4 Small Businesses That Gained Nationwide Success Thanks to Gaming

There aren’t a lot of sectors these days that give small businesses the chance to compete and overtake the larger more successful companies. However, one industry that has seen many small businesses hit the big time is the gaming industry. These fleet-of-foot innovators can upset the apple cart and punch above their weight. Below you’ll discover some of the companies that have managed to gain nationwide success thanks to gaming.

Ubisoft Montreal

This small Canadian studio was once relatively unknown. It started out working on some pretty low profile games after being founded in 1997. Even today there are many gamers who don’t realize their favorite games were actually developed by this company. So what games do you have to thank Ubisoft Montreal for? Well the most high profile is Assassins Creed. However, it has also worked on Tom Clancy, Far Cry and Prince of Persia.

MOJANG

This Swedish company was set up in 2009. Despite being one of the newer companies on this list, it has managed to become one of the most dominant names in the gaming industry. The company has just two games in its portfolio, with the most famous being none other than ‘Minecraft’. The game became so successful that it attracted attention from Microsoft who acquired the company in 2014.

OMGPop

OMGPop was one of the first companies to really benefit from mobile gaming. As featured on the Developer Economics website, this developer was responsible for the cult ‘Draw Something’ game. Until the release of this game, the company had seen very little success despite launching 30 different games. Draw Something saw it experience near-overnight fame, attracting massive amounts of interest from those keen to see a piece of the action. Zynga acquired the game, shortly after it hit the number one spot, for an impressive $200 million.

Rovio Entertainment

Rovio Entertainment is proof that persistence does pay off. The company created 51 different games before they hit the big time with cult classic ‘Angry Birds’. In order to achieve such substantial success, the company diversified. This meant not just limiting themselves to the mobile app world, but also creating merchandise, films and cartoons to build a vivid world.

Why small businesses are finding it easier to hit the big time

As you can see from the examples above, there is a lot of potential for companies to start off small and gain overnight success in the gaming industry. There’s no denying that a large contributing factor to this is the rise of the internet and, specifically, mobile. The rise in on-the-go gaming has provided success for a large number of companies. It has been particularly beneficial for online casinos and bingo sites too, giving a new platform and lease of life for already-popular games. Players now have access to all of their favorite games no matter where they are.

Overall the gaming sector is the one area where startup businesses and even independent developers can take on the giants. Where bigger companies had perhaps been slow to seize the opportunities offered by smartphones, smaller companies developed strong ideas that took hold. The challenge for smaller businesses is to continue to innovate and lead the way.