W17-Bit is an indie video game developer and the creator of Skulls of the Shogun and Galak-Z: The Dimensional. The company was founded in 2009 by Jake Kazdal, formerly a Sega developer, who wants to make games with a 16-bit era aesthetic. It was known as Haunted Temple Studios until it changed its name to 17-Bit in May 2012 with a logo designed by Cory Schmitz. Gamasutra described the team as an example of successful indie cross-platform development for its work on Skulls of the Shogun. GungHo Online Entertainment became 17-Bit's house publisher in October 2014 as the developer worked on Galak-Z. Kazdal of 17-Bit was invited to speak on creating studio culture at the 2013 Game Developers Conference.
WAgate is an Indonesian video game development company based in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. It was founded on April 1, 2009. It has worked with publishers such as Square Enix and Electronic Arts.
WAkaoni Studio S.L. is a Spanish video game developer and publishing company founded in 2009 in Valencia, Spain.
WArcen Games is a small video game company founded in 2009 by Chris McElligott Park, known as Christopher M. Park prior to remarriage in 2020. The company launched their first product, AI War: Fleet Command, in mid 2009 for Windows PCs.
WBackflip Studios was a mobile game developer and publisher based in Boulder, Colorado, United States. It was founded by Julian Farrior, Dale Thoms and Tom Blind in April 2009. In August 2009, it was announced that the company had raised US$145,000 in funding to continue developing for the iPhone OS. Backflip Studios was best known for their free iOS game Paper Toss, which has been downloaded over 50 million times. They are also widely known for Dragonvale, with over 10 million downloads. In 2013, Backflip Studios sold a 70% stake in the company to Hasbro for $112 million in cash.
WChoice of Games LLC is a video game developer based in California that creates interactive fiction.
WCode Mystics is a video game developer specializing in both the emulation and remastering of older video games for modern systems, and porting of indie titles.
WColossal Order is a Finnish video game developer known for its business simulation game series Cities in Motion and for its city-builder Cities: Skylines. The company was founded in Tampere, Finland in 2009. Its publisher is Paradox Interactive. Paradox tests, markets, sells and distributes all games by Colossal Order. The CEO of Colossal Order is Mariina Hallikainen.
WCompulsion Games Inc. is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Montreal. Established in 2009 by ex-Arkane Studios developer Guillaume Provost, the studio developed the 2013 puzzle platformer Contrast and the 2018 survival horror game We Happy Few.
WDevolver Digital Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Austin, Texas, specializing in the publishing of indie games. The company was founded in June 2009 by Mike Wilson, Harry Miller and Rick Stults, alongside business partners Nigel Lowrie and Graeme Struthers. The three founders had previously operated Gathering of Developers and Gamecock Media Group, which published games on developer-friendly terms, but due to the high cost associated with releasing retail games saw themselves acquired and dissolved by larger companies. To avoid this, Devolver Digital instead turned to digital distribution channels.
WDouble Eleven is a British video game developer and video game publisher based in Middlesbrough. It was founded by former Rockstar Games developers, Lee Hutchinson and Matt Shepcar, in June 2009.
WDoubleBear Productions is an indie game studio founded in June 2009 by writer and game designer Brian Mitsoda.
WFlying Wild Hog Sp. z o.o. is a Polish video game developer based in Warsaw and founded in 2009. The company is best known for the 2013 reboot of Shadow Warrior, and its 2016 sequel, Shadow Warrior 2.
WGiant Sparrow is an American independent video game company based in Santa Monica, California, led by creative director Ian Dallas. Their first game, The Unfinished Swan, was released in 2012 for the PlayStation 3 and 2014 for PlayStation 4. The company's most recent project is What Remains of Edith Finch, a PlayStation 4 and Windows game released in 2017. The game was published by Annapurna Interactive, a branch of Annapurna Pictures.
