Lego Digital Play acquires Golf Clash founders’ ForthStar studio

• Paul Gouge will become head of games at Lego Digital Play, while Alex Rigby will lead ForthStar.
• ForthStar's team will remain in Manchester, with financial terms of the deal undisclosed.
• Gouge and Rigby previously founded Playdemic, the studio behind Golf Clash, which has generated more than $1bn in revenue.
• Lego Digital Play aims to bring the Lego building system into mobile games for children and adults.

Lego Digital Play has acquired ForthStar, a Manchester-based mobile game studio founded by the creators of Golf Clash to expand its presence in the mobile games market.

As reported by GamesBeat, the deal will add around 30 employees to Lego Digital Play, which was established as a separate company from the Lego Group in early 2025. 

Before the acquisition, Lego Digital Play had around 100 employees, mainly based in London and Denmark. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

ForthStar co-founders Paul Gouge and Alex Rigby will take on new roles within the company. Gouge will become head of games across Lego Digital Play, while Rigby will lead ForthStar as a flagship studio. The team will remain based in Manchester.

Mobile expansion

Gouge and Rigby previously founded Playdemic, the studio behind Golf Clash. According to GamesBeat, the mobile sports game has generated more than $1bn in revenue and is approaching $2bn, with hundreds of millions of downloads.Warner Bros. acquired Playdemic in 2017 before selling it to Electronic Arts in 2021 for $1.4bn.

The pair left Playdemic and founded ForthStar in 2023, with a focus on building and operating live-service games at scale.

Lego Digital Play president Aaron Loeb said the company is focused on creating authentic Lego experiences that bring the brand’s building system into digital games. He added that mobile is the best starting point for reaching children around the world.

The company has not shared details of its upcoming games, but said it is focused on bringing in teams with strong creative cultures and shared values.