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Type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Video game Computer software |
Founded | 2002 |
Headquarters | Seattle, Washington, United States |
Key people | Jeff Karp, Managing Director/President[1] |
Products | Video games (Casual games) |
Number of employees | 700 (2013) |
Parent | Aristocrat Leisure |
Website | bigfishgames |
Big Fish Games is a casual gaming company based in Seattle, with a regional office in Oakland, CA, owned by Aristocrat Leisure. It is a developer and distributor of casual games for computers and mobile devices. Its Game Manager is a digital rights management software that protects the games from piracy. Their game Cooking Craze was awarded the Best Pick Up and Play game by Google Play in 2017.
The company was founded by Paul Thelen in 2002 with $10,000.[2] In 2009, it announced the opening of their new European headquarters in Cork, Ireland.
In August 2013, the company announced the closing of its cloud-based games service, Vancouver studio and Cork offices.[3]
In 2014, the company was acquired by Churchill Downs Inc. in a deal valued at up to $885 million.[4][5]
In 2018, Churchill Downs sold the company to Aristocrat Technologies for $990 million.[6][7]
Big Fish Games has a number of studios split between the Seattle office and Oakland office that develop games: Self Aware Games, Triton Studios, Skyrocket Studios, Epic Venture and Three Minute Games.
Games developed by the various Big Fish studios include:
The company entered the browser gaming with its acquisition of the game website Ion Thunder in 2007; the service was re-branded as Atlantis following the acquisition.[citation needed] The service, which was later revamped as Big Sea Games in 2009, was shut down in 2010 as part of the company's shift from traditional online games to social games on Facebook and mobile apps.[8]
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