Voodoo

Short description: French video game company

Voodoo SAS

Type| Private
Industry| Video games
Founded| 2013; 13 years ago (2013)
Founders|

* Alexandre Yazdi
* Laurent Ritter

Headquarters|

Paris

France

Area served

| Worldwide

Key people

* Alexandre Yazdi (CEO)
* Gabriel Rivaud (VP, games)

Products| Hole.io
Owner|

* Goldman Sachs (minority stake)
* Tencent (minority stake)
* Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (16%)

Number of employees

| 335[1] (2021)
Website| voodoo.io

Voodoo SAS (also referred to as Voodoo.io) is a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris. The company was founded in 2013 by Alexandre Yazdi and Laurent Ritter. Voodoo's games, predominantly free-to-play "hyper-casual games", have been collectively downloaded 5 billion times as of May 2021. By February 2022, their apps surpassed 6 billion installs.[2] The company has been criticised for cloning other games.

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Games
* 3 Reception
* 4 Accolades
* 5 References
* 6 External links

## History

Voodoo was founded in 2013 by Alexandre Yazdi and Laurent Ritter.[3] They had been friends since high school and had previously founded Studio Cadet in 2012, a services company for websites and mobile applications.[4] Yazdi became the chief executive officer of Voodoo, while Gabriel Rivaud acted as the vice-president of games.[5] According to Rivaud, the company was in turmoil for its first four years in operation and opted to change its business strategy thereafter.[5] Using data it gathered from its previous games, the company designed its newer games to attract more players.[5] Using the Unity game engine, Voodoo tested one new game roughly every week. This method resulted in the successful release of Paper.io in 2016.[6]

Through 2017, Voodoo quadrupled its staff count to 80 and expected to grow to 150 people by the end of 2018.[3] In May 2018, the American banking company Goldman Sachs, through its West Street Capital Partners VII fund, invested US$200 million in Voodoo.[3] It was the largest fundraising in the French technology sector since 2015.[3] Yazdi and Ritter retained control of the company.[3] At the time, Voodoo had, aside from its Paris headquarters, offices in Montpellier and Strasbourg.[3] A development studio in Berlin, Germany, was established in December 2018, headed by general manager Alexander Willink.[7] The studio started out with roughly ten people, looking to eventually expand to 40 employees.[7] It later hired key employees from developers Blizzard Entertainment, King, and Mamau.[8]

By September 2019, Voodoo employed 220 people, including 150 at its Paris headquarters.[6] A publishing office in Istanbul, Turkey, was announced in August 2019 and is headed by publishing director Corentin Selz.[9] This continued with the opening of a Montreal development studio in November 2019, led by Mehdi El Moussali, a former producer for Gameloft.[10] Through this new location, Voodoo intended to expand beyond hyper-casual games.[10] The company acquired Shoreditch-based developer Gumbug in December that year.[11]

By July 2020, Tencent was looking to acquire a minority stake in Voodoo, which was still majority-owned by Yazdi and Ritter.[12] Tencent acquired a minority stake to undisclosed terms in August that year. At this time, Voodoo was valued at $1.4 billion.[13] According to Yazdi, this deal would help Voodoo to extend their games into the Asia-Pacific market.[14] Voodoo subsequently opened offices in Singapore and Japan later that month, headed by Julian Corbett and Ben Fox, respectively.[15] In total in 2020, Voodoo saw revenues of €380 million, up from €1 million in 2016.[6] The company announced an investment in Istanbul-based developer Fabrika Games in September 2020,[16] and acquired Parisian developer OHM Games in December. OHM Games had developed four games for Voodoo in 2020, which together generated 260 million downloads.[17] Voodoo further bought BidShake, a Tel Aviv company developing a marketing automation platform, in June 2021.[18] Groupe Bruxelles Lambert acquired a 16% stake in Voodoo for €266 million in August 2021, valuing Voodoo at €1.7 billion.[19] Voodoo acquired the Israeli studio Beach Bum in September for a reported price of $250–300 million.[20][21]

## Games

The majority of Voodoo's games are free-to-play "hyper-casual games" developed for the Android and iOS mobile operating systems.[22] Games released by the company include Helix Jump, Baseball Boy, Snake vs Block, Hole.io, Aquapark.io, Purple Diver, Crowd City, and Paper.io.[11][23] Voodoo games were downloaded 2 billion times by April 2019,[24] 3.7 billion downloads by May 2020,[25] and 5 billion by May 2021.[26] In December 2019, Voodoo games had 2.6 billion downloads, 300 million monthly active users (MAUs), and 1 billion individual players.[11] Helix Jump, developed by H8games, is Voodoo's most successful game with more than 500 million downloads as of August 2020.[23][27]

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 share in return.[6] Outside of games, Voodoo developed the social media platform Wizz in 2020. As of August 2021, the platform has 1 million MAUs in the United States.[6]

