Wooga is a mobile-first game developer 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. The company develops free-to-play mobile and social games for mobile devices, such as

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and tablets and

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s like

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The company's name comes from the words "World of Gaming".

History

Wooga was founded in January 2009 by Jens Begemann ( CEO), Patrick Paulisch (

Co-founder An organizational founder is a person who has undertaken some or all of the formational work needed to create a new organization, whether it is a business, a charitable organization, a governing body, a school, a group of entertainers, or any othe ...

) and Philipp Moeser ( CTO). Patrick Paulisch has since left Wooga. In July 2009, Wooga launched its first game, ''Brain Buddies''. The game reached 5 million monthly players 3 months after launch. The company received €5 million in a round of funding led by

Balderton Capital Balderton Capital is a venture capital firm based in London, UK, that invests in early-stage, technology and internet startup companies in Europe. It is considered to be among the four-biggest venture capital firms in the English capital. Foun ...

in November 2009. Holtzbrinck Ventures, which had provided funding earlier that year, also participated in this round. In February 2010, Wooga launched its second game, ''Bubble Island'', which reached 4 million monthly players in 8 weeks. In May 2010, Wooga launched its third game, ''Monster World'' Wooga announced in July 2016 that Monster World would be shut down on August 31 after 6 years due to a decline in the number of players. In November 2010, Wooga launched ''Happy Hospital''.http://www.wooga.com/games/ Wooga.com, Games-Page In March 2011, Wooga launched ''Diamond Dash'', released in December for iPhone and iPad on the iOS App Store. In March 2012, Wooga announced that ''Diamond Dash'' had been downloaded over 11 million times since launch. Wooga raised a Series B Round of $24 m funding in May 2011. '' Magic Land Island'' was launched during the

GDC Europe The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tutori ...

in August 2011 in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

. In June 2012, the

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game was

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d under the name ''Pocket Island'' on

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under

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and with the assets under

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. In March 2013, Wooga launched both ''Monster World'' mobile for iOS and '' Pearl’s Peril''. Pearl’s Peril became the company’s fastest selling game. On 10 April 2013, Wooga launched ''Pocket Village''. In May, they launched ''Fantastic Forest'' and ''Kingsbridge'' on the 21st and the 28th, respectively. In February 2014, ''Fantastic Forest'' was relaunched as ''Farm Tales''. On 22 August 2013, '' Jelly Splash'' launched on iOS. The game was subsequently released on the Facebook.com platform in September 2013, and on Android in October 2013. Wooga also launched ''Jelly Splash'' as a test title for the Korean KakaoTalk platform on 9 November 2013. In December 2013, ''Jelly Splash'' reported monthly active users of 8.2 million. At the GDC 2014, CEO Jens Begemann presented the company’s new development approach, which he calls the “hit filter”. The focus of this new approach is to create two hits per year. On 20 May 2015, Wooga launched ''Crazy Kings'' (developed by TicBits). On 6 October 2016, Wooga launched ''Bubble Island 2''. As of July 2018, the company employs 200 people. In December 2018, Wooga was acquired for more than US$200 million by Israeli gaming company Playtika.

Portfolio

Facebook Games

* ''Diamond Dash'' (15.5 million monthly active users and 2.4 million daily active users) * ''Bubble Island'' (3.3 million monthly active users and 0.5 million daily active users) * ''Monster World'' (3.0 million monthly active users and 0.7 million daily active users) (Wooga reported in July 2016 that Monsterworld would be closing down after six years due to a decline in the number of people playing the game. See facebook/or contact wooga support for more info.) * ''Magic Land'' (0.3 million monthly active users and 61k daily active users) * ''Happy Hospital'' (0.1 million monthly active users and 7k daily active users) * ''Brain Buddies'' (0.2 million monthly active users and 9k daily active users) * ''Kingsbridge'' (0.3 million monthly active users and 36k daily active users) * ''Farm Tales'' (0.7 million monthly active users and 89k daily active users) * ''Pearl’s Peril'' (4 million monthly active users and 1.4 million daily active users) * ''Jelly Splash'' (8.4 million monthly active users and 2.1 million daily active users) * '' June's Journey''

Smartphone games

* ''Diamond Dash'' *''Bubble Island'' * '' Jelly Splash'' * ''Pearl's Peril'' * ''June's Journey'' * ''Agent Alice'' * ''Futurama: Game of Drones * ''Tropicats'' * ''Bubble Island 2''Appdata.com - wooga
" Retrieved on 20 May 2011.

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

Official website
Video game development companies Video game companies of Germany Companies based in Berlin