Big changes ahead at Metacore: Supercell is buying out the rest of the company to fully acquire it amid a restructure that means up to 160 staff cuts.
The Merge Mansion maker outlined the changes in a blog today, stating that it had failed to launch any new games and will now be refocusing its business on its flagship merge 2 puzzler.
If its restructuring plans go ahead as planned, Metacore will cut 160 jobs in Finland. Roles at its Sweden and Germany studios are also at risk. Metacore’s website says it employs over 280 staff, so a reduction of 160 represents over half its workforce.
Supercell will also be bringing Merge Mansion into its live portfolio of games, and is set to acquire the rest of Metacore. The Clash of Clans maker was already a large stakeholder in the business, having invested €180m in the company, according to Metacore.
Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen said of the deal: “Metacore’s team created the first ever game for the merge 2 category, and I have huge respect for them for that.”
”I believe Merge Mansion’s best days are still ahead – with Supercell’s experience in turning around and scaling global live games, alongside our capabilities in live operations and user acquisition, we can scale it back into a leading position in its category.”
On the proposed restructure, Metacore CEO Mika Tammenkoski added: “These are very difficult discussions. We have built an organisation with growth ambitions that have not materialised as expected.”
“The competition has become tougher every year since we launched Merge Mansion and created the merge 2 category as a pioneer. We need to make changes to remain competitive and to give Merge Mansion the best possible chance to succeed going forward.”
As we’ve reported previously, Metacore has soft launched many new merge puzzlers in the last few years. It was also testing a solitaire game starring the grandma from Merge Mansion for several months.
Metacore acquired Supercell’s cancelled soft launch game Everdale in January 2023, intending to reboot and relaunch the title, but 18 months later it cancelled its work on the game.
