Backed by $10M in Funding, Paul Gouge and Alex Rigby, Founders of the BAFTA Winning, Billion Dollar Developer, Playdemic Launch New Manchester-Based Studio

Manchester, 22 January 2024. Playdemic founders Paul Gouge and Alex Rigby, today announced ForthStar, their next mobile free-to-play game studio. Following the run-away, critical and commercial success of Playdemic’s Golf Clash and the studio’s subsequent sale to Electronic Arts for a record breaking $1.4B, both are now entirely focused on building ForthStar. Bringing together the best talent in the industry, to build games with creativity, innovation and great gameplay at heart.

While the reveal of their first game is more than a year away, with £7.85 M ($10M) secured from Griffin Gaming Partners, the team have sufficient funds in place to support the development of their next hit. This allows the studio and leadership team to focus entirely on building a stellar team, capable of bringing their multi- award winning, player-first development formula to the world’s biggest gaming platform.

Based in Manchester, Alex and Paul have already been joined by many of the key figures from Playdemic who helped Golf Clash reach more than 150M installs. Now, ForthStar is actively recruiting creative and technical talent as they look to further build out their industry leading team.

“Our mission is clear; to make great games that millions of people love to play, every day for years.”

Said ForthStar CEO and Co-Founder Paul Gouge.

“It’s an objective we have achieved before, and one that we know we can meet again by building exceptional games that captivate millions of players and become essential daily entertainment,”

ForthStar CEO and Co-Founder Paul Gouge continued

With a focus on studio culture and nurturing creative talent, Gouge and ForthStar Co-Founder and Creative Director, Alex Rigby have proven that they can win in the highly competitive but deeply profitable mobile space.

“We have been fortunate enough to lead and build studios populated by some of the most accomplished and creative talent in our industry. With the opening of ForthStar we are able to leverage all we’ve learnt in more than two decades of mobile gaming, establishing the strongest foundation for future innovation and success,”

said Rigby.

Since founding their first mobile studio BattleMail in 2001, Rigby and Gouge have forged a formidable track record for studio success. Their debut enterprise sold to (M)Forma in 2002 and was soon followed by the creation and sale of Rockpool Games to Eidos/Square Enix in 2007. Most recently, the sale of their third studio Playdemic to Electronic Arts (after several years inside Warner Bros) set new records for a UK studio achieving an industry breaking cash price of $1.4B.

The consistent thread in each studio is the leadership’s alignment to a strong belief in the pursuit of excellence and creative thinking, set amidst a supportive, inclusive, and inspirational culture that promotes collaboration, innovation, and professional growth. With an incredibly strong focus on people, ForthStar is one of the few to trial a four-day working week as part of its hybrid and flexible approach to working, while an anti-crunch ethos that focuses on output rather than input demonstrates the leadership’s commitment to forward thinking business practices.

With the doors at ForthStar now open, the studio are actively seeking to recruit talented individuals capable of achieving excellence as part of their highly collaborative and skilled team. More details of open positions can be found here: https://www.forthstar.com/#jobs

Prospective candidates can also reach out to [email protected] directly to register their interest in open roles at ForthStar.

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About ForthStar Games:

ForthStar is a video games developer and publisher based in Manchester, UK, on a mission to build exceptional, mass-appeal games with highly engaging core mechanics that captivate players and become essential daily entertainment. Established in 2023 by Playdemic Founders, Paul Gouge and Alex Rigby, and a team of exceptionally talented industry veterans, ForthStar’s core belief is that the best games are made by highly accomplished teams with freedom for creative innovation. ForthStar is a privately held company funded by the founders and Griffin Gaming Partners.

About Griffin Gaming Partners:

Griffin Gaming Partners is one of the world’s largest venture capital firms focused on the global gaming market with over $1B in assets under management. The firm was founded by Peter Levin, Phil Sanderson, and Nick Tuosto, with LionTree as a strategic partner to the Fund. Griffin invests in seed through growth stages across software infrastructure, content, and platforms in gaming. For more information visit: www.griffingp.com.