News

Image & Form and Zoink merge studios to form "powerhouse" company Thunderful Games

Bringing together 46 staff to create bigger and better games

Image & Form and Zoink merge studios to form "powerhouse" company Thunderful Games

Gothenburg-based developers Image & Form and Zoink have merged their studios together under the new name of Thunderful Games.

The new company will be owned by Image & Form CEO Brjann Sigurgeirsson, Zoink CEO Klaus Lyngeled, and Bergsala Holding. The latter company is the sole distributor of Nintendo products in the Nordic region.

Thunderful brings together the company's 46 staff to work together on a variety of games, with nine currently in development. Sigurgeirsson will take on the role of CEO of Thunderful, while Lyngeled will be chief creative officer.

Image & Form is known for its SteamWorld series, which includes SteamWorld Heist on iOS and SteamWorld Dig 2 on Switch. Zoink is the developer behind Stick it to the Man and the upcoming Flipping Death and Fe, all of which are or will be available on Switch.

Formalising the relationship

"We already work together on a daily basis in PR, marketing, intelligence and publishing. Image & Form and Zoink will continue to produce games like we always do, but we're now formalising our close relationship," said Sigurgeirsson.

"Through Thunderful we can share resources more effectively, officially act together and launch bigger, more ambitious game projects. We're becoming a real powerhouse."

"Brjann and I already exchange very much information, so this development is natural. With a group of close to 50 people we’ll grow our clout both nationally and internationally," added Lyngeled.

Image & Form and Zoink initially came together in 2014 to form a publishing partnership, allowing them to self-publish their titles while independently developing new games.


Editor

Ric is the Editor of PocketGamer.biz, having started out as a Staff Writer on the site back in 2015. He received an honourable mention in both the MCV and Develop 30 Under 30 lists in 2016 and refuses to let anyone forget about it.