Gameloft is closing its studio in Budapest, mobilegamer.biz can confirm. All of the studio’s 88 staff are affected, though Gameloft is looking to relocate some folks to other teams and studios where appropriate.
The studio first opened in 2012, and is responsible for Dragon Mania Legends, which will continue to be supported by Gameloft.
The move comes as the company continues to reinvent itself as a multiplatform, double-A games specialist, a strategy we revealed last year. With Disney Magic Kingdoms performing well and kart racer Disney Speedstorm coming this year, the veteran firm is clearly pulling back from mobile.
“Gameloft is tightening its focus on the PC and console games segment to increase its growth potential and therefore needs to rationalise its priorities and refocus some resources and investments,” a Gameloft spokesperson told us.
“To that extent, we are partially withdrawing our efforts from some of our mobile-first activities, and this is leading to the difficult decision to close our Budapest studio. The teams impacted have been made aware of this decision.”
“Our Budapest studio employed 88 persons, and we are currently working to find the best way to handle their situation and see if there is a fit between their profiles and aspirations and the needs in other teams and studios,” the Gameloft statement continues. “Gameloft Budapest created and operated Dragon Mania Legends, and we will continue to support this game and bring content and updates for our community of players.”
Appmagic data suggests that Gameloft Budapest’s Dragon Mania Legends has amassed over $100m in IAP revenue since it launched in 2015, and has generated almost 123m downloads to date.
With $8.3m earned and 12.6m downloads in the last twelve months, Dragon Mania Legends is Gameloft’s third biggest title by revenue based on the last year, after Disney Magic Kingdoms ($18.8m) and Asphalt 9 ($15.2m).
