Thunderful Group AB is a Swedish video game

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

based in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

. It was founded in December 2019 through a merger between Thunderful AB (

Bergsala Holding Bergsala AB is a Swedish Wholesaling, distribution company based in Kungsbacka. It was established in 1976 and has operated as the agent and distributor of Nintendo products in the Nordic countries since 1981. Bergsala's administrative center and ...

's video game holding) and Bergsala Holding's distribution business, consisting of

Bergsala Bergsala AB is a Swedish distribution company based in Kungsbacka. It was established in 1976 and has operated as the agent and distributor of Nintendo products in the Nordic countries since 1981. Bergsala's administrative center and warehouse is ...

, Amo Toys, and Nordic Game Supply. The former Thunderful had been founded in December 2017 between Bergsala Holding, Brjánn Sigurgeirsson, and Klaus Lyngeled, incorporating Sigurgeirsson and Lyngeled's

indie game An indie video game or indie game (short for independent video game) is a video game created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A ...

studios—

Image & Form Image & Form International AB was a Swedish video game developer based in Gothenburg. The company was founded by Brjánn Sigurgeirsson in 1997 and formed the Thunderful group with Zoink in 2017. In 2020, Image & Form was integrated into Thun ...

and

Zoink Zoink AB was a Swedish video game developer based in Gothenburg. The company was founded by Klaus Lyngeled in 2001 and formed the Thunderful group with Image & Form in 2017. In 2020, Zoink was integrated into Thunderful Development. History ...

—and acquiring the publisher

Rising Star Games Rising Star Games Limited is a British video game publisher based in Hitchin. History Rising Star Games was founded on 10 July 2004 by Martin Defries as a joint venture between Bergsala Holding and Japanese publisher Marvelous Entertainment ...

from Bergsala Holding in July 2018. Thunderful Group has since acquired further developers, the publisher

Headup Games Headup GmbH (also known as Headup Games) is a German video game publisher based in Düren. The company was founded in January 2009 by Dieter Schoeller, who serves as its managing director and owns the company under Microcuts Holding. The compan ...

, and the consultancy firm Robot Teddy.

History

and

, two

independent video game developer An indie video game or indie game (short for independent video game) is a video game created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A ...

s based in

, developed a close relationship through their founders and

chief executive officer 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 ...

s (CEOs), Brjánn Sigurgeirsson and Klaus Lyngeled, respectively, became "practically best friends". Although the two studios were separated by the

Göta älv The (; "River of (the) Geats") is a river that drains lake Vänern into the Kattegat, at the city of Gothenburg, on the western coast of Sweden. It was formed at the end of the last glaciation, as an outflow channel from the Baltic Ice Lake to ...

, Sigurgeirsson and Lyngeled met frequently due to the small size of Gothenburg's indie scene. Among other things, Image & Form and Zoink shared testing activities and marketing capabilities. In 2011,

(the

parent company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

's exclusive distribution partner in Sweden) acquired 50% of Image & Form. When Sigurgeirsson eventually introduced Lyngeled to the company, Bergsala Holding also acquired half of Zoink in 2014. Sigurgeirsson, Lyngeled and Bergsala Holding decided to merge the two studios and created Thunderful as their

in December 2017. The company was jointly owned by the founding parties: Bergsala Holding held a 50% stake and Sigurgeirsson and Lyngeled 25% each. Sigurgeirsson and Lyngeled became the CEO and

chief creative officer The title Chief Creative Officer (CCO) typically describes the highest-ranking position of a creative team within a media company. Depending on the type of company, this position may be responsible for the overall look and feel of marketing, media, ...

(CCO), respectively, of Thunderful, while both remained CEOs of their respective studios. The move was announced in January 2018, at which point Thunderful had 46 employees. Alongside the merger, a publishing arm called Thunderful Publishing AB was set up to handle third-party game publishing. Ed Valiente, the former

business development Business development entails tasks and processes to develop and implement growth opportunities within and between business organizations. It is a subset of the fields of business, commerce and organizational theory. Business development is the cre ...

manager for

Nintendo of Europe is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi founded the company to p ...

