Overview
Gameloft is a French company established on 1st December 1999 as Gameloft.com S.A. On 30th November 2001 the name was changed to Gameloft S.A. The company was founded as a partnership between
Ubi Soft (game development and publishing) and Guillemot Corporation (multimedia products), with seven people from the Guillemot family as shareholders. It was formed with the aim to develop, publish and distribute games and product for mobile devices and interactive television.
On 1st October 2001 the whole of
Ludigames S.A. (another company set up by the Guillemot family) merged with Gameloft S.A. and was absorbed into that company.
Michel Guillemot took over the managing roles of the new fused company from his brother
Gérard Guillemot. The merger was needed because Gameloft could not create the needed profit based on web activities (66,600,000 € net loss in the fiscal year 2001) and Ludigames, despite the larger scope with PDA and SMS), was not profitable either. After the merger, some but not all of Ludigames' many offices became Gameloft divisions. By June 2003 Gameloft employed 110 people at eight subsidiaries:
Some offices were closed as well:
Gameloft.com Ltd. (UK),
Gameloft.com Srl (Italy) and
Gameloft KK (Japan, formerly Ludigames KK).
After the merger Gameloft gave web products as the sole focus a lower priority and quickly went on to define its core business as JAVA and BREW game titles. With Ubi Soft as an important partner, many of Gameloft's mobile games are based on popular franchises such as
Rayman,
Splinter Cell,
Prince of Persia and
Assassin's Creed.
Much of the work was done in office in Eastern Europe and China. Some of these divisions include:
The company also owns and maintains jeuxvideo.com - a popular French games website.
By July 2007 Ubisoft disposed of the 18.89% interest it owned in Gameloft to Calyon, investment bank, under
an equity swap agreement.
Also Known As
- Gameloft S.A. (from Nov 30, 2001 to Nov 22, 2012)
- Gameloft.com S.A. (from Dec 01, 1999 to Nov 30, 2001)
Games
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Trivia
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