Voodoo SAS (also referred to as Voodoo.io) is a French

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 ...

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

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. The company was founded in 2013 by Alexandre Yazdi and Laurent Ritter. Voodoo's games, predominantly

free-to-play Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...

hyper-casual game A hyper-casual game is a mobile video game which is easy-to-play, and usually free-to-play; they also feature very minimalistic user interfaces. Popularized in 2017 by game makers such as Kwalee, Ketchapp and Voodoo, these games can be quickly pl ...

s", have been collectively downloaded 5

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: *1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is its only current meaning in English. * 1,000,000,000,000, i. ...

times as of May 2021. The company has been criticised for

cloning Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, cl ...

other games.

History

Voodoo was founded in 2013 by Alexandre Yazdi and Laurent Ritter. They had been friends since high school and had previously founded Studio Cadet in 2012, a services company for websites and mobile applications. Yazdi became the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of Voodoo, while Gabriel Rivaud acted as the

vice-president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

of games. According to Rivaud, the company was in turmoil for its first four years in operation and opted to change its business strategy thereafter. Using data it gathered from its previous games, the company designed its newer games to attract more players. Using the

Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a h ...

game engine, Voodoo tested one new game roughly every week. This method resulted in the successful release of ''Paper.io'' in 2016. Through 2017, Voodoo quadrupled its staff count to 80 and expected to grow to 150 people by the end of 2018. In May 2018, the American banking company

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

, through its West Street Capital Partners VII fund, invested in Voodoo. It was the largest fundraising in the French technology sector since 2015. Yazdi and Ritter retained control of the company. At the time, Voodoo had, aside from its Paris headquarters, offices in

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

and

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

. A development studio in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, Germany, was established in December 2018, headed by

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

Alexander Willink. The studio started out with roughly ten people, looking to eventually expand to 40 employees. It later hired key employees from developers

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three graduat ...

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

, and Mamau. By September 2019, Voodoo employed 220 people, including 150 at its Paris headquarters. A publishing office in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, Turkey, was announced in August 2019 and is headed by publishing director Corentin Selz. This continued with the opening of a

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

development studio in November 2019, led by Mehdi El Moussali, a former producer for

Gameloft Gameloft SE is a French video game publisher based in Paris, founded in December 1999 by Ubisoft co-founder Michel Guillemot. The company operates 18 development studios worldwide, and publishes games with a special focus on the mobile games ma ...

. Through this new location, Voodoo intended to expand beyond hyper-casual games. The company acquired

Shoreditch Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area. In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an impor ...

-based developer Gumbug in December that year. By July 2020,

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the w ...

was looking to acquire a minority stake in Voodoo, which was still majority-owned by Yazdi and Ritter. Tencent acquired a minority stake to undisclosed terms in August that year. At this time, Voodoo was valued at . According to Yazdi, this deal would help Voodoo to extend their games into the Asia-Pacific market. Voodoo subsequently opened offices in Singapore and Japan later that month, headed by Julian Corbett and Ben Fox, respectively. In total in 2020, Voodoo saw revenues of , up from in 2016. The company announced an investment in Istanbul-based developer Fabrika Games in September 2020, and acquired Parisian developer OHM Games in December. OHM Games had developed four games for Voodoo in 2020, which together generated 260 million downloads. Voodoo further bought BidShake, a

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

company developing a marketing automation platform, in June 2021.

Groupe Bruxelles Lambert Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL), is a Belgian holding company invested in various sectors within companies that can be considered marketleaders and in which it can play an active role as a professional shareholder over the long term. In the last ...

acquired a 16% stake in Voodoo for in August 2021, valuing Voodoo at . Voodoo acquired the Israeli studio Beach Bum in September for a reported price of .

Games

The majority of Voodoo's games are

s" developed for the Android and

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 ...

mobile

operating systems An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also inc ...

. Games released by the company include ''Helix Jump'', ''Baseball Boy'', ''Snake vs Block'', '' Hole.io'', ''Aquapark.io'', ''Purple Diver'', ''Crowd City'', and ''Paper.io''. Voodoo games were downloaded 2

times by April 2019, 3.7 billion downloads by May 2020, and 5 billion by May 2021. In December 2019, Voodoo games had 2.6 billion downloads, 300 million

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 ...

(MAUs), and 1 billion individual players. ''Helix Jump'', developed by H8games, is Voodoo's most successful game with more than 500 million downloads as of August 2020. External developers can submit games through an online platform for Voodoo to evaluate. The publisher has worked with over 2,000 such studios, which account for 75% of Voodoo's releases. The company finances select studios and supports them during the prototyping phase, receiving a

royalty Royalty may refer to: * Any individual monarch, such as a king, queen, emperor, empress, etc. * Royal family, the immediate family of a king or queen regnant, and sometimes his or her extended family * Royalty payment for use of such things as int ...

share in return. Outside of games, Voodoo developed the

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

platform Wizz in 2020. As of August 2021, the platform has 1 million MAUs in the United States.

Criticism

Voodoo has been criticised for releasing apparent

clones Clone or Clones or Cloning or Cloned or The Clone may refer to: Places * Clones, County Fermanagh * Clones, County Monaghan, a town in Ireland Biology * Clone (B-cell), a lymphocyte clone, the massive presence of which may indicate a pathologi ...

indie game An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. ...

s. These include ''Infinite Golf'' (similar to '' Desert Golfing''), ''Twisty Road'' ('' Impossible Road''), ''The Fish Master'' ('' Ridiculous Fishing''), ''Flappy Dunk!'' (''

Flappy Bird ''Flappy Bird'' is a mobile game developed by the Vietnamese video game artist and programmer Dong Nguyen ( vi, Nguyễn Hà Đông), under his game development company .Gears. The game is a side-scroller where the player controls a bird, attemp ...

''), ''Rolly Vortex'' ('' Rolling Sky''), ''The Cube'' ('' Curiosity: What's Inside the Cube?''), and ''Hole.io'' (''

Donut County ''Donut County'' is an indie video game developed by American indie designer Ben Esposito and published by Annapurna Interactive. In the game, the player moves a hole to swallow objects, which makes the hole increase in size. The concept origin ...

''). In the case of ''Hole.io'', the game used the core gameplay mechanic of ''Donut County'' that has the player controls a hole in the ground to consume objects within the environment, progressively growing wider to be able to consume larger objects. Ben Esposito had been working on ''Donut County'' for more than five years when ''Hole.io'' released in mid-2018, before ''Donut County'' publication. In response to an inquiry from ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', Voodoo stated that ''Hole.io'' was not a clone of ''Donut County'', although both were in the same sub-genre of games. ''Variety''s Michael Futter noted that these games were the only two in this genre.

Accolades

* #20 on '' Pocket Gamer.biz''s "Top 50 Mobile Game Developers of 2018" * #5 on ''Pocket Gamer.biz''s "Top 50 Mobile Game Makers of 2019" * #16 on ''Pocket Gamer.biz''s "Top 50 Mobile Game Makers of 2020" * Best Publisher – Mobile Games Awards 2019 * Revelation of the Year – BFM Awards 2019 * Part of 2021

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.voodoo.io/ Companies based in Paris French companies established in 2013 Tencent Video game companies established in 2013 Video game companies of France Video game development companies Video game publishers