Fiona’s Farm maker Ace Games has struck a deal with Hasbro to launch the Clue mobile game by the end of the year, we’re told.
The murder mystery game, also known as Cluedo outside the US, is Hasbro’s second biggest board game after Monopoly, sources told us. Both Fiona’s Farm maker Ace Games and toy giant Hasbro declined to comment when contacted.
But sources close to the project tell us that the Istanbul-based firm currently has one team working on the Clue game, slated for release later this year, and another team working on one more to-be-announced game, also based on “major global IP”.
Ace Games will be hoping to replicate at least some of the wild success of Hasbro’s top board game adaptation, Monopoly Go, developed and launched by Scopely in April 2023.
Hasbro has previously collaborated with UK studio Marmalade to release premium-priced Clue/Cluedo games, but we’re told Ace’s title is a much more ambitious, fully free-to-play game.
Ace was founded in 2020 by Hakan Bas, cofounder of Toy Blast and Toon Blast maker Peak, shortly after Peak was acquired by Zynga for $1.8bn. Ace’s leadership team is made up of senior staff from Peak, Dream Games and Playrix, among others, and it has landed several rounds of funding to date.
In 2021 it received seed funding from Actera Group, NFX and angels including Kristian Segerstrale (Super Evil Megacorp), Alexis Bonte (Stillfront) and Firat Ileri (Hummingbird Ventures). It later landed a $25m investment from Playtika in November 2022.
