Bossa Studios Limited (trading as Bossa Games since 2023) is a British

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 ...

based in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. It is known for its comedic, physics-based games '' Surgeon Simulator'' and '' I Am Bread''.

History

Bossa was founded in October 2010 by Henrique Olifiers (gamer-in-chief), Roberta Lucca (marketer-in-chief), Ric Moore (technologist-in-chief), and Imre Jele (creator-in-chief). The establishment was formally announced in June 2011, when it had opened its office at the Silicon Roundabout in

, England. Bossa was acquired by the television production company

Shine Group Shine Group was a British international television production and distribution group with 26 production companies across 12 countries creating scripted and non-scripted content in the global marketplace. Shine Group companies included award-win ...

in 2011, with the deal announced on 16 September, without disclosing terms. At the time, Bossa had 20 employees, and its first game, ''Monstermind'', launched that same month for the

Facebook Platform The Facebook Platform is the set of services, tools, and products provided by the social networking service Facebook for third-party software component, third-party developers to create their own application software, applications and services t ...

. ''Monstermind'' won the

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

award in the "Online – Browser" category in February 2012. Subsequent games by Bossa were ''Toy Run'' and ''Merlin: The Game'', the latter based on the Shine-produced TV series ''

Merlin The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Re ...

''. Following the commercial success of '' Surgeon Simulator'', Bossa underwent a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

process in July 2015 that returned Shine's stake (transferred to

Endemol Shine UK Banijay UK Productions Limited, trading as Banijay UK, is a British production company. Since 2020, the company has been a subsidiary of Banijay Entertainment. Banijay UK incorporates a number of production brands, including Artists Studio, Da ...

after Shine merged with

Endemol Endemol B.V. (stylized in all lowercase) was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted gen ...

in December 2014) to the studio's founders. The company received a investment in a

series A round A series A is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. It can be followed by the word round, investment or financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in excha ...

in September 2017. Shortly thereafter, they hired former

Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or Slurry, slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically Pip ...

writer Chet Faliszek to lead a new

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

-based studio for them, working on an unannounced cooperative title. According to

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

, Bossa acquired between in another investment round in 2019, with

NetEase NetEase, Inc. () is a Chinese Internet technology company founded by Ding Lei in June 1997. It provides online services with content, community, communications, and commerce. The company develops and operates online PC and mobile games, adverti ...

as one of the largest investors in this series, gaining a minority stake in Bossa. Amid complaints against management, Bossa announced it would lay off 10 employees in November 2020. In August 2022 some of Bossa Studios' intellectual properties including '' Surgeon Simulator'', '' I Am Bread'', and ''I Am Fish'' was sold to

TinyBuild tinyBuild Inc. is an American Video game publisher, publisher of indie games based in Bellevue, Washington. The company was established by Alex Nichiporchik and Tom Brien in 2011 to expand Brien's game ''No Time to Explain'' into a commercial ...

for a reported $3 million. The company rebranded to Bossa Games in 2023. In January 2024, Bossa laid off 19 employees, or a third of its total staff. In February 2025, Bossa laid off an undisclosed amount of employees and switched its focus to finishing ''Lost Skies''.

Games

Games developed

Games published

Cancelled

* '' Decksplash'' * '' Worlds Adrift''

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.bossagames.com/ 2010 establishments in England British companies established in 2010 Privately held companies based in London Video game companies established in 2010 Video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game development companies 2011 mergers and acquisitions