## Reception

Voodoo has been criticised for releasing apparent clones of indie games. These include Infinite Golf (similar to Desert Golfing), Twisty Road (Impossible Road), The Fish Master (Ridiculous Fishing), Flappy Dunk! (Flappy Bird), Rolly Vortex (Rolling Sky), The Cube (Curiosity), and Hole.io (Donut County).[28][29][30] 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.[28][31] Ben Esposito had been working on Donut County for more than five years when Hole.io released in mid-2018, before Donut County's publication.[30][32] In response to an inquiry from Variety, 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.[30]

## Accolades

* #20 on Pocket Gamer.biz's "Top 50 Mobile Game Developers of 2018"[33]
* #5 on Pocket Gamer.biz's "Top 50 Mobile Game Makers of 2019"[34]
* #16 on Pocket Gamer.biz's "Top 50 Mobile Game Makers of 2020"[35]
* Best Publisher – Mobile Games Awards 2019[36]
* Revelation of the Year – BFM Awards 2019[37]
* Part of Next40 [fr; fr] 2021[38]

## References

1. ↑ ""Don't always assume that you need expensive and professional training to enter the industry"". 18 April 2021. https://www.pocketgamer.biz/interview/76327/voodoo-tibo-vincent-ducimetire/.
2. ↑ Astle, Aaron; Writer, Staff. "Voodoo surpasses 6 billion downloads across games and apps". https://www.pocketgamer.biz/news/78161/voodoo-passes-six-billion-downloads/.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Dèbes, Florian (28 May 2018). "Levée de fonds record pour la PME française du jeu vidéo Voodoo" (in fr). https://start.lesechos.fr/startups/actu-startups/levee-de-fonds-record-pour-la-pme-francaise-du-jeu-video-voodoo-11979.php.
4. ↑ Colas des Francs, Ophélie (3 September 2014). "Quiz Run lève 280.000€ en crowdequity" (in fr). https://business.lesechos.fr/entrepreneurs/financer-sa-creation/squeez-me-leve-280-000-en-crowdequity-101719.php.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Takahashi, Dean (29 May 2018). "Voodoo raises estimated $200 million from Goldman Sachs for mobile games". https://venturebeat.com/2018/05/29/voodoo-raises-estimated-200-million-from-goldman-sachs-for-mobile-games/.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Bregeras, Guillaume (1 September 2019). "Exclusif: Voodoo, la pépite française du gaming, enflamme son chiffre d'affaires" (in fr). https://business.lesechos.fr/entrepreneurs/actu/0601793025031-exclusif-voodoo-la-pepite-francaise-du-gaming-enflamme-son-chiffre-d-affaires-331276.php.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Valentine, Rebekah (12 December 2018). "The search for creativity at Voodoo's new Berlin studio". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-12-11-the-search-for-creativity-at-voodoos-new-berlin-studio.
8. ↑ Forde, Matthew (2 July 2019). "Voodoo brings on Blizzard, King and Mamau hires for Berlin studio". https://www.pocketgamer.biz/job-news/71097/voodoo-brings-on-blizzard-mamau-and-king-hires-for-berlin-studio/.
9. ↑ Forde, Matthew (1 August 2019). "Interview: Hyper-casual specialist Voodoo opens new Istanbul studio". https://www.pocketgamer.biz/interview/71309/interview-hyper-casual-specialist-voodoo-opens-new-istanbul-studio/.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Batchelor, James (13 November 2019). "Voodoo opens Montreal studio as it expands beyond hypercasual games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-11-13-voodoo-opens-montreal-studio-as-it-expands-beyond-hypercasual-games.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Takahashi, Dean (11 December 2019). "Voodoo acquires mobile game studio Gumbug in London as it exploits hypercasual growth". https://venturebeat.com/2019/12/11/voodoo-acquires-mobile-game-studio-gumbug-in-london-as-it-exploits-hypercasual-growth/.
12. ↑ Betz, Brandy (14 July 2020). "Tencent eyes stake in game developer Voodoo – Bloomberg". https://seekingalpha.com/news/3590986-tencent-eyes-stake-in-game-developer-voodoo-bloomberg.
13. ↑ Liao, Rita (17 August 2020). "Tencent takes minority stake in French casual games maker Voodoo". https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/17/tencent-takes-minority-stake-in-french-casual-games-maker-voodoo/.
14. ↑ McAloon, Alissa (18 August 2020). "Tencent picks up minority stake in hyper casual game publisher Voodoo". https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/368421/Tencent_picks_up_minority_stake_in_hyper_casual_game_publisher_Voodoo.php.
15. ↑ Valentine, Rebekah (26 August 2020). "Voodoo opens Singapore, Japan offices". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-08-26-voodoo-opens-singapore-japan-studios.
