Miniclip

Miniclip SA is a Swiss mobile game publisher and former browser game website that was first launched on 30 March 2001.[2] It was started by Robert Small and Tihan Presbie with a budget of £40,000.[3] In 2008, Miniclip was valued at over £275 million. In 2018, the company gained over $400 million in revenue through its mobile gaming hit, 8 Ball Pool.[4][5]

Miniclip SA
Type of businessSubsidiary
Type of site
Online games
Available inEnglish, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Russian, Polish, Romanian, Hungarian, Korean, Chinese, Turkish, Hindi, Japanese
Founded30 March 2001
Headquarters
Neuchâtel
,
Switzerland
Founder(s)Robert Small
Key peopleRobert Small, President
Saad Choudri, CEO
ParentTencent (since 2015)[1]
URLminiclip.com
AdvertisingNo
RegistrationOptional
Current statusActive

History

In July 2009, Miniclip hosted over 400 applications on its own website.[6]

In February 2015, Tencent acquired majority stakes of Miniclip.[7][1] In December 2016, Miniclip surpassed 1 billion downloads across its published mobile games on iOS-based, Android-based, and Windows Phone-based devices. In March 2022, Miniclip announced that it had reached 4 billion downloads worldwide with 8 Ball Pool alone accounting for 1 billion downloaded times.[8][9][10]

In April 2021, Miniclip had celebrated its 21st anniversary. After then, the CEO of Miniclip claimed that it would be keeping away from developing browser-based games to prioritize its mobile gaming products, including Agar.io, 8 Ball Pool, Mini Militia, Ludo Party and more.[11]

In April 2022, Miniclip officially announced that it would begin prioritizing its mobile games. As a result, the browser game portal was shut down in July 2022 and the website lost all but its two most popular games of the time, Agar.io and 8 Ball Pool.[12][13][14]

In June 2022, Miniclip agreed to acquire SYBO, the co-publisher and co-developer of Subway Surfers, in an undisclosed deal.[15][16] And the deal with SYBO was scheduled to complete in July 2022.[17]

Studios
List of studios acquired by Miniclip (as of 19 October 2023)
Name Location Acquired Ref(s).
Masomo Izmir, Turkey 2019 [18][19]
Eight Pixels Square Derby, United Kingdom 2020 [20]
Gamebasics Zoetermeer, Netherlands 2021 [21]
Green Horse Games Bucharest, Romania 2021 [22]
Supersonic Software Leamington Spa, United Kingdom 2021 [23]
SYBO Copenhagen, Denmark 2022 [15][16]

Mobile games

Miniclip has developed and published numerous mobile games for iOS, Android, Symbian, and Windows Phone. This includes 8 Ball Pool, Golf Battle, Gravity Guy, Bloons Tower Defense, Plague Inc. for Android, Berry Rush, Agar.io, Diep.io, Mini Militia, and Ludo Party. Miniclip’s removal of Golf Battle Rush Mode has been met with much criticism..

Other platforms

In September 2012, Microsoft announced on the Windows blog on 31 August 2012 (see also List of Xbox games on Windows) that Miniclip games would be able to distribute their games on the Xbox division of Windows 8. Miniclip games that are supported by Xbox for Windows 8 include Gravity Guy, iStunt 2, and Monster Island. Gravity Guy was released on Windows Store on 29 November 2010.

In April 2013, most Miniclip games for Windows 8 and Windows Phone were distributed for free for one year.

On 14 February 2017, Miniclip released their first mobile racer game which was compatible with Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation 4, titled MX Nitro.[24][25]

Malicious software issues

On 1 September 2005, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team issued an advisory concerning Miniclip:

The Retro64 / Miniclip CR64 Loader ActiveX control contains a buffer overflow vulnerability. This may allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute an arbitrary code on a vulnerable system. Although the ActiveX control is no longer in use by either retro64.com or miniclip.com, any system that has used certain pages of these websites in the past (prior to September 2005) may be vulnerable.[26]

In 2006, several security firms reported that some Miniclip users had installed a "miniclipgameloader.dll" which contained the hostile code identified as "Trojan Downloader 3069.”[27] In the same year, another download related to Miniclip installed "High Risk" malware called "Trojan-Downloader.CR64Loader.”[28]

