Big Blue Bubble, Inc. is a Canadian

video game company The video game industry is the tertiary and quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the development, marketing, distribution, monetization, and consumer feedback of video games. The industry encompasses dozens ...

headquartered in

London, Ontario London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River (Ontario), Thames River and N ...

, founded in 2004 by industry veteran Damir Slogar, Renata Slogar, and Claudette Critchley. The company has developed over a hundred games and gained international recognition with its game ''

My Singing Monsters ''My Singing Monsters'' is a Canadian video game franchise developed by Big Blue Bubble. The first game of the series was published and released with help by Canada Media Fund (CMF) on September 4, 2012, for Apple iOS. Ports of the game for ot ...

'' which has been downloaded over 100 million times. Swedish company

Enad Global 7 Enad Global 7 AB (also known as EG7) is a Swedish video game holding company based in Stockholm. It was founded as Toadman Interactive in 2013 by Robin Flodin and Rasmus Davidsson as a work-for-hire consultancy studio. It began fully developing ...

acquired Big Blue Bubble in 2020.

History

Early years (2004–2012)

Founded in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

by industry veteran Damir Slogar, along with co-founders Renata Slogar and Claudette Critchley. In the early days of its history, Big Blue Bubble made a name for itself by specializing in casual and

mobile games A mobile game is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to handheld game conso ...

. Its first game, ''Bubble Trouble'', was used in marketing campaigns by

Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...

and it was followed by the space thriller ''Captain Lunar'', which was used as a launch title for the

Sony Ericsson T610 The Sony Ericsson T610 is a mobile phone by Sony Ericsson, announced in March 2003. It was one of the first widely available mobile phones to include a built-in digital camera, Bluetooth, and a color screen, and features a joystick navigation. A ...

. Soon after, Big Blue Bubble began adapting film and television franchises, such as 24 for handheld devices. In the mid to late 2000s, the company started moving towards

console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...

development, to include the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

and

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

platforms.

Return to mobile (2010–2012)

In the early 2010s, Big Blue Bubble returned to its roots in mobile gaming and the '

freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium", is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical ( ...

' business model. This return to mobile resulted in a shifting focus on original

intellectual properties Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

such as ''Burn the Rope'', ''Thumpies'', and most notably ''

''.

Post-''My Singing Monsters'' (2012–present)

Released on September 4, 2012, for

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

, ''

'' was both a critical and commercial success soon after its release, with

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

describing the game as a "clever combination of music and monster breeding", praising how the complexity of a song can become developed by the utility of breeding Monsters, each monster revealing a new line to the song. Through continued support, the game has grown into a

multimedia franchise A media franchise, also known as a multimedia franchise, is a collection of related media in which several derivative works have been produced from an original creative work of fiction, such as a film, a work of literature, a television program, o ...

, with a prequel, several spin-off games, books, live events, series, and a

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

. After years in the mobile game space, Big Blue Bubble made the decision to return to console games with the development of the action-platformer, ''Foregone'', a retro-pixel

side-scrolling A side-scrolling video game (alternatively side-scroller) is a video game viewed from a side-view camera angle where the screen follows the player as they move left or right. The jump from single-screen or flip-screen graphics to scrolling grap ...

adventure that released on the

Epic Games Store The Epic Games Store is a video game digital distribution service and storefront operated by Epic Games. It launched in December 2018 as a software client, for Microsoft Windows and macOS, and online storefront. Android and iOS versions of t ...

February 27, 2020, and

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

, and

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

on October 13, 2020. On May 12, 2021, Big Blue Bubble announced that the ''My Singing Monsters'' series would be releasing its first console title, called ''My Singing Monsters: Playground''. The game was subsequently released on November 9, 2021. On August 26, 2020, Swedish company

acquired Big Blue Bubble for $16M CAD. On January 26, 2023, Big Blue Bubble released a music-based

roguelike deck-building game A roguelike deck-building game is a hybrid genre of video games that combines the nature of deck-building card games with procedurally generated randomness from roguelike games. Gameplay aspects Most roguelike deck-building games present the pla ...

, ''Power Chord''. On November 24, 2023, Big Blue Bubble was named one of Canada's Most Admired Corporate Cultures.

References

External links

Big Blue Bubble company websiteBig Blue Bubble
at

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

Big Blue Bubble
at

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

Canadian companies established in 2004 Companies based in London, Ontario Video game development companies Video game companies of Canada Video game companies established in 2004 2020 mergers and acquisitions Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies {{Canada-company-stub