Kukouri Mobile Entertainment shuts down game operations and sells IPs to Social First

Finnish game development company Kukouri Mobile Entertainment has ceased all game-related operations. 

The firm has also sold its game IPs Pixel Worlds and Tiny Troopers to fellow Finnish studio Social First, which is now developing Nexus Station, a successor to Pixel Worlds. The game was released in early access on mobile in December 2024. 

“Kukouri has been moving away from game development for a few years now," said Kukouri CEO Petri Piipari.“

“Unfortunately Pixel Worlds has not been a commercially viable product for some time and with the only active Tiny Troopers game being licensed to an outside publisher and developer, the difficult decision was made to close down all game operations." 

An easy decision 

Social First CEO and founder Kim Soares said he and many Social First team members previously worked on Pixel Worlds and Tiny Troopers at Kukouri. 

“So when we were approached by Kukouri regarding the possibility of acquiring the rights to these games the decision was an easy one” said Soares. 

“We are continuing to develop Nexus Station with our early community, many of whom are Pixel Worlds veterans, and acquiring the IPs from Kukouri does not change our development in any way. We wanted to secure the IPs from Kukouri as they are legacies of many of our team members" he continued.

“Pixel Worlds had one of the best online communities I have ever seen in my career of 25 years in game development. We really hope to see that community come together again in Nexus Station."