References
  1. "Tencent takes majority stakes in Miniclip". Games Industry. 19 February 2015. Archived from the original on 11 August 2023. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  2. Weber, Rachel (17 May 2013). "From MiniClip to Mega Brand". Game Industry Biz. Archived from the original on 7 June 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
  3. "Game Plan Keeps It Simple". The Financial Times. Archived from the original on 3 June 2009.
  4. Iain, Harris (14 September 2018). "Miniclip pockets over $400 million from 8 Ball Pool on mobile". Pocketgamer.biz. Pocket Gamer. Archived from the original on 7 August 2023. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  5. Oliver, Yeh. "Miniclip Racks Up $400 Million in 8 Ball Pool Revenue". Sensor Tower. Archived from the original on 23 July 2023. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  6. "About Miniclip - Miniclip Corporate Site | Free Online Games". 7 July 2009. Archived from the original on 7 July 2009. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  7. "China's Tencent moves into Europe with investment in mobile and online game publisher Miniclip (exclusive)". VentureBeat. 18 February 2015. Archived from the original on 17 June 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  8. Orr, Aaron (28 March 2022). "Miniclip exceeds 4 billion downloads". pocketgamer.biz. Archived from the original on 29 March 2022. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  9. Evgeny, Obedkov (28 March 2022). "8 Ball Pool publisher Miniclip surpassed 4 billion downloads across its portfolio of mobile games". Gameworldobserver. Game World Observer. Archived from the original on 7 August 2023. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  10. Ron, Nash. "Three world-wide miniclip games have been downloaded four billion times". Game News 24. Archived from the original on 8 August 2023. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  11. Aagon, Orr (7 April 2022). "Miniclip commits to mobile games publishing, pivots from web browser games". Pocket Gamer. Archived from the original on 10 August 2023. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  12. "The evolution of Miniclip.com - Player FAQ". support.miniclip.com. 7 July 2022. Archived from the original on 15 July 2022. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  13. Oscar, Rihll (21 October 2022). "Miniclip is officially closing down its online servers". Give Me Sport. Archived from the original on 7 August 2023. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  14. Danielle, Partis (26 October 2022). "Miniclip has not shut down its website". Games Industry. Archived from the original on 7 August 2023. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  15. "Miniclip will acquire Subway Surfers maker Sybo". Venture Beat. 24 June 2022. Archived from the original on 16 August 2023. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  16. Dave, Bradley (25 June 2022). "Miniclip to acquire Subway Surfers studio Sybo". Pocket Gamer. Archived from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  17. Chris, Kerr (27 June 2022). "Miniclip acquires Subway Surfers developer Sybo". Game Developer. Archived from the original on 8 August 2023. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  18. "Miniclip acquires Masomo |". gamesindustry.biz. 15 August 2023. Archived from the original on 22 March 2022. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  19. Craig, Chapple (8 February 2019). "Miniclip acquires Head Ball 2 dev Masomo". Pocket Gamer. Archived from the original on 11 August 2023. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  20. "Miniclip acquires Eight Pixels Square |". gamesindustry.biz. 17 March 2020. Archived from the original on 19 March 2020. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  21. "Miniclip acquires Gamebasics |". gamesindustry.biz. 19 January 2021. Archived from the original on 19 January 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  22. "Miniclip acquires Green Horse Games |". gamesindustry.biz. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
  23. "Miniclip acquires Supersonic Software |". gamesindustry.biz. 25 May 2021. Archived from the original on 25 May 2021. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  24. "MX Nitro - OUT NOW on PS4, Xbox One & PC - The Miniclip Blog". 14 February 2017. Archived from the original on 16 February 2017. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
  25. Kevin, Dooley (18 January 2017). "MX Nitro coming to PS4, Xbox One & PC in February". teamvvv.com. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  26. "Vulnerability Note VU#649289, Retro64 / Miniclip CR64Loader ActiveX control buffer overflow". United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, Department of Homeland Security. 1 September 2006. Archived from the original on 24 March 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2006.
  27. "Trojan.DownLoader.3069 / MINICLIPGAMELOADER.DLL". Prevx. 15 July 2005. Archived from the original on 15 December 2007.
  28. "Threat Details - Trojan-Downloader.CR64Loader". Sunbelt Software. 14 September 2006. Archived from the original on 16 December 2007.
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