, joined Thunderful as head of publishing in April 2018 and became the

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 ...

for Thunderful Publishing. That July, Thunderful acquired Rising Star Games from Bergsala Holding. Valiente subsequently became the managing director for Rising Star Games, replacing the departing Martin Defries, while retaining his previous positions. In December 2019, Bergsala Holding combined its distribution businesses—

, Amo Toys, and Nordic Game Supply—with Thunderful, creating the Thunderful Group. The new company was organised into three operational groups: Thunderful Development, containing Image & Form and Zoink; Thunderful Publishing, containing Thunderful Publishing AB and Rising Star Games; and Thunderful Distribution, containing Bergsala, Amo Toys, and Nordic Game Supply. The group remained under the shared ownership of Bergsala Holding, Sigurgeirsson and Lyngeled, and kept its headquarters in Gothenburg. Sigurgeirsson, who became Thunderful Group's CEO, stated that the merger was highly beneficial but evidenced that further financing was needed for future growth, leading Thunderful Group to eye an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

(IPO). Bergsala, as the group's largest entity, was entirely dependent on its partnership with Nintendo at this time. In February 2020, Thunderful Group acquired Guiding Rules Games AB (Guru Games), a developer based in

Skövde Skövde () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and urban centre in Skövde Municipality and Västra Götaland County, in the Västergötland, Västergötland (Western Gothland region) in central southern Sweden. Skövde is situated around 150 k ...

. Through the buyout, Thunderful Games' employee count rose to 170. Later that year, Thunderful Group merged Image & Form, Zoink, and Guru Games to form Thunderful Development AB. Thunderful Development opened a fourth studio in Malmö that June. In September 2020, the company opened an online merch store. Thunderful Group acquired the British studio Coatsink for about in October 2020, followed by the Swedish developer Station Interactive AB (The Station) to undisclosed terms in November. Its 35 employees were transferred to Thunderful Development. By November 2020, Thunderful Group was preparing an IPO via the Premier Growth Market of the

Nasdaq First North Nasdaq First North Growth Market is a division of Nasdaq Nordic and an alternative stock exchange (legally a multilateral trading facility) for smaller companies in Europe. The market place Nya Marknaden in Stockholm changed name to First North in ...

, expecting to raise . The company began trading on 7 December 2020. In its 2020 fiscal year, the company recorded a 46% rise in revenues alongside a fall of net profit by 20%. Thunderful Group announced that it would acquire German publisher and developer

in February 2021 in a deal worth up to . With the acquisition, Headup's founder and

, Dieter Schoeller, is to become Thunderful Group's head of publishing. The acquisition was to close by 31 March 2021. In August 2021, Thunderful Group acquired 91% of Jugo Mirkovic's development studio To the Sky for a symbolic fee, as well as the film studio Tussilago for . In September 2021, Thunderful Group acquired Madrid, Spain-based developer Stage Clear Studios in a deal worth up to €2.5 million. Alongside purchasing the consultancy firm Robot Teddy in October that year, Thuderful Group established Thunderful Investment and two funds, one for game prototypes and one for

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

games, as part of the Thunderful Games segment. In November, Thunderful acquired mobile game developer Early Morning Studio. In November 2022, Thunderful acquired British developer Jumpship, creator of ''

Somerville Somerville may refer to: Places Australia *Somerville, Victoria, a town **Somerville railway station * Somerville, Western Australia, a suburb of Kalgoorlie, Australia New Zealand * Somerville, New Zealand, a suburb of Manukau City, New Zea ...

'', for an undisclosed sum. On 17 January 2024 Thunderful cut 20% of its workforce, amounting to around 100 layoffs. In March 2024, the Thunderful Group announced its plan to divest HeadUp Games and later in April 2024, it was announced that Nordic Game Supply will also be divested. In May 2024, Thunderful announced they would close Stage Clear Studios as part of a restructuring effort. It was also announced that Thunderful Group plans to divest the complete distribution business, which includes AMO Toys and

, to Bergsala NDP AB. The plan is to transform Thunderful Group into a company with focus on game development and game publishing.

Operational groups

Thunderful Groups formerly had two operational groups: the distribution group containing the distribution businesses, and the games group covering the development, investment, and publishing of games. As of July 2024, the distribution business was divested, transforming the company into a "pure-play games company".

Current subsidiaries

* Development ** Coatsink ** Early Morning Studio ** Studio Fizbin ** Thunderful Development AB *** Thunderful Development Malmö ** To the Sky * Investment ** Robot Teddy * Publishing **

** Thunderful Publishing AB

Former subsidiaries

* Stage Clear Studios (closed in 2024) *

(sold in 2024) * Nordic Game Supply (divested in 2024) *

(sold in 2024) * Amo Toys (sold in 2024) * Jumpship (sold in 2025)

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2020 initial public offerings Companies based in Gothenburg Companies listed on Nasdaq Stockholm Former joint ventures Holding companies established in 2017 Holding companies of Sweden Swedish companies established in 2017 Video game companies established in 2017 Video game companies of Sweden Video game publishers