16. ↑ Partleton, Kayleigh (4 September 2020). "Voodoo invests in Istanbul-based developer studio Fabrika Games". https://www.pocketgamer.biz/news/74405/voodoo-invests-in-istanbul-based-developer-studio-fabrika-games/.
17. ↑ Partleton, Kayleigh (21 December 2020). "Voodoo acquires Paris-based studio OHM Games". https://www.pocketgamer.biz/news/75369/voodoo-acquires-paris-based-studio-ohm-games/.
18. ↑ Partis, Danielle (11 June 2021). "Voodoo acquires marketing automation platform Bidshake". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-06-11-voodoo-acquires-marketing-automation-platform-bidshake.
19. ↑ Taylor, Dan (2 August 2021). "GBL acquires minority stake in mobile games unicorn Voodoo at €266 million". https://tech.eu/brief/gbl-acquires-minority-stake-in-mobile-games-unicorn-voodoo-at-e266-million/.
20. ↑ Partis, Danielle (1 October 2021). "Voodoo acquires mobile studio Beach Bum". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-10-01-voodoo-acquires-mobile-studio-beach-bum.
21. ↑ Morland, Sarah (30 September 2021). "French mobile gaming unicorn Voodoo buys Israeli studio Beach Bum". https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/french-mobile-gaming-unicorn-voodoo-buys-israeli-studio-beach-bum-2021-09-30/.
22. ↑ McAloon, Alissa (29 May 2018). "Mobile dev Voodoo secures an estimated $200M investment from Goldman Sachs". https://gamasutra.com/view/news/319010/Mobile_dev_Voodoo_secures_an_estimated_200M_investment_from_Goldman_Sachs.php.
23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Bradshaw, Tim (7 August 2020). "How 'hyper-casual' games are winning the mobile market". https://www.ft.com/content/55f64cfe-125e-4529-b16e-ad77f8cd8710.
24. ↑ Chapple, Craig (9 April 2019). "Voodoo racks up two billion mobile game downloads". https://www.pocketgamer.biz/news/70441/voodoo-racks-up-two-billion-mobile-game-downloads/.
25. ↑ "The Voodoo Approach: How the world's biggest hyper-casual publisher makes its hit games". 20 May 2020. https://www.pocketgamer.biz/feature/73406/the-voodoo-approach/.
26. ↑ Biswas, Tousif (7 May 2021). "Voodoo crossed five billion downloads". https://www.pocketgamer.biz/news/76503/voodoo-five-billion-downloads/.
27. ↑ "Voodoo Development Magic: How H8 Games launched Helix Jump, one of the hottest games of 2018". 22 October 2018. https://www.pocketgamer.biz/interview/69314/voodoo-development-magic-how-h8-games-launched-helix-jump/.
28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 D'Anastasio, Cecilia (25 June 2018). "Indie Games Are Getting Cloned Before They're Even Out". https://kotaku.com/clever-indie-game-donut-county-isnt-even-out-yet-and-al-1827117824.
29. ↑ Valentine, Rebekah (26 June 2018). "Donut County developer speaks out on frustration of app store clones". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-06-25-donut-county-developer-speaks-out-on-frustration-of-app-store-clones.
30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 Futter, Michael (6 July 2018). "Goldman Sachs-Backed Cloner Uses War Chest, Ad Buys to Overshadow Original Games". https://variety.com/2018/gaming/features/donut-county-hole-io-apple-1202866615/.
31. ↑ Radulovic, Petrana (6 July 2018). "Donut County lookalike is number one on the App Store". https://www.polygon.com/2018/6/25/17501882/donut-county-game-knockoff-ben-esposito-holeio.
32. ↑ Conditt, Jessica (11 July 2018). "Mobile-gaming titans keep ripping off indies". https://www.engadget.com/2018/07/11/mobile-clones-app-store-google-play-indie-voodoo/.
33. ↑ "Top 50 Mobile Game Developers of 2018 – #20: Voodoo". 21 August 2018. https://www.pocketgamer.biz/list/68809/top-50-mobile-game-developers-of-2018/entry/20/.
34. ↑ "The Top 50 Mobile Game Makers of 2019 – #5: Voodoo". 1 October 2019. https://www.pocketgamer.biz/list/71427/the-top-50-mobile-game-makers-of-2019/entry/5/.
35. ↑ "The Top 50 Mobile Game Makers of 2020 – #16: Voodoo". 8 September 2020. https://www.pocketgamer.biz/list/74284/the-top-50-mobile-game-makers-of-2020/entry/16/.
36. ↑ "The winners of 2019". https://www.mobilegamesawards.com/winners-2019/.
37. ↑ BFM Awards 2019 : la pépite du jeu vidéo Voodoo reçoit le prix de la révélation de l'année [BFM Awards 2019: video game nugget Voodoo receives revelation of the year award] (in français). BFM TV. 7 November 2019. Archived from the original on 26 October 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
38. ↑ Bembaron, Elsa (9 February 2021). "Next 40 et French Tech 120 : la liste complète des entreprises" (in fr). https://www.lefigaro.fr/secteur/high-tech/next-40-et-french-tech-120-la-liste-complete-des-entreprises-20210209.

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