Social First on building a new wave of multiplayer games
Danielle Partis
News Editor
Friday 4th February 2022
In a space where the metaverse concept is becoming more prevalent than ever, it's a race to create the next big game where players can gather together in an immersive environment that'll entertain, and more importantly retain them for years to come.
Social First is a new studio that aims to be at the forefront of this, with a mission to create a new wave of cross-platform multiplayer games that have a hard focus on social elements.
The company is headed by Kim Soares, founder and CEO of Finnish mobile studio Kukouri, and COO Mikko Kähärä. It also pulls talent from other European studios, including Nitro Games, Paradox and Housemarque. With a confident team and a $2.5m cash injection to fuel its plans, Social First is full steam ahead in drafting a new gaming experience which, as you might have guessed, puts social first.
Kim Soares, co-founder and CEO
"We are gamers ourselves, and playing together with other people is the best part of the hobby," Soares tells GamesIndustry.biz. "These days there are much more opportunities for social gaming than when we were in our teens or twenties."
Kähärä adds: "There's no better user acquisition or retention driver than an invitation from a friend, no better first time user experience than your friends showing the ropes. We've seen this play out in previous titles, done thorough analysis, and found proven ways to boost the social network effect in gameplay design, live ops and marketing."
When asked why now felt like the right time to launch a studio dedicated to building social experiences, Soares says that these aspects of games are only going to grow in importance.
"The production values grow, the price of marketing and user
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