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Mag Interactive invests in upcoming UK studio Delinquent

Swedish studio takes "giving back to the community" literally

Date Type Companies involved Size
January 19th, 2015 investment Delinquent
MAG Interactive
Not disclosed
Mag Interactive invests in upcoming UK studio Delinquent

Having enjoyed global success with its word-puzzle game Ruzzle, Swedish developer Mag Interactive has earned enough spare cash to start investing in other games studios.

The studio has chosen to pour an undisclosed sum into a Delinquent, a UK mobile game company based in Brighton.

Its CEO David Bishop was previously head of design at PopCap and Mind Candy.

Composed of 12 people, Delinquent has collected talent from PopCap Games, EA, Mind Candy, Relentless, and Activision. Between them, these veterans have been responsible for chart classics like Peggle, Bejeweled, and Plants vs. Zombies.

Mag Interactive, meanwhile, boasts a portfolio of games that have been downloaded more than 60 million times. 50 million of those downloads belong to Ruzzle, with over 20 billion rounds of the puzzler having been played to date.

Giving back

The Stockholm-based company enjoyed its own funding boost back in 2013 when Nokia Growth Partners invested $6 million into the studio.

Mag Interactive refused to detail how much money it's investing in Delinquent, but the company's CEO and co-founder, Daniel Hasselberg, told PocketGamer.biz that the decision to invest was an easy one.

Culturally I find it very easy to get along with our UK counterparts.
Daniel Hasselberg

"Culturally I find it very easy to get along with our UK counterparts," he says. "I like the humble and slightly ironic attitude combined with a very professional attitude when it comes to execution.

"I think we [the Swedish and UK developer communities] are both at a similar situation where a lot of smaller indie studios are try to break out and the need for sharing information and helping each other out is great.

"I try to encourage sharing of information and believe that we have gotten massive learnings back from having that attitude."

Hasselberg will now join Delinquent’s board as it prepares to release its first game in Q1 of 2015.


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