Ustwo

Ustwo Fampany Limited (typically stylized as ustwo) is a London-based software development studio focused on digital design, such as clean and elegant user interfaces. Founded in 2004, the company had initially served clients in supporting their mobile apps, and developed mobile games, but gained significant attention upon release of Monument Valley in 2014, which won numerous awards and had over two million units sold. Alongside their Ustwo Games division, the company continues to produce other software for a range of computing devices through Ustwo Studios, as well as investing in new firms through Ustwo Adventure, and helping to mentor young talent within Ustwo Foundation.

Ustwo Fampany Limited
TypePrivate
IndustrySoftware development, video games, mobile apps
Founded15 November 2004 (2004-11-15)[1]
Founders
  • Matt Miller
  • John Sinclair
Headquarters
London
,
England
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsMonument Valley, Monument Valley 2, DICE
Number of employees
260[2] (2019)
Websiteustwo.com

History

Ustwo was founded by Matt "Mills" Miller and John "Sinx" Sinclair in the Shoreditch district of London in November 2004 as "Ustwo Studio, Ltd",[1] aiming to get into the nascent mobile app market.[3] Miller and Sinclair had been friends since they were eleven, and so the name "Ustwo" is in reference to their long-term relation, "us two".[4]

Prior to the founding, Miller and Sinclair had been working at a design firm called Big Animal who had Sony as a client. After Ustwo was founded, they were able to gain work from Sony Ericsson from this prior relationship to help design a user interface. Additional work came from similar word-of-mouth for banking firm JPMorgan.[4]

In 2007, Apple, Inc. introduced the iPhone and with it, the App Store in 2008. Miller and Sinclair saw the opportunity here to make and sell their own applications directly to consumers via the App Store, and started to explore that area.[4] They toyed with various apps, having limited success outside of one title, MouthOff, that had a cartoon mouth on screen mimick mouth movements on hearing speech that they released in 2009. The app earned Ustwo £100,000, a product of strong word-of-mouth from works like Creative Review, [5] Techcrunch, BBC, and CNN, according to Miller.[6] MouthOff led to them gaining work from retail chain H&M.[4] Work over the next few years split between client work and developing their own apps, splitting off the games development section into "Ustwo Games" while the client services remained at "Ustwo Studios". During this time, they developed Whale Trail in 2011, a children's game, which led to a deal with Penguin Group for an ebook and television series,[4] and Blip Blop in 2012.[3] [7] The company did not focus on producing volumes of game apps to generate revenue, but instead felt that what few games they put should reflect the high quality their studio had become known for.[8]

Ustwo's breakout title came in 2014 with Monument Valley.[4][3] Monument Valley was developed as an artistic game, inspired by M. C. Escher works, and meant to have simple controls.[8] Monument Valley was critically praised, being named the Apple Store's Editors Choice[9] and later winning the Apple Design Award in 2014.[10] The game has since sold more than US$14 million in revenue from over 26 million copies sold.[11] Ustwo had developed a relation with Apple, such that the surprise release of Monument Valley 2 was a headline presentation at the 2017 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference,[12][13] and had their next major title Assemble with Care as one of the premiere titles available on launch of Apple Arcade in September 2019.[14] Assemble with Care was later ported to Microsoft Windows and released on March 26, 2020.[15]

The success of Monument Valley not only helped to put more money into the company, but helped them to gain more client-side work, was estimated to have brought in £15 million in 2013.[3] With this, Ustwo began expanding its business by forming joint ventures with other startup firms, as well as establishing an investment arm proving both financial and service-related support for new firms.[3]

In 2014, Ustwo co-founded DICE, a ticketing platform, with Phil Hutcheon, founder of music managing company Deadly Management.[16]

Ustwo renamed themselves as "Ustwo Fampany Ltd." in 2015,[1] with "fampany" representing their desire to have their studio to be a combination of "family" and "company".[4]

In 2019, Ustwo fired an employee for labour organizing at the company. The Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain, which represents him through Game Workers Unite UK, filed suit on the worker's behalf.[17] Lana Polansky of Waypoint criticized Ustwo for adopting progressive language and values to camouflage workplace issues and union busting activities.[18]

