Plarium Global Ltd. is a

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

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 ...

and subsidiary of the Australian gambling machine manufacturer

Aristocrat Leisure Limited Aristocrat Leisure Limited is an Australian gambling machine manufacturer, which has its administrative and research headquarters in the Sydney suburb of North Ryde. It has marketing and development offices in South Africa, Russia, and the Un ...

. It is known for creating

mobile Mobile may refer to: Places * Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city * Mobile County, Alabama * Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S. * Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Mobile ( ...

desktop A desktop traditionally refers to: * The surface of a desk (often to distinguish office appliances that fit on a desk, such as photocopiers and printers, from larger equipment covering its own area on the floor) Desktop may refer to various compu ...

and

browser game A browser game or a "flash game" is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. They are mostly free-to-play and can be single-player or multiplayer. Some browser games are also available as mobile apps, PC games, or on c ...

s in various genres including MMO, RPG,

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

strategy Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art ...

, and casual. Plarium has more than 435 million players worldwide. Its games are available on

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

, Android, the

Microsoft Store Microsoft Store (formerly known as Windows Store) is a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. It started as an app store for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 as the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform apps ...

and on PC/Mac via the

game launcher This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players. 0–9 A ...

Plarium Play. The company has more than 1300 employees and has established studios in

Herzliya Herzliya ( ; he, הֶרְצְלִיָּה ; ar, هرتسليا, Hirtsiliyā) is an affluent city in the central coast of Israel, at the northern part of the Tel Aviv District, known for its robust start-up and entrepreneurial culture. In it h ...

(established 2009 and current headquarters),

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

Odesa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrative ...

and

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. In addition, Plarium acquired

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

-based Rumble Games in 2017 and, in 2021,

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

-based studio Futureplay. There are more than 20 games in the Plarium portfolio. Plarium's most popular game is the

dark fantasy Dark fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy literary, artistic, and cinematic works that incorporate disturbing and frightening themes of fantasy. It often combines fantasy with elements of horror or has a gloomy dark tone or a sense of horror and dr ...

collection RPG Raid: Shadow Legends, which has more than 80 million downloads. Other Plarium titles include Mech Arena, Vikings: War of Clans, the Stormfall franchise ( Stormfall: Age of War, Stormfall: Rise of Balur, Stormfall: Saga of Survival) and Lost Island: Blast Adventure. Plarium has worked with celebrities, content creators, and notable

Esports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

professionals in a promotional capacity, including Richard Tyler "

Ninja A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enem ...

" Blevins, Oleksandr "

s1mple Oleksandr Olehovych Kostyliev rus, links=no, Александр Олегович Костылев, Aleksandr Olegovich Kostilev (born 2 October 1997), better known as s1mple, is a Ukrainian professional '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive' ...

" Kostyliev of the Esports team NAVI, and actor

Jeff Goldblum Jeffrey Lynn Goldblum (; born October 22, 1952) is an American actor and musician. He has starred in some of the highest-grossing films of his era, such as ''Jurassic Park'' (1993) and '' Independence Day'' (1996), as well as their sequels. ...

. Plarium has previously employed BAFTA award winner

Jesper Kyd Jesper Kyd Jakobson (; born 3 February 1972) is a Danish composer and sound designer who has worked on various video game, television, and film projects. He has composed soundtracks for the ''Hitman'' series, ''Assassin's Creed'' series, '' Bord ...

, known for his work on video games such as

Assassin's Creed ''Assassin's Creed'' is an open-world, action-adventure, and stealth game franchise published by Ubisoft and developed mainly by its studio Ubisoft Montreal using the game engine Anvil and its more advanced derivatives. Created by Patrice D ...

and

Borderlands A borderland or borderlands are the geographical space or zone around a territorial border. Borderland or borderlands may refer to: Places * Borderland, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in Mingo County, West Virginia * Borderland (ele ...

, to compose the music for its games.

History

Plarium was founded in 2009 in

Herzliya, Israel Herzliya ( ; he, הֶרְצְלִיָּה ; ar, هرتسليا, Hirtsiliyā) is an affluent city in the central coast of Israel, at the northern part of the Tel Aviv District, known for its robust start-up and entrepreneurial culture. In it h ...

