Fingersoft and Hill Climb Racing turn 10 this year. To mark the milestone, we spoke to COO Ville Rauma as he revealed some fun things about the company and its biggest hit:
- Fingersoft was receiving buyout offers “at least every two months or so” at one stage, but refused them all
- Hill Climb Racing 3 is coming, and could be unveiled by the end of the year
- The Hill Climb Racing games are on track to reach a combined 2 billion downloads by May
It’s really refreshing talking to a successful studio that remains so humble; you get the sense from Rauma that the Fingersoft ethos is simply to keep on making the games it wants, how it wants. Cashing out is not on the agenda. At all.
“We didn’t have, like, an exit plan. We’ve never really had an exit plan,” says Rauma. “Because, you know, why would we? We have done really well, we’ve been able to make cool games. We’ve been able to build the kind of company we want.”
Of course, Fingersoft has the good fortune not to worry about cash flow, with an average 4m DAU on its ten year old debut game. There’s also its very successful sequel and its new game, Boom Karts, which is performing well.
“Ultimately, what Toni [Fingerroos, founder] wanted originally was to make games and have good teams, good people, making good games,” says Rauma.
“And because the company was doing so well, he didn’t really have a good reason to sell it, even though people were trying to buy us. They were always trying to buy us…”
Those offers came in “maybe not every week, but I would say like, at least every two months or so,” says Rauma.
Rather than sell up, in 2016 Fingerroos doubled down on employee ownership; he restructured Fingersoft to allow employees to grab shares of the company themselves. And there’s another round of share deals coming this year for newer employees.
“That’s always been the philosophy of Toni and now the culture of the company,” says Rauma. “We try to build the sense in the company that we’re doing this together.”
So what about Hill Climb Racing 3? Expect more info on that one soon, says Rauma. “Yeah, we are developing it but we’re not yet going to detail on what it’s going to be like,” he tells us.
“It’s again, an evolution and a little bit of a different direction and different audience, but the core gameplay will still be recognisable. But we’re not gonna show it probably until end of the year, maybe early next year.”
There’s another big game announcement coming this summer for a different title, Rauma adds, with the Hill Climb Racing games closing in on another huge milestone.
“It’s kind of crazy,’ says Rauma. “We’re getting close to 2 billion downloads… I’m hoping we can announce that in May.”
