Swedish studios Image & Form and Zoink! Games have joined forced to create Thunderful, a new entity which will wholly own both companies. They're not going away, however; the two Gothenburg-based studios will "continue to develop games with existing and new IPs under their respective labels" while sharing the same roof.
Image & Form is best known for its SteamWorld series of games, while Zoink's Fe is shaping up to be one of this year's big indie hits.
Brjann Sigurgeirsson - CEO of Image & Form and now CEO of Thunderful - had this to say:
We already work together on a daily basis in PR, marketing, intelligence and publishing. Image & Form and Zoink will continue to produce games like we always do, but we’re now formalizing our close relationship. Through Thunderful we can share resources more effectively, officially act together and launch bigger, more ambitious game projects. We’re becoming a real powerhouse.
Klaus Lyngeled, CEO of Zoink and Chief Creative Officer of Thunderful, added:
Brjann and I already exchange very much information, so this development is natural. With a group of close to 50 people we’ll grow our clout both nationally and internationally.
Thunderful is owned by Bergsala Holding, Brjann Sigurgeirsson and Klaus Lyngeled. Bergsala is the sole distributor of Nintendo products in the Nordic region and has worked with both studios in the past.
Owe Bergsten, the CEO of Bergsala Holding, said:
There’s strength and clarity in gathering these great game developers and all their projects under one roof. The future looks both bright and exciting.
This sounds like a positive move to us; we're big fans of both companies and if they can become stronger by working more closely, that's only going to be a good thing. Let us know what you think by posting a comment below.
Comments (25)
Definitely two of the greats to support the Wii U and 3DS era. I cannot wait to see what these guys bring out as a collaboration. Hopefully this is well managed and doesn't collapse shortly in a few years due to expanding too fast. Kudos to everyone involved.
I doubt this will effect anything on the consumer end but I would like to say that both the logo and name Thunderful are pretty awesome.
#DorothyInFeConfirmed
It's always nice to see people working together.
@AlexOlney Wait...Fe is the chemical symbol for Iron. Iron is a type of metal. The characters in the Steamworld games are made of metal. Coincidence?...
...yeah...most likely.
Also, I'm very happy to hear this news
Funded by Thor.
@martynstuff Yeah they made Thor's hammer.
@martynstuff That sounds like you are unearthing some Half Life 3 stuff.
On topic: So.. with Fe being EA publsibed, will Image & Form, or well Thunderful be associating with EA?
When people talk about indies not being proper third parties, they forget that this process is exactly the same as our current AAA stock-listed powerhouses went through back in the 80s and 90s.
Okay, Thunderful. SteamWorld Dig 3D. Make it happen.
(Or, you know, some sort of three dimensional SteamWorld game)
Heja Sverige! Good to see Swedish developers at the cutting edge of creative game design, and I hope this just means more, bigger and better things from the new Thunderful team.
SteamWorld: Breath of the Wild. It's coming...
Image & Form are my favorite indie devs... I will miss the name, but as long as the games continue to be good, that's all that matters.
Have they confirmed what their next game will be?
@holygeez03 The name will stay! As well as Zoink. Both companies will still exist under the same parent company
@ZoinkGames Oh good... thanks for the info.
@ZoinkGames That’s flipping awesome!
I thought this might happen sooner or later seeing how close they seemed to work together and how close their headquarters are as well. I'm a big fan of Image & Form and I'm also looking forwards to Fe and Flipping Death from Zoink. I hope this means they can work on something even bigger in the future.
@holygeez03 Yeah, we're not going anywhere. In fact, a small bird whispered in our ears (all at the same time) that both @imageform and @zoinkgames are releasing some prrrrretty awesome stuff in 2018. It's all about... oh no, gotta go. See ya all later. <3
I wish them an exceedingly auspicious partnership that never wells up bitter creative differences or bears any breach of integrity. Looking forward to what’s to come!
@imageform Oh you tease!
Seriously though good luck to you and Zoink, I like the games you both make.
This is cool, more and better indies are needed in gaming and Switch so this is nice.
@imageform
I absolutely love all your games! I am so happy for my neighbors in east... go Sweden!
Well, I have yo admit I never played the first SteamWorld game, so now onto the question I've asked you several times on Twitter using the same name as on here, with only cryptic responses sent my way:
How about a SteamWorld collection for Switch, but not only two games this time, but all four?
Now that's what I call thunderful news
... Ok I'll see myself out
@imageform I can't wait to see what you have in store! I loved dig 1 as well as heist. I haven't gotten dig 2 yet as I don't have a switch yet . Still it'll be one of the first games I pick up when I do get one. (Or I could always get it on pc but I'll miss out on the portability. Ah decisions! ). Truth be told I find dig to be a better and more interesting metroidvania than samus returns
Two of the best joining under the wing of Bergsala? Does that mean they're now 2nd party?
Anyway, I always thought the graphic styles in games like SteamWorld Dig / Heist and Stick It to the Man / Zombie Vikings / Flipping Death felt similar. Fe seems to be the first game sticking out being completely 3D. I just hope they can bring all those games to Switch retail somehow.
@SKTTR
Hardly 2nd party; unless I'm mistaken Bergsala Holding is non-affiliated to Nintendo except for owning Bergsala AB that is a distributor/reseller of Nintendo in the Nordics. Due to being the first to import Nintendo products out of Japan back in the early 1980s Owe/Bergsala got Nintendo's loyalty and have been allowed to keep distributing in the Nordics while in other parts of the world Nintendo have removed standalone distributors and run the business themselves. My guess is that Bergsala Holding is operating like an investment firm & diversified its portfolio with this deal.
And if this info is wrong, someone at Bergsala please correct me (I used to work for them/Club Nintendo around the GameCube era.)
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