How Nordcurrent has survived with a big studio in Ukraine | Victoria Trofimova interview

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The team at Nordcurrent, one of Europe’s biggest mobile game companies with downloads well above 100 million downloads, has had a traumatic year.

The game company is based in Vilnius, Lithuania, but many of its mobile game developers were based in Ukraine. And after the Russian invasion 13 months ago, Nordcurrent was thrown into chaos.

At the outset of fighting, Trofimova’s team had to help employees relocate or send their loved ones across the border into Poland, where the company set up a new studio.

Nordcurrent CEO Victoria Trofimova told me in an interview that the team has worked under unbelievable conditions, like when a Russian missile landed less than 200 yards away from the Nordcurrent office in Dnipro, Ukraine, just a few months ago. The blast damaged the building and shattered windows.

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Of Nordcurrent’s 270 employees, more than 100 are still in Ukraine, working a considerable distance away from the front but still in a warzone. Some employees refused to leave, and some joined the army to fight the Russians. And the team has helped raise money for the Ukrainian cause.

I talked to Trofimova about the challenge of running the business and the greater problem of reminding everyone that the war in Ukraine is still raging. And how to ship games — including some with some very goofy images — during wartime.

Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.

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