Nordcurrent acquires Swedish games studio River End Games, broadening its vision beyond mobile games into PC and console
Nordcurrent acquires River End Games; plans for the release of a brand-new IP the studio has been working on remain unchanged
Developer and publisher Nordcurrent has acquired the Gothenburg-based games studio River End Games as it looks to expand beyond its focus on mobile gaming as part of its growth plans. River End Games is a 17-strong team of highly experienced game developers led by Jonas Nordling, Anders Hejdenberg and Karl Broström, who have worked on AAA games like Battlefield and Need for Speed, smaller award-winning titles like Unravel and have created several original IPs.
River End Games was created in 2020 with investment and support from Amplifier Game Invest, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Embracer Group. For River End Games, essentially nothing will change in the day-to-day business and the studio will continue as usual; the name will remain the same and it will operate as a separate entity from Nordcurrent’s existing offices.
The studio has been working on an as-yet unannounced single-player game for PC and consoles with a strong focus on narrative and world-building, which will be published by Nordcurrent Labs, the publishing arm of Nordcurrent.
“River End Games’ team joining Nordcurrent is a big step in our strategy to expand beyond mobile gaming, where we have had a decade of success with games like Cooking Fever and millions of engaged monthly players,” the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer for Nordcurrent, Victoria Trofimova, said. “There is a lot of innovation happening in the PC and console ecosystem and I’m looking forward to Nordcurrent and River End Games taking an active role in this evolving market.”
Nordcurrent’s aforementioned decade of success has seen its mobile titles be downloaded over 500 million times by players worldwide. The expanding portfolio of games by Nordcurrent includes its flagship Cooking Fever along with Airplane Chefs, Pocket Styler, Murder in the Alps and more.
“At River End Games, we’re a small but passionate group of people who love games and live to create them,” the Chief Executive Officer for River End Games, Jonas Nordling, said. “Our goal is simple: to bring world-class experiences to gamers. In Nordcurrent, we’ve found a kindred spirit and long-term partner that shares our passion. We are very excited about this new partnership and can’t imagine a better ally to help us create worlds and stories that gamers will remember long after they’ve put the controller away.”
