Mobile and browser game publisher Miniclip has acquired PowerWash Simulator developer FuturLab in an attempt to shore up its presence in the console and PC gaming spaces.
In a post on its official website, FuturLab says its goal to create “universally soothing games” fits in with Miniclip’s aim, which is to “unleash the gamer in everyone”.
FuturLab also says that it will continue to operate as normal, with CEO Kirsty Rigden continuing to lead the same team that has “grown over the past two decades”. The studio’s games will “still be [its] own visions” and its operational procedures will remain the same.
In a post on his LinkedIn page, Miniclip president and co-founder Robert Small says that the purchase of FuturLab is intended to help Miniclip “expand [its] reach on PC and console”.
Up until now, Miniclip has largely been known as a publisher of mobile and browser-based games. Some of Miniclip’s most famous titles include Agar.io and 8 Ball Pool (which recently found itself in hot water with the UK Advertising Standards Authority).
If you went to school in the early 2000s, you probably remember Miniclip as a purveyor of the kind of games you’d play furtively in class while pretending to get work done. With the purchase of FuturLab, though, the publisher looks to be trying to expand its reputation beyond its traditional stamping grounds.
As for FuturLab, the studio was founded back in 2003, just two years after Miniclip. Its most famous export is arguably the soothing cleaning sim PowerWash Simulator, but it’s also responsible for puzzler Peaky Blinders: Mastermind and PlayStation VR tabletop game Mini-Mech Mayhem.
We’ll have to wait and see what the two studios cook up together, but it doesn’t sound like Miniclip intends to interfere with FuturLab’s creative process too much. Watch this space for more info.
