Firemonkeys Studios is an Australian

video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

and

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

s, based in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Victoria. In May 2011,

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

announced the acquisition of Firemint for an undisclosed sum, making it an in-house studio for EA Interactive. IronMonkey Studios were also taken under EA Interactive's wing back in 2010. In January 2011, Firemint acquired fellow Australian video game developer

Infinite Interactive Infinity Plus Two, previously Infinite Interactive, is a video game developer with headquarters in St Kilda, Victoria, St Kilda, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. History The company was founded by Steve Fawkner in 1989. After a lon ...

, best known for the '' Puzzle Quest'' series. In July 2012, Firemint announced a post on their blog that Firemint would merge with IronMonkey Studios by EA and merge their names into Firemonkeys. All-new games, including '' Need for Speed: Most Wanted'' and '' Real Racing 3'', are released with the new company name.

Acquisition

Electronic Arts, with a market capitalization of US$6.7 billion, announced the acquisition of Melbourne-based gaming studio Firemint overnight in a press release for an undisclosed amount. Firemint is recognised as one of the leading game developers on the

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 ...

platform. According to Barry Cottle, General Manager of EA Interactive "The Firemint team is remarkable for its critical and commercial success. Having them as part of EA will accelerate our position as worldwide leader in game development for mobile devices and online gaming platforms." In January, Murray told SmartCompany the work-for-hire market is growing thin, especially as the Australian dollar continues to climb. Coming under the EA banner will give the company security.

Layoffs

In February 2019, Electronic Arts announced that 40 to 50 of Firemonkeys' 200 staff would be laid off, to focus the studio more on live services. This equals around 5% of the entire Australian game industries workforce. In June 2023, Electronic Arts announced that a majority of the Firemonkeys staff would be laid off, to focus the studio more on '' The Sims FreePlay'', as part of the company's restructuring. Development for the racing titles '' Real Racing 3'' and '' Need for Speed: No Limits'' would be shifted to Slingshot Games in India, following the completion of two limited filler updates on the said racing games.

Games

Firemint have produced a number of different games for different platforms and different publishers, starting with ''

Nicktoons Racing ''Nicktoons Racing'' is a racing video game developed by Software Creations and published by Infogrames for the PlayStation and Microsoft Windows. An abridged version developed by Pipe Dream and released for the Game Boy Color a year earlier, ...

'' in 2002 for the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...

. For several years after publishing their debut game Firemint continued to produce and release games for the Game Boy Advance and mobile devices. It wasn't until early 2008, however, with the release of the

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 ...

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

in 2007 did Firemint really expand their games market share. During 2009, Firemint developed their two most popular games, ''Flight Control'' and ''Real Racing''. These games went on to achieve great success with the subsequent release of two sequels each, ''Flight Control HD'' in 2010, ''Flight Control Rocket'' in 2012, '' Real Racing 2'' was released in 2010 and '' Real Racing 3'' in 2013.

Released

Awards

Firemint was awarded the Arts and Entertainment Award for being amongst the most successful exporters in 2009 at the Australian Export Awards in November.

References

External links

* {{Need for Speed Australian companies established in 1999 2011 mergers and acquisitions Electronic Arts subsidiaries Video game companies established in 1999 Video game companies of Australia Video game development companies Video game publishers Companies based in Melbourne Australian subsidiaries of foreign companies