Get Live Quote From student kitchen to profitable supercompany – Arrowhead Game Studios
Sweden
Challenge
Arrowhead Game Studios was founded in spring 2009 by five game-loving university friends in Skeletå. They created Magicka 2D through a combination of great playfulness and hard graft. Just months later, the game was named Game of the Year at the prestigious Swedish Game Awards. Today they have around 100 people at Hammarbykajen in Stockholm. To begin with, it worked to focus solely on direct game development, but the more they hired, the more administration there was. With the move to Hammarbykajen in Stockholm, they needed to take a comprehensive approach to review and further improve their processes.
When we started, the goal was never to become a large company. We wanted to change the gaming industry. We were tired of and somewhat dissatisfied with how uniform all games were. Ours should instead be challenging, social and give space for the player's own creativity. For us, gaming is a social experience where you talk and share experiences with each other, your family and your friends. — Malin Hedström, Studio Director
Our objective is clearly stated – to develop games. Aspia has definitely helped us to become even better at our strongest areas of interest. — Malin Hedström
Solution
To maintain full focus on their core business, Arrowhead collaborated with Aspia in their home town of Skeletå from almost the beginning. A partnership that continues today. While Arrowhead handles ideas, development and design of their games, Aspia manages everything relating to tax advice, payroll administration, expatriate payroll, accounting and other consultancy. One of the measures Aspia helped with was simplifying payroll administration for overseas employees. They still work with the same team at Aspia's local office. It works brilliantly, despite the distance. They stay in touch via phone and video calls.
Results
For several years, Arrowhead has been one of DI's Gazelle companies. And in both 2017 and 2018, Arrowhead was named one of Sweden's Supercompanies by Veckans Affärer for its profitability, financial management and rapid growth. The path to the global gaming world went via Helldivers, the first collaboration with Sony Interactive in the USA.
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