Global MMO developer and publisher Bigpoint celebrates 20 years of entertainment and innovation. From a small startup, Bigpoint has rapidly grown to become an established player in the gaming industry. Today, games like FARMERAMA, Seafight, DarkOrbit and Drakensang Online entertain millions of players and their long-running success speaks for itself.
As one of the forerunners in Germany, Bigpoint was one of the first to believe in the value of free-to-play games that could reach vast audiences without the need to invest any money whatsoever. A practice that has quickly become the industry standard and has completely transformed the landscape of gaming, thereby helping to open up the world of gaming to completely new groups of players and establishing games as a part of pop culture, putting them in the middle of social discourse.
“For me, gaming is not just entertainment, it is a form of art in itself, and it is a part of our culture. We need to think about how to reflect on our civilization and culture through games, just like literature, film, and music did.” Says Michelle Zou, Managing Director at Bigpoint.
Even as Bigpoint turns 20, it is laying out the groundwork for many more years of success to come, having hit several major milestones this year like publishing big content updates for most of its games. FARMERAMA fans just received Edelweiss Valley, one of the biggest content expansions the farming MMO has seen to date, Seafight players were able to set sail for a new expansion as well. In Atlantis they find brand new game mechanics and, for the first time ever, the ability to explore a whole new underwater world in their submarine. DarkOrbit players can now enjoy a new, exciting roguelike game mode: in Astral Ascension they are pitted against waves and waves of enemy fighters to win new loot. Drakensang Online can even score two major milestones this year: The game not only got a new content expansion that lets players enter the Realm of the Firelord but is also in the process of being released on the Steam platform, opening its world up to a whole new audience. Bigpoint’s goal is for their products to become life-long companions for their players and to enable them to play cross-platform.
Additionally, over the past few years, Bigpoint has co-published highly successful browser-games like Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming and games from the League of Angels franchise together with the Yoozoo Group.
Now, at the cusp of its 3rd decade, Bigpoint is looking for new talent to continue the success story of its critically acclaimed games and to help develop new, not yet disclosed projects. At the same time, the studio is looking to co-publish third-party products and seeking out new licensing partners interested in their successful IPs as well. Bigpoint’s mission to reflect culture via gaming technology and its vision to create great games for everyone will continue into the next decade.