Structure

Ustwo Fampany has four primary divisions:[2]

  • Ustwo Studios is the segment that offers client services for developing mobile applications and other computer software.
  • Ustwo Games is the division focused on game development
  • Ustwo Adventure is the venture capital portion of the business, investing into smaller firms
  • Ustwo Foundation seeks to encourage creative growth in promising young persons

As of 2022, Ustwo had studios in Malmö, Lisbon, Tokyo, and New York in addition to the London headquarters, employing about 260 employees worldwide.[2]

Games developed
Year Title Platform(s)
2011 Whale Trail Android, iOS
2013 Blip Blup Android, iOS[19]
2014 Monument Valley Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone
2015 Land's End Oculus Go, Samsung Gear VR[20]
2017 Monument Valley 2 Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows
2019 Assemble with Care iOS, Microsoft Windows
2019 Headed South Android[21]
2020 Go Go Bots Browser[22]
2020 Alba: A Wildlife Adventure iOS, macOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, tvOS, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S
2022 Desta: The Memories Between Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch[23]

References
  1. "Ustwo Fampany Ltd". Companies House. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  2. "ustwo's Global Digital Product and Service Studio Expands to Lisbon" (Press release). Ustwo. 25 March 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  3. Dredge, Stewart (29 May 2015). "From MouthOff to Monument Valley: ustwo's path to apps fame". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  4. Spainer, Gideon (12 May 2014). "Growth Capital: Firm friendship and a passion for design is all ustwo needs". The Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  5. Lucas, Gavin (5 July 2010). "The chaps for apps". Creative Review. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  6. Miller, Matt (11 January 2010). "ustwo on how PR drove sales of its MouthOff app". Pocket Gamer.biz. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  7. Long, Neil (29 July 2013). "Meet Ustwo, the digital design agency turned game developer". Edge. Archived from the original on 10 August 2013.
  8. Sheffield, Brandon (19 October 2014). "When quality comes before making money: Developing Monument Valley". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  9. Diver, Mike (13 May 2014). "Monument Valley creator Ustwo on App Store success and what comes next". Edge. Archived from the original on 14 May 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  10. Tach, Dave (3 June 2014). "Threes!, Monument Valley and more games win Apple Design Awards". Polygon. Archived from the original on 20 August 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  11. Kerr, Chris (20 May 2016). "Monument Valley revenues top $14 million two years after launch". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  12. Sulleyman, Aatif (5 June 2017). "Monument Valley 2 has just been revealed". The Independent. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
  13. Kim, Matt (5 June 2017). "Surprise! Monument Valley 2 is Available on iOS Devices Right Now". USGamer. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
  14. Wilson, Mark (23 September 2019). "The creators of 'Monument Valley' are back with a game no one expected". Fast Company. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  15. Wales, Matt (11 March 2020). "Monument Valley dev's restoration game Assemble With Care coming to PC". Eurogamer. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  16. "A Joint Adventure – DICE". www.ustwo.com. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  17. Taylor, Ivy (10 October 2019). "Ustwo Games accused of union busting". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
  18. Polansky, Lana (4 September 2020). "How Games, Tech, and the Army Use Progressive Language as a Smoke Screen". Waypoint. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
  19. Lomas, Natasha (23 May 2013). "Blip Blup Is A Minimalist Mobile Puzzle Game That Lets You Play With Pulses Of Light". TechCrunch. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  20. Souppouris, Aaron (21 September 2015). "The 'Monument Valley' team has created a dream of a VR game". Engadget. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  21. Bradshaw, Kyle (19 October 2019). "Monument Valley's ustwo creates 'Headed South' for Pixel 4". 9to5Google. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  22. Takahashi, Dean (28 May 2020). "Monument Valley maker Ustwo launches Go Go Bots instant game on Facebook". VentureBeat. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  23. Tomas, Franzese (30 September 2022). "The best games of September 2022: The Last of Us, Splatoon 3, and more". Digital Trends. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
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