Even Out". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 26 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  18. Valentine, Rebekah (26 June 2018). "Donut County developer speaks out on frustration of app store clones". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 26 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  19. Futter, Michael (6 July 2018). "Goldman Sachs-Backed Cloner Uses War Chest, Ad Buys to Overshadow Original Games". Variety. Archived from the original on 16 July 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  20. Radulovic, Petrana (6 July 2018). "Donut County lookalike is number one on the App Store". Polygon. Archived from the original on 26 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  21. Conditt, Jessica (11 July 2018). "Mobile-gaming titans keep ripping off indies". Engadget. Archived from the original on 9 September 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  22. "The winners of 2018". Mobile Games Awards. 23 January 2019. Archived from the original on 27 January 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  23. "The winners of 2019". Mobile Games Awards. 24 January 2019. Archived from the original on 27 January 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  24. "Top 50 Mobile Game Developers of 2018". Pocket Gamer.biz. 21 August 2018. Archived from the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  25. "The Top 50 Mobile Game Makers of 2019". Pocket Gamer.biz. 1 October 2019. Archived from the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  26. "#16: Voodoo". Pocket Gamer.biz. 8 September 2020.
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