Coffee Stain Studios

Coffee Stain Studios AB is a Swedish video game developer based in Skövde. Founded in 2010 by nine University of Skövde students, the company is best known for ''Goat Simulator,'' which was released in April 2014, and ''Satisfactory'', released as an early access game in 2019. Their parent holding company also operates Coffee Stain Publishing, a publisher, and majority-owns developers Coffee Stain North (formerly Gone North Games) and Lavapotion. In November 2018, the Coffee Stain group was acquired by THQ Nordic AB (later known as Embracer Group).

History

Coffee Stain Studios was founded in 2010 in Skövde, Sweden, by a group of nine students at the University of Skövde: Anton Westbergh, Johannes Aspeby, Mikael Mård, Oscar Jilsén, Gustaf Tivander, Daniel Lundwall, Markus Rännare, Joakim Sjöö and Stefan Hanna. Their first game, ''I Love Strawberries'', was released at the end of that year for iOS by Atari.

In 2010, Coffee Stain participated in "Make Something Unreal", a modding competition for '' Unreal Tournament 3'' held by Epic Games and Intel, with their mod, '' Sanctum''. The mod was received well, leading Coffee Stain to adopt the Unreal Development Kit to develop ''Sanctum'' into a standalone game. In March the following year, the company struck a five-year licensing agreement with Epic for their Unreal Engine 3 technology. ''Sanctum'' as a standalone game was released in April 2011, and was followed by a sequel, '' Sanctum 2'', in May 2013. In February 2014, Coffee Stain acquired the rights for ''I Love Strawberries'' from Atari and re-released the game for iOS with some improvements.

Coffee Stain gained significant recognition with their April 2014 release of ''Goat Simulator''. While the title received mixed critical reviews, as it was released in a purposely buggy state to take advantage of its ragdoll physics, it became highly successful through Let's Play videos and live streamers. By August 2014, ''Goat Simulator'' had outperformed all sales of the studio's previous games combined, and had generated over in revenue by March 2016.

On 23 February 2017, Coffee Stain announced Coffee Stain Publishing, a subsidiary that would act as the publishing entity within the Coffee Stain group. The first title to be released through Coffee Stain Publishing was ''Huntdown'' by Swedish development team Easy Trigger Games. The following day, Coffee Stain acquired a minority stake in Danish developer Ghost Ship Games, becoming the publisher of their upcoming game, '' Deep Rock Galactic''. In April 2017, Coffee Stain also invested in newly founded, Gothenburg-based studio Lavapotion, gaining a minority stake. In July 2017, Daniel Kaplan, the first employee of Swedish developer Mojang, left Mojang to join Coffee Stain Publishing.

On 30 January 2018, Coffee Stain announced Levelling the Playing Field, a funding initiative aimed at small companies that employ at least as many women as men and require at most (about ) in funding. Through this initiative, Coffee Stain invested in Danish developer Other Tales Interactive (a team of two women) in exchange for a minority stake. A second studio, Stockholm-based Kavalri, was invested in under this programme in November 2019. The following day, Coffee Stain acquired a majority stake in Gone North Games, a Swedish developer that had developed Coffee Stain-published '' A Story About My Uncle'' and downloadable content for ''Goat Simulator''. With the acquisition, Gone North Games was rebranded as Coffee Stain North.

On 14 November 2018, the Coffee Stain group of companies and its intellectual property were acquired by Swedish holding company THQ Nordic AB (later known as Embracer Group) for (about ), with the potential of additional payouts should they reach certain milestones. Coffee Stain continues to operate independently within Embracer Group, with Coffee Stain co-founder Westbergh remaining chief executive officer. At the time, the Coffee Stain group had 45 employees, of which Coffee Stain Studios employed 24. This number rose to 25 by August 2019.

Coffee Stain expanded Levelling the Playing Field in September 2020 to cover teams including racially and ethnically diverse people, women and non-binary people. Happy Broccoli Games became the third investment under this initiative. In August 2021, Embracer Group acquired Ghost Ship Games and Easy Trigger, having them both be under the umbrella of Coffee Stain Holding. In March 2022, Coffee Stain announced that they had partnered with Rare Earth Games, an Austrian developer owned by Coffee Stain's sister company Amplifier Game Invest, to publish a new co-op action IP.

Structure

* Embracer Group
** Coffee Stain Holding (100%)
*** Box Dragon (majority)
*** Coffee Stain Malmö (100%)
*** Coffee Stain Gothenburg
*** Coffee Stain North (100%)
*** Coffee Stain Publishing (100%)
*** Coffee Stain Studios (100%)
*** Easy Trigger (100%)
*** Ghost Ship Holding (100%)
**** Ghost Ship Games (100%)
**** Half Past Yellow (minority)
**** Ugly Duckling Games (minority)
*** Iron Gate (30%)
*** Lavapotion (60%)
*** Other Tales Interactive (20%)

Games developed

Games published

References

External links

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{{Authority control

2018 mergers and acquisitions
Companies based in Västra Götaland County
Embracer Group
Skövde
Swedish companies established in 2010
Video game companies established in 2010
Video game companies of Sweden
Video game development companies
Video game publishers