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50% better: Supercell becomes a three-game-company as 'risky' Boom Beach launches in March

But no games coming to Windows Phone

50% better: Supercell becomes a three-game-company as 'risky' Boom Beach launches in March

In a call to financial journalists about its 2013 figures, Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen also spoke about wider aspects of the company's operations.

Surprisingly - but in keeping with typically Finnish attitudes - Paananen was at pains to stress that the company's spectacular figures were a secondary concern.

"We set out to get the best people to make the best games," he said.

"Only the people matter, Financial success is secondary. It's the outcome of having the best people. It's the validation of our work."

He also brushed aside talk about the recent hacking the company has experienced saying he wasn't going to talk about things that had been "stolen from us".

The police have been informed, however, and were taking the situation seriously.

A new beachhead

More positively, Paananen was keen to talk about Supercell's third game Boom Beach.

Currently in a beta in Canada and Australia, it will be released globally for iOS in March, with Android following sometime later.

"We've made some risky choices. There aren't any clans in the game and the combat mechanic is different to Clash of Clans," he said.

"We like to take risks. This is important to us."

Hence Paananen was excited to report that the game was performing well in its test markets, and wasn't cannabalising the company's existing player base.

"There are a healthy number of players who haven't played Clash of Clans at all, or didn't play it for very long," he said.

The company has no plans to support Windows Phone for any of its games, however.

"Focus is a fundamental value for us," was how Paananen justified this decision.

Going long

As for the company's longterm future, the goal of the founders - and its recent ownership deal with SoftBank and GungHo Online - is that Supercell will remain in Finland and push the envelope of what a games company can be.

"We can think very, very longterm," Paananen explained, when asked what it would do with the hundreds of millions of dollars Supercell was now generating. 

Pointing to the company's recent US TV ads, which ran as part of a pre-Super Bowl campaign, he said "It enables us to do things that no one has done before".

"We have big plans."

Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.