Headup GmbH (also known as Headup Games) is a German

video game publisher A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ...

based in

Düren Düren (; Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: Düre) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, between Aachen and Cologne, on the river Rur (river), Rur. History Roman era The area of Düren was part of Gallia Belgica, more specifically the ter ...

. The company was founded in January 2009 by Dieter Schoeller, who serves as its

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

and owns the company under Microcuts Holding. The company is best known for publishing the ''

Bridge Constructor ''Bridge Constructor'' is a series of physics-based simulation-puzzle video games developed by ClockStone and published by Headup Games. While themes and elements change across the series, each game is based on planning out a bridge across a rive ...

'' series of games developed by ClockStone.

History

Headup Games was founded in January 2009 by Dieter Schoeller, who became its

. Operations were formally launched in

in April 2009, with Headup also employing

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

Marcel Aldrup and executive PR & marketing manager Michael Zolna. The first game published by Headup was '' Twin Sector'', an

action-adventure game An action-adventure game is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Definition An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements from an action ...

developed by Bremen-based studio DNS Development and released in September 2009. Subsequently, the company signed an agreement with NBG Multimedia that would allow NBG to distribute Headup's games in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In October, Headup joined G.A.M.E., a German association for the

video game industry The video game industry is the tertiary industry, tertiary and quaternary industry, quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the video game development, development, marketing, distribution (marketing), distribution, ...

. By January 2013, Headup employed six people, of which Zolna left the company in early April, being succeeded by Skander Essadi. By June 2014, Headup employed Schoeller, Aldrup and Aldrup's brother Mark as full-time employees, three trainees and two interns. Headup was acquired by the Thunderful Group in February 2021 for up to , with the acquisition completed in March 2021. On 28 March 2024, Thunderful Group agreed to sell Headup Games to Microcuts Holding (a holding company owned by Dieter Schoeller) for €500,000. The sale will include Headup's back catalogue of approximately 80 titles and a pipeline of five games currently in development. As part of the agreement, Thunderful will receive a revenue share of up to €300,000 from a future unannounced title. The finalization of the deal is subject to shareholder approval, rewriting of three IP-related contracts, and the transfer of Studio Fizbin to Thunderful. Studio Fizbin, another German developer, was acquired by Thunderful through Headup in 2023. The sale of Headup is part of Thunderful's restructuring program, which includes a 20% reduction in staff announced in January. On 21 August 2024, Headup spun off their in-house development team into a separate independent studio named Goon Squad; both remain subsidiaries of Microcuts Holding.

Accolades

Deutscher Entwicklerpreis The Deutscher Entwicklerpreis () is a prize for video game development studios from German speaking countries, organized by Aruba Events GmbH. Description The Deutscher Entwicklerpreis was first awarded on 12 November 2004 in Essen. Between 20 ...

– "Best Publisher" (2012, 2013, 2017)

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://headupgames.com/ German companies established in 2009 Companies based in North Rhine-Westphalia Video game companies of Germany Video game publishers Video game companies established in 2009 Düren (district) Privately held companies of Germany 2021 mergers and acquisitions