WGoodgame Studios is an online games company founded in 2009 and based in Hamburg, Germany, and part of the Stillfront Group since 2018. The company has created or acquired the rights to eight games, including Goodgame Empire, Jump Jupiter, Goodgame Big Farm, Goodgame Galaxy, Goodgame Hercules, Goodgame Gangster, Goodgame Disco, Goodgame Cafè, Goodgame Farmer, Goodgame Farmfever, Goodgame Fashion, Goodgame Poker, Shadow Kings: Dark Ages, Legends of Honor, and Infernals. Goodgame Farmer was discontinued on February 28, 2013, while Goodgame Cafè, Goodgame Disco and Goodgame Fashion were deleted on November 3, 2016. Jump Jupiter, Goodgame Hercules and Goodgame Farmfever were also removed. The company's lifetime revenue crossed $1 billion in November 2017.
WGrip Digital is a developer and publisher of video games based in Prague, Czech Republic. It focuses on developing an publishing video games. Its main focus are consoles.
WHeadup GmbH, doing business 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. The company is best known for publishing the Bridge Constructor series of games developed by ClockStone.
WHexage is a Czech video game developer, based in Mníšek pod Brdy but registered in the United Kingdom. The company has produced multiple titles for mobile devices. A few of studio's games have surpassed a million downloads. The most successful title is Reaper: Tale of a Pale Swordsman.
WKoei Tecmo Holdings Co., Ltd., is a Japanese video game and anime holding company created in 2009 by the merger of Koei and Tecmo. Koei Tecmo Holdings owns several companies, the biggest one of those being its flagship game developer and publisher Koei Tecmo Games that was founded in 1978 as Koei.
WLamagama Entertainment is a Turkish video game developer established in Ankara, Turkey. Lamagama Entertainment was founded by Nilay Yüce and Gökhan Ertem in July 2009. In 2009, they produced Lamax Motion Capture and System Analysis by getting a Technopreneurship R&D promotion from the Ministry of Industry. Later in 2010, they received a government support from KOSGEB and started to develop PARS Military Infantry Tactical Training Simulator. In November 2010, after an agreement with Sony PlayStation, they officially started working as a content developer for PS3.
WLoot Interactive, LLC is a group of developers best known for creating experiences and products for PlayStation Home. Previously part of Sony Pictures and later Sony DADC New Media Solutions, Loot has been an independent company since 2015.
WMachineGames is a Swedish video game developer based in Uppsala. The studio was founded in 2009 by seven former employees of Starbreeze Studios, including founder Magnus Högdahl. After unsuccessfully pitching game ideas to several publishers, MachineGames agreed with Bethesda Softworks to develop a new instalment in the Wolfenstein series in July 2010, and was acquired by Bethesda's parent company, ZeniMax Media, in November. In the Wolfenstein series, MachineGames developed The New Order (2014), The Old Blood (2015), The New Colossus (2017), Youngblood (2019), and Cyberpilot (2019).
WMarvel Games is the publishing brand for video games based on Marvel properties, and is the video games division of Marvel Entertainment. Before the incorporation of Marvel Games, video games based on Marvel properties released between 1982 and 1985 were handled by Marvel Comics Group, with Marvel video games from 1986 to 1998 being handled by Marvel Entertainment Group, whilst video games based on Marvel properties prior to the incorporation of Marvel Games were handled directly by Marvel Enterprises.
WMaximum Games is a boutique publisher and distributor of interactive video games. Founded in 2009, Maximum Games publishes video games on all leading platforms. Notable titles include: The Golf Club Collector's Edition, Alekhine's Gun, Farming Simulator 17, Mark McMorris Infinite Air, Loading Human, and The Technomancer.
WMojang Studios is a Swedish video game developer based in Stockholm. It was founded by the independent video game designer Markus Persson in 2009 as Mojang Specifications for the development and release of Persson's sandbox and survival video game Minecraft. The studio inherited its name from a previous video game venture Perrson had left two years prior. Following the game's release, Persson, in conjunction with Jakob Porsér, incorporated the business as Mojang AB in late 2010 and hired Carl Manneh as the company's chief executive officer. Other early hires included Daniel Kaplan and Jens Bergensten.
