Scopely, the mobile games maker behind Star Trek Fleet Command, has invested $20 million into niche developer Burlingame Studios, which comprises merely 20 to 30 employees. Through Scopely's hefty sum of cash, Burlingame will advance its scope primarily on "casual mobile games," which the studio's many gaming veterans have long adapted throughout the years.
CEO of Burlingame Studios, Chris McGill highlights it best in his remarks to VentureBeat, saying, "Like with Design Home, we're making apps that have game mechanics, and they're targeted at people who don't consider themselves to be gamers."
The aforementioned Design Home is an application made by CrowdStar, which many of the employees under Burlingame Studios worked at before changing locations. Several other devs at Burlingame also worked at Glu and created the highly comforting Covet Fashion mobile experience, which blends interactivity with style. Glu Mobile eventually saw itself purchased by EA for nearly $2.4 billion last year.
McGill added that this seeming casual gaming bedrock of the studio wouldn't be the only thing Burlingame will focus on with the aid under Scopely. He says, "We think that we're actually expanding the gaming pie rather than fighting for the finite amount of people who consider themselves to be gamers."
Scopely itself has, over the past several moves, attempted to broaden its own foothold in the mobile sector while likewise expanding upon the gaming industry as a whole. Last year, the mobile gaming company acquired GSN from Sony for $1 billion. GSN, or Game Show Network, is the maker of Wheel of Fortune and various other mobile-based experiences, like Bingo Bash and Deal or No Deal.
While Scopely isn't outright buying Burlingame Studios as it did with GSN, the company is still partnering up with the studio in the hopes of enhancing its own internal ecosystem. The partnership will also allow Burlingame Studio not just cash flow but advanced technology in the form of the Playgami tech platform, which Scopely owns.
The latter has likewise been investing in blockchain, specifically IndiGG, Polygon, and Animoca Brands in the hopes of highlighting the ever-burgeoning space behind blockchain gaming and Web3. Although it's not their bread and butter, it will be interesting to see if Burlingame Studio attempts something of the ilk while keeping their core playerbase still engaged.
