www.handy-games.com GmbH,

doing business as A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

HandyGames, is a German video game developer and

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

based in

Giebelstadt Giebelstadt is a municipality in the district of Würzburg in Bavaria in Germany. History The town is the birthplace of Florian Geyer (1490–1525), also known as "Florian Geier from Giebelstadt", a Franconian nobleman who led the Black Compa ...

. In July 2018, the company was acquired by

THQ Nordic THQ Nordic GmbH (formerly Nordic Games GmbH) is an Austrian video game publisher based in Vienna. Formed in 2011, it is a publishing subsidiary of Embracer Group. Originally named Nordic Games, as was the parent company, both companies were re ...

History

The company was founded in 2000 by brothers Christopher and Markus Kassulke along with Udo Bausewein. In 2006, HandyGames released its first free, ad-funded game and began the gradual transition to a largely ad-funded business model. Since 2010, all new HandyGames mobile titles are either free or freemium. By 2014 HandyGames had 150,000 app downloads per month and more than 100 million downloads in total. In 2012, HandyGames expanded onto other platforms like PC or Smart TVs. In January 2014 and 2015, the company were main sponsors for the "HandyGames Charity Day" in Würzburg, which aimed to raise funds for cancer research. On both occasions the event was able to raise roughly 50000 Euros. HandyGames was one of the first companies to launch games for

wearable technology Wearable technology is any technology that is designed to be used while worn. Common types of wearable technology include smartwatches and smartglasses. Wearable electronic devices are often close to or on the surface of the skin, where they detec ...

in 2014. The games are compatible with

Android Wear Wear OS (also known simply as Wear and formerly Android Wear) is a version of Google's Android operating system designed for smartwatches and other wearables. By pairing with mobile phones running Android version 6.0 "Marshmallow" or newer, or ...

devices, including the

Moto 360 Motorola Moto is a range of Android mobile devices manufactured by Motorola Mobility, a subsidiary of Lenovo. The Moto brand is also used and marketed for certain public-safety products from Motorola Solutions and by Motorola brand licensees on ce ...

by Motorola, the Huawei Watch, the

Sony SmartWatch The Sony SmartWatch is a line of wearable devices developed and marketed by Sony Mobile from 2012 to 2016 through three generations. They connect to Android smartphones and can display information such as Twitter feeds and SMS messages, among oth ...

and the

LG G Watch The LG G Watch (model W100, codenamed Dory) is an Android Wear-based smartwatch announced and released by LG and Google on June 25, 2014. It was released along with the Samsung Gear Live as launch devices for Android Wear, a modified version of ...

. The company began developing VR (

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...

) games 2015 and released titles like "Hidden Temple – VR Adventure". They can be played in 360° mode or in VR using one of the supported

head-mounted displays A head-mounted display (HMD) is a display device, worn on the head or as part of a helmet (see Helmet-mounted display for aviation applications), that has a small display optic in front of one (monocular HMD) or each eye ( binocular HMD). An ...

Oculus Rift Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of virtual reality headsets developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, a division of Meta Platforms, released on March 28, 2016. In 2012 Oculus initiated a Kickstarter campaign to fund the Rift's development, af ...

Samsung Gear VR The Samsung Gear VR is a virtual reality headset developed by Samsung Electronics, in collaboration with Oculus VR, and manufactured by Samsung. The headset was released on November 27, 2015. When in use, a compatible Samsung Galaxy device acts ...

, or

Google Cardboard Google Cardboard is a discontinued virtual reality (VR) platform developed by Google. Named for its fold-out cardboard viewer into which a smartphone is inserted, the platform was intended as a low-cost system to encourage interest and developme ...

. Simultaneously, HandyGames began developing games for the

Eighth generation of video game consoles The eighth generation of video game consoles began in 2012, and consists of four home video game consoles: the Wii U released in 2012, the PlayStation 4 family in 2013, the Xbox One family in 2013, and the Nintendo Switch family in 2017. The gen ...

like the PlayStation 4,

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

or later the Nintendo Switch. On 9 July 2018,

announced that it had acquired HandyGames and all of its intellectual property. THQ Nordic said that the studio management and all employees remain with the company. Townsmen Expeditions (working title), which will mark the most recent entry in the Townsmen IP, received €150,000 development funding from

Creative Europe Creative Europe is a European Union programme for the cultural and creative sectors. In its first phase, going from 2014 to 2020, it had a budget of € 1.47 billion, which were expanded to € 2.44 billion in its second phase (2021-2027). His ...

. As of 2020, HandyGames employs 60 people. In May 2021,

Embracer Group Embracer Group AB (formerly Nordic Games Licensing AB and THQ Nordic AB) is a Swedish video game and media holding company based in Karlstad. The company was established under the name Nordic Games Licensing in 2011 as part of Nordic Games Grou ...

announced the acquisition of Massive Miniteam by HandyGames, which will be fully integrated within the HandyGames organization, under the operative group THQ Nordic.

Awards

* — Bestes Studio (Best German Studio)

Games

References

External links

* {{THQ Nordic German companies established in 2000 2018 mergers and acquisitions Companies based in Bavaria THQ Nordic divisions and subsidiaries Video game companies established in 2000 Video game companies of Germany Video game development companies Video game publishers