Kixeye

KIXEYE (stylized as KIXEYE, formerly known as Casual Collective) is a video game company founded in July 2007 and headquartered in Victoria, B.C., Canada. The company creates, develops and publishes massively multiplayer online real-time strategy games (MMORTS) for PC and mobile devices. KIXEYE gained popularity as a pioneer in midcore action games featuring real-time combat on the social networking website Facebook.[1] Following their initial launch, KIXEYE's games generated 20 times more revenue per daily active user than other social games, retaining active users 5 times longer on average.[2][3]

KIXEYE
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
GenreMassively multiplayer online real-time strategy games (MMORTS)
FoundedJuly 2007 (2007-07)
FounderPaul Preece
David Scott
Will Harbin
Headquarters
Victoria
,
Canada
Key people
  • Clayton Stark
  • (CEO)
  • Tyler Black
  • (CSO)
  • Christopher McMullen
  • (CPO)
  • Tim Holland
  • (CFO)
  • Lewis Sobotkiewicz
  • (Sr. Technical Director)
  • Kendra McCarthy
  • (GM for AUS)
ProductsWar Commander, Battle Pirates, Vega Conflict, War Commander: Rogue Assault, Backyard Monsters, Desktop Defender, Tome
ParentStillfront Group
Websitekixeye.com

Hit titles include Rogue Assault, Battle Pirates, War Commander, and VEGA Conflict.

History
KIXEYE office reception in 2012.

Beginnings

Developers David Scott and Paul Preece founded KIXEYE as Casual Collective to "make games that we grew up playing and that we love playing."[4] They initially started by developing 13 Flash games.[2][5][6]

In mid-2009 when searching for new venues for their strategy games, Scott and Preece decided to move their Flash knowledge to Facebook.[5][7][8] After developing Minions on Ice and TSG: Missions, Casual Collective, they hired Will Harbin (co-founder of Affinity Labs) as CEO and moved KIXEYE’s headquarters to San Francisco. They developed Desktop Defender, a Tower Defense game for Facebook.[9][6] After its release in December 2009, the game reached 675,000 monthly active users and produced more revenue in one day than their previous games made in one month.[6]

In 2010, KIXEYE released Backyard Monsters. After three months on the market, the new game had 500,000 monthly active users, and by July 2010, it had 4.5 million monthly active users.[6][7] The game reached 2.5 million active users per month, 580,000 active users per day, with a 23 percent retention rate.[6][10] An average play session lasted greater than 30 minutes, players averaged between three and four sessions a day, and retention was over seven months.[11][2][6] The game earned a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars, with over 500,000 votes.[5] Gamezebo gave Backyard Monsters 4.5 out of 5 stars, and said, "To release a game of this calibre for free on Facebook is a real achievement."[12] Backyard Monsters also won the Mochi Award for Best Social Game of 2010.[13]

2011-2014

2011, KIXEYE launched War Commander and Battle Pirates on the Facebook Games platform. These games stood as the only midcore action games with real-time combat at the time. Both games grew immensely, with a majority of users joining organically in a 6-month window between 2012 and 2013. Many of these initial users still play Battle Pirates and War Commander.

In 2011, VentureBeat stated that KIXEYE's game War Commander "Represents a big step forward in the evolution of Facebook games." Facebook banner ads continue to draw in new players.[7]

In 2013, VEGA Conflict, a spiritual successor to Battle Pirates set in space, launched on Flash but was quickly rebuilt in Unity. The game became KIXEYE’s first cross-platform title, with players able to play on mobile, Steam, and browser.

2015-Present

In 2016, KIXEYE launched mobile game War Commander: Rogue Assault, the long-awaited prequel to War Commander. After ironing out some initial technical issues and transitioning game operations to Canada, Rogue Assault hit its stride.

In 2019, KIXEYE headquarters moved from the San Francisco office (now closed) to the Victoria, B.C. office, and Clayton Stark was appointed CEO. Since the transition, development teams have adjusted their structure to better operate as centers of excellence, providing centralized support for KIXEYE and other Stillfront partners as needed.

Acquisition

On June 3, 2019, Kixeye was acquired by the Stillfront Group of Stockholm, Sweden for $90 million USD.[14][15]

Controversy

In 2012, the company sparked a small controversy after they released a video advertising for programmers that an article interpreted as sexist, and which the article argued represented a common problem of sexism in tech industries. A response from their female vice president of engineering stated that the video was misinterpreted by the journalist, and was not intended as sexist.[16]

Later that year, KIXEYE took action against racism by laying off employees reported for misconduct, following a former contractor post on Tumblr.[17]

Active Games

War Commander

War Commander is an MMORTS that entered open beta in 2009, and also ranks as one of the top Facebook games of all time. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic landscape 30 years after civilization and governments have collapsed. In the game, man is divided into small, warring factions fighting for control of Earth’s remaining natural resources. In the game, man is divided into small, warring factions fighting for control of Earth's remaining natural resources – Metal, Oil and Thorium.[7]

Several years after release, War Commander released a World Map feature, which massively boosted activity in the game. This set the stage for all other KIXEYE games afterwards to include World Map gameplay.

