MY.GAMES, the gaming brand of Mail.ru Group, has announced it is fully consolidating Belarus-based studio SWAG MASHA known for developing the popular mobile title Love Sick: Interactive Stories. The studio has been working with the MY.GAMES investment division since July 2018, securing funding for the project.
The game was launched in January 2019 on Google Play and in March on the App Store. More than three million users registered in the game within the first six months since its release. The title is currently showing a stable increase in monthly revenue and strong potential to grow further.
“SWAG MASHA is a great example of investing in a studio at the first stages of its project, when the team has nothing but an idea and morale. Only one year passed between the first steps in cooperation and full consolidation. Yet we’ve managed to establish a format of working together where the team is constantly developing its project, while we come in with expertise and resources when needed,” said Ilya Karpinsky, Director of MY.GAMES Investment Division. “We have decided to bring the studio into MY.GAMES because we see strong potential and growing popularity of projects in this genre. We’re very happy to see SWAG MASHA joining our team, boosting our strength in mobile and fortifying our foothold in the market.”
The SWAG MASHA studio will receive access to MY.GAMES unique ecosystem as well as multifaceted marketing and operational support on all stages of project development.
“At our first meeting with the MY.GAMES investment division, all we had was a presentation of the game and a team of three people: the project’s producer Dmitry Nikiforov, lead developer Kirill Nadezhdin, and me,” said Alexei Korneyev, Managing Director at SWAG MASHA. “The MY.GAMES expertise and resources helped us with growing as a studio, and scaling one of our top gaming projects, Love Sick: Interactive Stories.”
SWAG MASHA was founded in May 2018 in Minsk, Belarus. The studio presently employs 30 people. SWAG MASHA focuses on story-driven games, in collaboration with leading screenwriters from the movie and TV industry. Love Sick: Interactive Stories is the studio’s first game.
* The studio’s press kit is available here.