, where it is headquartered, and started out by developing games for the Eastern European

casual gaming A casual game is a video game targeted at a mass market audience, as opposed to a hardcore game, which is targeted at hobbyist gamers. Casual games may exhibit any type of gameplay and genre. They generally involve simpler rules, shorter sessio ...

market, such as Farmandia. In 2011, Plarium began developing massively multiplayer online strategy games, and in February of that year the company released Total Domination which reached 20 million users. In November 2012, Plarium released Stormfall: Age of War, which was one of the fastest growing social games on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

. On November 10, 2015, Plarium licensed characters of

Alien vs. Predator ''Alien vs. Predator'' (also known as ''Aliens versus Predator'' and ''AVP'') is a science-fiction action horror media franchise created by comic book writers Randy Stradley and Chris Warner. The series is a crossover between, and part of, th ...

from

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

to add them to its Soldiers Inc. game. On 10 August 2017,

announced its acquisition of Plarium for a $500 million upfront payment plus an earn-out arrangement to shareholders. Plarium released RAID: Shadow Legends on mobile in March 2019. The game was released on PC and Mac in 2020. The Plarium Play desktop launcher was released on PC and Mac in April 2019. It is a free launcher that serves as a distribution platform for Plarium games. On 12 August 2021, Plarium released the PvP team

shooter Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, Bow and arrow, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or Blowgun, blowpipe). Even the acts of launching Flamethrower, flame, artillery, Dart (missile), darts, ha ...

Mech Arena on iOS and Android devices. Plarium and the players of Mech Arena made a combined donation of $100,000 (USD) to the charitable foundation AbleGamers in February 2022. On 3 August 2022, the game was released on PC and Mac via Plarium Play. On 10 March 2022, as a response to the ongoing suffering of its employees and the people of

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, Plarium Global Ltd. made the decision to remove all of its games from the app stores and ceased accepting Plarium Play and Plarium.com payments in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

until further notice.

Reception

Plarium's Stormfall: Age of War made "Top 20 Facebook apps" chart during its 2012 launch, and was one of the fastest growing Facebook apps by

monthly active users Active users is a measurement metric that is commonly used to measure the level of engagement for a particular product or object, by quantifying the number of active interactions from visitors within a relevant range of time (daily, weekly and m ...

at that time. Facebook's Director of Game Partnerships Sean Ryan called it a "beautiful-looking game" when it launched in November 2012. In 2013, Facebook named Soldiers Inc. as one of the best new social games of the year. In 2014, Plarium was named one of Europe's most promising startups by

Wired UK ''Wired UK'' is a bimonthly magazine that reports on the effects of science and technology. It covers a broad range of topics including design, architecture, culture, the economy, politics and philosophy. Owned by Condé Nast Publications, it is ...

journalist Madhumita Venkataramanan. In 2014, Facebook's Director of Platform Partnerships, Julien Codorniou mentioned Plarium as one of the top global gaming companies on the Facebook platform.

VentureBeat ''VentureBeat'' is an American technology website headquartered in San Francisco, California. It publishes news, analysis, long-form features, interviews, and videos. History The ''VentureBeat'' company was founded in 2006 by Matt Marshall, a ...

mentioned Plarium in March 2014 as one of the standalone gaming companies prioritizing social games on the Facebook platform. Plarium's RAID: Shadow Legends was nominated for the 2019 Google Play Users’ Choice Awards in the "Games" category. The game was also nominated for the "Game of the Year" and "Best Audio/Visual Accomplishment" categories at the 2020 Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards. It was featured as "Game of the Day" on the

App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the co ...

and won the best "App Video" award at the 2020 App Growth Awards. Plarium's game Mech Arena was the App Store's "Game of the Day'' on 15 October 2021. In July 2022, RAID: Shadow Legends crossed $1 billion (USD) in lifetime revenue, becoming "one of the world’s most lucrative RPGs."

Plarium games

Sources

External links

* {{Plarium Video game companies established in 2009 Israeli companies established in 2009 Video game development companies Video game companies of Israel 2017 mergers and acquisitions