Member Article

Cramlington instant messaging creators acquire Swedish game developers

Instant messaging innovators Palringo, who operate a Cramlington base, have acquired Swedish game development outfit Free Lunch Design (FLD).

The move is intended to set Palringo up for the integration of its mobile instant messaging technology into community-orientated games, over the next year.

Gothenburg-based FLD have delivered more than 70 games, including titles for Paramount, Disney and Marvel.

Palringo, which is headquartered in London but was established in the North East, has grown at the forefront of mobile messaging services, and has already built business through game-related activities.

Tim Rea, CEO of Palringo said: “The thing that struck us about the guys at FLD was not only their ability to build and manage games, but their grasp of the value of our messaging-based, community-first approach to gaming.

“We’ve been working with their team actively for a few months now and are very pleased to be joining forces with them to maintain the fantastic growth we’ve had over the past two years.”

Magnus Alm, CEO of Free Lunch Design added: “We’ve turned down several acquirers these last years, but Palringo had a unique offer: access to an extremely engaged and well monetizing community.

“Early test releases of games have been hugely successful. We’re excited to define the future of community gaming as a part of Palringo.”

Martin Rosinski, who founded Palringo as a 21 year-old engineering student, said: “The move towards gaming was natural for us in that the largest single area of focus amongst our communities was gaming and our supporters responded very well when we introduced simple games of our own.

“When we looked around the market we saw plenty of cases where game developers were seeking to bolt on messaging and social functions but few cases where games were built on top of the communications platform. The combination of games, messaging and communities creates a fantastic, sustainable proposition.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .