Why did Supercell abandon the traditional management model? Supercell Company (supercell). History of creation Ilka Paananen biography

Supercell is a mobile game development company founded in June 2010 in Helsinki, Finland. The Chief Executive Officer is Ilkka Paananen.

Story

Supercell was founded by Ilkka Paananen and Mikko Kodisoja, who previously worked at mobile gaming company Sumea. Kodisoja co-founded Sumea in 1999, and Paananen was hired as the company's CEO in 2000. In 2004, Sumea was acquired by American Digital Chocolate, establishing its European headquarters in Finland. Paananen became the manager of the American company in Europe, Kodisoya retained the position of creative director. In 2010, both left the company.

Paananen first worked for the financial company Lifeline Ventures, but then decided to become an entrepreneur. In 2010, he, Kodisoja, Petri Sturman, Lassi Leppinen (chief programmer at Sumea and Digital Chocolate), Visa Forsten and Nico Derome founded their gaming company, in which managers were not supposed to interfere with the work of game developers. Kodisoja and Paananen invested €250,000 in the new company from their savings from their time at Sumea. In addition, they managed to obtain a loan of 400,000 euros from the Finnish technology innovation funding agency Tekes. Another investor was Lifeline Ventures. Supercell soon raised another 750,000 euros from several investors, including London Ventures Partner and Initial Capital.

The company simultaneously developed five games. The first to be released was Pets vs. Orcs. It was not very successful, after which development was suspended Tower games. HayDay was released in May 2012, becoming Supercell's first game to be released internationally. HayDay was a farming simulator, sort of Supercell's vision successful game Zynga Facebook FarmVille. The game was published in mid-summer 2012 and was an immediate success, so much so that the server power was not enough to support all the players. In its first four months, HayDay became one of the top-grossing games on the US App Store and was one of the top-grossing games in the world for 2.5 years. The game received regular updates until 2016. Later, development was temporarily suspended and resumed only in December 2016.

Clash of Clans

Supercell lead producer Lasse Laugento (formerly of Bloodhouse) David Whilson (administrator) and project manager Lassi Leppinen wanted to make a strategy game that could be played simply and enjoyable using the touch screen. Clash of Clans took six months to create. The game was released in August 2012. Within three months, it became the most profitable app in the United States. Clash of Clans was the world's top-grossing mobile game in 2013 and 2014, according to App Annie.

In the summer of 2013, Supercell began a marketing partnership with Japan's GungHo, with the companies planning to promote each other's games in their own markets. As a result, Clash of Clans has become one of the most downloaded apps in Japan. GungHo board chairman Taizo Son introduced Paananen to his brother Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank Corporation. Soon the Finns were offered to sell their company. The deal took place in October 2013. SoftBank and GungHo bought a 51% stake in SuperCell for €1.1 billion, the largest ever price paid for a Finnish private company. In six months, the value of SuperCell tripled, since in the spring of the same 2013 the company sold 16.7% of its shares for 100 million euros.

After releasing Clash of Clans and HayDay in the summer of 2012, Supercell did not offer new games to the market for almost two years. Development Boom games Beach began in the fall of 2012, but was only released in 2014. New strategy game was very successful in the US upon its release in March, but failed to stay at the top of the charts for long. However, thanks to an expensive marketing campaign launched by Supercell in December 2014, Boom Beach was able to enter the top 30 most downloaded iPhone apps, and in 2015 surpassed Hay Day in the charts.

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Games

• 2012 - Hay Day - active development continued until December 2016. Minor updates are being released now. In 2016, the game lost 15% of its players. Last update(April 12, 2018).
• 2012 - Clash of Clans - active development of the game led by the game administrator - David Whilson. In mid-June 2018, a new global update was released.
• 2014 - Boom Beach - active development. Issued global updates, global events are held (events like Mega Crab)
• 2016 - Clash Royale - active development. Major updates are being released. On June 20, 2018, a global update was released.
• 2017 - Brawl Stars en - active development. Released in Canada, Norway, Finland and Sweden on iOS and Android. Major updates are being released.

Closed games

Awards

In 2012, Supercell was recognized as the best Scandinavian startup company and was selected as Finnish game developer of the year. The following year, Supercell won the Finnish Teknologiakasvattaja 2013 (Technology Educator 2013) competition, and was selected as Development Entrepreneur of the Year software. In 2014, the scientific consulting agency T-Media recognized SuperCell as the most respected company in Finland in its report Luottamus&Maine (Trust&Reputation).

Literature

• Lappalainen, Elina. Pelien valtakunta. Miten suomalaiset peliyhtiöt valloittivat maailman. - Atena, 2015. - 300 p. ISBN 9789523001169

Notes

1. Studio Profile: Supercell. Edge. Future plc (2013). Retrieved January 5, 2014.
2. Supercelliltä hurjat luvut: liikevaihto harppasi 2.1 miljardiin (Fin.) . Kauppalehti(March 9, 2016). Retrieved March 9, 2016.
3. Dredge, Stuart Clash of Clans from Supercell raises $1.5 bn to become the next Nintendo. The Guardian(15 October 2015). Retrieved December 25, 2015.
4. Karsten Strauss. Is This The Fastest-Growing Game Company Ever? . Forbes(April 7, 2013). Retrieved April 22, 2016.
5. Supercell meni kirkkaasti yli miljardirajan (Finnish). Kauppalehti(March 24, 2015). Retrieved March 24, 2015.
6. Supercell Oy – Taloustiedot (Finnish) . Fonecta Finder.
7. , pp. 167−168.
8. , pp. 169−171.
9. Breaking: Supercell Raises $12M from Accel Partners. ArcticStartup (inaccessible link - story) . Retrieved December 25, 2015. Archived December 30, 2015.
10. , p. 172.
11. , pp. 183−187.
12. , pp. 209−210.
13. , pp. 195−199.
14. Lunden, Ingrid SoftBank Ups Its Stake In Supercell To 73% As Sole External Shareholder. TechCrunch. Retrieved December 25, 2015.
15. Kris Graft.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is increasingly involved in interactive media and games among them (we can recall, for example, the BAFTA Games Awards). The Academy also hosts the BAFTA Games Lecture, where the best game developers speak. In 2016 he took the stage for the first time mobile developer- This Ilkka Paananen from Supercell.

Here's something from his speech.

1. Chance

Ilkka, the director of one of the most successful game studios, doesn't know how to make games. He is an industrial engineer by training and has no experience in game design, programming or drawing. He himself says that his career is largely “accidental.”

He went to an ambitious Finnish game studio for an unpaid “do everything except development” position - he was the only candidate there - and became the CEO of the company, which later turned into the Sumea studio. In 2004, it was purchased by Digital Chocolate and Paananen became its president in 2010. Six months later, he left to open a new company, which we now know as Supercell.

2. Smothered by the process

Over the years, Paananen's approach to work has changed in many ways.

His obsession with logic and organization may well have stifled the company in its early stages.

“Everything should be logical,” he says. “It had a big impact on how I wanted to run the company.”

But in practice, processes that looked good and logical on paper “were bureaucratic obstacles, slowed down work, and creative people began to leave.”

An example of this would be the "Green Light Document", the need for approval of a new project by all departments of the company.

All this was compounded by rapid growth, which increased the complexity of internal processes and threatened to change the company culture.

"This does not lead to the creation good games, does not promote risk taking,” he says. “Games, as a business, should not be driven by processes. It doesn’t matter how good your intentions are.”

How to deal with complexity? The answer in Supercell's current culture is to "hire the best people and then trust them."

3. Developers come first, management comes second

Paananen believes gaming companies can learn a lot from sports teams.

“The real stars are the players, not the management or coaches,” he said.

It is from this point of view that the entire structure of Supercell is organized - from the bottom up.

The role of Paananen and management is to “organize a better environment for these guys, we are just trying not to disturb them.”

“At Supercell, we have 200 leaders and 200 executives. This may seem a little idealistic or even naive, but that is our goal."

But not everyone is ready to be a leader - which is why the company hired only 6 developers in 2015 - an extremely low number for the world's leading studio.

The company actually tries to stay as small as possible.

But this means that Supercell needs “generalist” specialists, since its size and structure do not allow it to retain highly specialized workers.

Its cells—small internal teams working independently within—“may not even have game designers.”

This approach may not be suitable for everyone, but for the right Supercell candidate it is an opportunity to make the most of the gaming industry.

4. Do better by closing games.

Closing games in soft launch has become a common Supercell practice and is even celebrated with champagne. The company has canceled dozens of projects, but Paananen says Supercell isn't enjoying it.

“We don't try to pretend that losing is funny, because it sucks,” he says. “This absolutely sucks. Some people say we celebrate failure, but that's not true. We celebrate the lessons learned from failure that are so valuable they deserve champagne.”

In essence, Paananen's philosophy is not to be afraid of mistakes, but to be afraid of their absence.

“One of my worst nightmares is that I can’t name a single mistake in last year", he explains. "This is a catastrophe".

Companies that never make mistakes never do anything new.

5. The Clash Royale prototype existed before Clash of Clans

A prototype of a game called The Summoners was made before the 2012 release of Clash of Clans. “Someone, probably me, said that real-time PvP will never work, so let's just leave it,” said Ilkka.

But in the end Clash Royale became one of the studio's hits and proved that PvP mode fully functional even on mobile devices.

What would have happened if Supercell had released Clash Royale earlier - in a less mature market and before the release of Clash of Clans? Probably, its success would have been several times less.

Finnish company Supercell Having created only two games for the iOS platform, he earns $2.4 million per day.

Games created by Supercell are distributed free of charge, the company makes a profit using the so-called scheme freemium, which allows you to buy in-game currency. Supercell has managed to create such exciting games that players can easily part with real dollars and receive virtual bonuses in return.

The success of Supercell is impressive, the games are free, there are only two of them, they were released only for one platform, iOS, and such earnings. The studio employs only 70 people, but 8.5 million people play Supercell games every day.

In the first quarter of 2013, Supercell's turnover amounted to $179 million, of which $104 million was net profit. Supercell's earnings continue to grow, with 2013 revenues expected to range from $800 million to a billion dollars.

Supercell plans to release games for the next three years. Android platforms, capturing Asian markets, further releasing hits and possibly an IPO.

Large publishers with hundreds of games in the AppStore have much less profit. What are they doing wrong?

How to make a million on a mobile game?

The 34-year-old studio head says that The best way start making money from mobile games, stop thinking about making money. The main thing is to create exciting game, from which you can’t tear yourself away. Companies that put earnings first, rather than an interesting application, often fail and, in any case, certainly do not achieve such success.

Supercell takes an unusual approach to game development. There is no one project manager who commands designers and programmers. Studio developers work in autonomous groups of 5-7 people. Each team generates its own game ideas.

The idea is then tested step by step. First, Paananen approves the idea, the next stage is implementation and testing of the game within the company. Next, a team of testers is recruited, then the game is released in Canada App store. And only if successful, it enters the global market. At each stage, the game can be rejected; to date, 4 projects have not passed this test. But Paananen considers unsuccessful games to be useful learning and is not at all sad about it.

Are newbies lucky?

Supercell may be a young company, but its leaders are not new to startups. Ilka Paananen and co-founder Mikko Kodisoja sold their first startup, Sumea, in 2004 for $6 million in cash and another $12 million in Digital Chocolate shares. After 6 years, with three more co-founders, they created Supercell.

In 2011, the company was able to attract investment of $12 million and focused on developing games for the iPad tablet. Clash of Clans and Hay Day appeared in the App store in the summer of 2012. By the end of the year, both games stayed in the top 5 of the App store longer than any other game that year. And Clash of Clans has become the most successfully monetized game to date.

What is the secret of Supercell games?

The secret of Supercell games is not in the original idea; there are so many farm and tower defense games on the mobile market that there can be no question of any uniqueness. It’s just that the Finns managed to create, perhaps, the best games in these genres to date.

The creations of Paananen and his team attract users with simple gameplay and attention to detail that immerses them in the game. Grateful players spend money or time, and often both, on Clash of Clans and Hay Day.

Money is spent on speeding up production and improving buildings. It is important that you don’t have to pay money to win; by spending more time you can complete the game without paying a penny. The developers do not force players to pay, but only push them to do so.

Paananen's first studio was called Sumea. He founded it in 2000. The studio specialized in games for mobile phones.

By the time it was sold to Digital Chocolate in 2004, it employed 40 people. The new owner renamed the studio Digital Chocolate Helsinki, which continued producing projects for the J2ME platform.

In 2010, Ilkka left the studio, which at that time already had about 400 employees. It was one of the largest (if not the largest) in Finland at that time.

He was not satisfied with many internal processes. One of them concerned how greenlighting of projects took place.

To start development, the team had to prepare piles of papers: a business plan, a case study, market opportunities, a story about a niche, and the like.

Paananen concluded that the purpose of all these documents was not to make cool game. The main task was to convince the entire company - from management to marketing, sales and accounting - that its development was worth taking on, that it had potential.

But the reality is that only the developers understand their game. Not business managers, not employees of the financial department, but those who are directly involved in its creation.

With this realization, Paananen came to the conclusion that he might have been thinking about games in the wrong way.

Games are part of the creative industry, not science.

It doesn’t matter how well organized the team is, the processes, or how great the presentation is. None of this on its own will create a great game.

These thoughts pushed him to experiment, to create Supercell, built on a completely different model. In the company, the management role is given directly to the development teams, whose initiatives and experiments are supported by the studio, but does not try to “steer” them.

Paananen himself compares this to the existence of independent startups within the same company.

It is important not only that the teams within themselves decide what to do, but also that they are very small in size.

Lack of resources encourages innovation and allows employees to focus on what matters most. When there are only two programmers in a team, they have to concentrate on the most important things, and figure out how with such strength they can solve the problems facing them.

Independence also teaches responsibility. The company has very high requirements for greenlight. And if something doesn’t work, the project is killed or its team is changed.

Paananen notes that this model is not suitable for everyone. Employees must be very proactive and work for results. It's about people who don't need a boss to tell them what to do. Perhaps these are those who can start their own business.

Another pitfall of this model is stress. It arises due to permanent job in conditions of a lack of resources, high responsibility and a strict internal greenlight for release, which leads to the fact that many employees may not have their games released for years (worked on one - it was closed, worked on the second for a long time - it was also closed, and in a circle).

In conclusion, Ilkka once again mentioned that the model is not universal. Moreover, the company structure is a constantly evolving thing. And it evolves as long as the company exists.

Supercell Company (Supesell) was founded Ilkka Paananen And Mikko Kodisoyei, who previously worked at the mobile gaming company Sumea. Kodisoja co-founded Sumea in 1999, and Paananen was hired as the company's CEO in 2000.

In 2004, Sumea was acquired by the company American Digital Chocolate, establishing its European headquarters in Finland. Paananen became the manager of the American company in Europe, Kodisoya retained the position of creative director. In 2010, both left the company and began founding their own company, Supercell.

In 2010 Ilkka Paananen, Kodisoja, Petri Sturman, Lassi Leppinen (lead programmer at Sumea and Digital Chocolate), Visa Forsten and Nico Derome founded in Niitykumpu, area of ​​the city of Espoo, his gaming company Supersell, in which managers were not supposed to interfere with the work of game developers.

Kodisoya and Paananen invested 250,000 euros in the new company from your savings made while working at Sumea. Moreover, they managed get a loan of 400,000 euros from the Finnish technology innovation funding agency Tekes. One more Lifeline Ventures became the investor. Soon Supercell raised another 750,000 euros from several investors, including London Ventures Partner and Initial Capital.

In 2012, Supercell was recognized as the best Scandinavian startup company and was chosen as Finnish game developer of the year. The following year Supercell won the competition Finnish Teknologiakasvattaja 2013(Technology Educator 2013), and was selected as Software Entrepreneur of the Year.

In 2014, the scientific consulting agency T-Media recognized SuperCell as the most respected company in Finland in its Luottamus&Maine (Trust&Reputation) report.