MY.GAMES invests in mobile studios Appyfurious, Purple Games and AppLife

7 December 2020 - MY.GAMES Venture Capital (MGVC), the investment division of international gaming brand MY.GAMES, has announced it is investing in three mobile studios – Belarus-based Appyfurious and Purple Games, as well as publisher and developer AppLife. MGVC is purchasing minority stakes with the option to increase its holding to a controlling stake in all three deals. This brings the number of MGVC’s partner studios to 34.

Appyfurious was founded in 2017, as a developer of mobile apps. The studio presented its first game, Bounceville Stories, in January 2020. The 75-strong team has released around 20 apps with a total of more than 40 million installs. Flagship title Bounceville Stories is a puzzle game with elements of a bubble shooter and brick breaker. The game has been highly praised by players, with an AppStore rating of 4.6, and is currently in soft launch.

Purple Games has 20 employees with strong expertise in mobile game development. The studio’s first title, Greenvale, is in soft launch on Google Play and the App Store, with its full release planned for 2021. The studio is planning to focus on new game releases with the support and long-term partnership with MGVC.

AppLife, also founded in 2017, has achieved more than 10 million installs of its flagship game, Parking Escape, on Google Play and the App Store. Less than two years later, the studio expanded to 30 employees and launched several casual and hyper-casual games, including Basketball Clash, Island Adventure, Xtreme Drive, Pop Rings, and the eTrainDog app. In 2019, the studio formed its own publishing division and released mobile games Prey Day and Butchero, as well as apps Better O and Happy Me, with a combined 500,000+ installs.

“We are helping studios grow by sharing our expertise and insights. Our priority has always been to invest into talented teams and professionals, as opposed to the product. The end result is what we achieve together. We are confident that MGVC’s support, coupled with access to the company’s ecosystem, will lead the studios to success,” said Ilya Karpinsky, head of MGVC and MY.GAMES CSO.

Over the past three years, MGVC has evaluated more than 1,000 partnership applications and closed 34 deals, while consolidating major successful studios like Deus Craft, BIT.GAMES, SWAG MASHA, Panzerdog, BeIngame and others. Since Q3 2019, SWAG MASHA studio has increased its revenue 1.7-fold, while its game Love Sick: Interactive Stories became a top-5 mobile title for MY.GAMES as of Q2 2020. BeIngame’s Zero City also became a top-5 mobile title for MY.GAMES in the previous quarter. Tacticool (Panzerdog) and Guild of Heroes (BIT.GAMES) are also among the largest titles - in Q3 2020 they were MY.GAMES’ 7th and 8th largest mobile titles in terms of revenue. In September 2020, the investment arm of MY.GAMES rebranded from MRGV to become MY.GAMES Venture Capital, as part of the company’s strategy on forming a single global brand.