WNamco Bandai Partners was an amalgamation of several former Atari offices located in PAL territories, which were acquired beginning in 2009 by Bandai Namco Holdings. The acquisitions came on the heels of Atari's financial difficulties, which had begun to snowball in 2006. Atari and Namco had long maintained a cross-publishing relationship that can be traced back to the very origins of Namco, and Atari's liquidation of regional assets was a natural opportunity for Namco Bandai to gain a PAL distribution network. Namco Bandai Partners merged with Namco Bandai Games Europe in 2013 in order to unify Namco Bandai's publishing and distribution operations.
WOverkill Software is a Swedish video game developer based and founded in Stockholm in 2009 by Ulf Andersson, Bo Andersson, the founders and owners of now defunct game developer Grin, along with Simon Viklund. In 2012, Swedish game studio Starbreeze Studios acquired Overkill. The company is known for their successful Payday series, consisting of Payday: The Heist and Payday 2.
WPlaydek is an independent video game development company founded in 2011, based in Carlsbad, California. Playdek specializes in developing board games and card games for the iOS platform.
WSuperBot Entertainment was an American independent video game company formed in 2009 by Shannon Studstill and Chan Park, who both worked for Sony Santa Monica. The studio, based in Culver City, California, released their fighting game PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale on November 20, 2012 in North America, November 21, 2012 in Europe, November 22, 2012 in Australia, November 23, 2012 in the UK and January 31, 2013 in Japan. The company, having gone dark since 2014, is considered defunct.
WSupergiant Games, LLC is an American video game developer and publisher based in San Francisco. It was founded in 2009 by Amir Rao and Gavin Simon, and is known for the critically acclaimed games Bastion, Transistor, Pyre and Hades.
WUken Games is an independent game studio based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company was founded in 2009 by Chris Ye and Mark Lampert to build cross platform social and mobile games for iOS and Android. In 2011, the company was the recipient of the Digi Award for Canada’s Most Promising New Digital Company. Uken was in the top 10 of Deloitte's Fast 50 and #13 in their Fast 500 for 2014, after being one of Deloitte's "Companies-to-Watch" in 2013. Uken was certified as a Great Place to Work and was recognized as one of Canada's Top Small & Medium Employers in 2017. Uken partnered with Sony to develop Jeopardy! World Tour which was released in May 2017. Subsequently in March 2018, Uken also developed and released a second trivia title Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? which became the top trivia game on mobile.
WUndead Labs LLC is an American video game developer based in Seattle, Washington. The company was founded in November 2009 by Jeff Strain and developed the State of Decay series. In 2018, Undead Labs became part of Microsoft Studios.
WXMG Studio was a mobile games developer based in Toronto, Canada. The company was founded by Ray Sharma in 2009. XMG has created a mixture of original IP games such as Fashion Star Boutique and Drag Racer World, and co-produced/licensed projects including Degrassi, Inspector Gadget's MAD Dash and Ghostbusters: Paranormal Blast. The company has launched games on iOS, Android and Windows Phone platforms. In 2011, XMG scouted for a partner in India.
WZeptoLab is a Russian video game developer based in Moscow. It is best known for developing the Cut the Rope series, which has been downloaded more than 405 million times since its release. ZeptoLab have also made a mobile game called CATS Crash Arena Turbo Stars and can be played on major platforms including Android, iOS, Windows Phone, HTML5 Internet browsers, OS X, Nintendo DSi and Nintendo 3DS.
WZynga Dallas was a video game development company based in Dallas, Texas. After Ensemble Studios was shut down by Microsoft in 2009, Bonfire Studios was one of four companies founded by former Ensemble employees. Bonfire's co-founders were Bill Jackson, David Rippy, Scott Winsett, and Stephen Rippy.