Battle Pirates

Released in May 2011,[6][18] Battle Pirates[19] is one of the most successful Facebook RTS games ever launched, and it has among the highest per-user monetization of all-time. Battle Pirates marked “the first synchronous real-time strategy of its kind”.

In the year 2067, a terrorist-sparked world war has wiped out 95% of life on Earth. Survivors are split into five factions[20] that engage in bloody battle on the high seas.

Vega Conflict

VEGA Conflict is a real-time strategy game launched in August of 2013. Originally built in Flash, VEGA Conflict was rebuilt in Unity in 2014 and became KIXEYE’s first cross-platform title. Users all occupy the same server but can play on browser, on mobile, or via Steam.

The game focuses on the VEGA Federation, an overbearing space empire that subjects miners to harsh working conditions in an attempt to find valuable Blood Amber. The miners begin to rebel, drawing more enemies and allies into the fray. Players seek out blueprints to unlock more powerful ships and weapons, forming the ultimate fleet of spaceships to bring to events or PvP combat.

War Commander: Rogue Assault

War Commander: Rogue Assault is a mobile-based MMORTS game developed by KIXEYE. War Commander: Rogue Assault takes place in a hypothetical post-apocalyptic World War III era. Players build and train their armies in an effort to take control of the remaining world with the help of their alliance.

War Commander: Rogue Assault was released in December 2016 and developed with the help of Command and Conquer creator, Lou Castle.[21] What separates War Commander: Rogue Assault from other games in its category is the ability to instantly build buildings, units, and all other items in-game with build times.[21] War Commander: Rogue Assault is a free-to-play game available on both iOS and Android platforms.

Shelved Titles

KIXEYE has developed multiple titles in its time that either made it to live and have since been shelved. This list includes the original tower defense game, Desktop Defender; a browser-based MOBA called TOME: Immortal Arena; and (most famously) the game Backyard Monsters, which inspired much of the base-building RTS genre that followed.

Backyard Monsters

Development of Backyard Monsters started in 2009, but the game was not released until January 2010 as Desktop Creatures before being renamed by fan vote to Backyard Monsters. Backyard Monsters was released as a real-time strategy game on Facebook with "destruction and gore and mayhem",[5][22] unlike other Facebook games at the time. In Backyard Monsters, players build a yard for their monsters, designed so that essential buildings are protected by defensive towers. If the player's yard is designed correctly, the defenses stop invading monsters who try to damage the buildings and loot resources.[12][23][24] Backyard Monsters: Unleashed was a port to iOS released in October 2013.

Executive Producer David Scott said he designed the game to "be able to play a [real-time strategy] game in short sessions."[25] An expansion for Backyard Monsters titled Inferno was released in January 2012 and in November 2012 a new world map was released.[25] In addition to this, Backyard Monsters also had outposts in the new world map when the new world map update came.[25]

On February 18, 2013, the Kongregate version of Backyard Monsters was shut down.[26]

Backyard Monsters is no longer supported and player numbers have fallen significantly since its groundbreaking inception shortly after the final Hell-Raisers event held on March 26, 2013.[27] It was finally closed down at the demise of Flash on December 31, 2020.

Desktop Defender

In Desktop Defender, players defended their desktop from creatures called "creeps."[28][29] Players deployed defensive turrets to attack anything in range. Each defeated creep rewarded players with coins, which players could use to unlock new towers that shot frost, ink, swarms of missiles and other defenses. Players could also purchase special bonus powers that slowed down enemies, sped up tower guns and caused damage.

Desktop is no longer supported by KIXEYE long before the demise of Flash on December 31, 2020.

TOME: Immortal Arena

TOME: Immortal Arena was a MOBA formerly developed by KIXEYE. Official development by KIXEYE ended February 5, 2015. The game was finally shut down on May 17, 2015. [30]

New Projects

As of 2020, KIXEYE has a number of projects in development, including opportunities with other Stillfront Group partners.

References
  1. Cutler, Kim-Mai. Kixeye Is The Lucrative Dark Horse of Facebook Gaming. TechCrunch. April 18, 2012.
  2. Gaudiosi, John. Kixeye Kicking to the Curb Notion of Boring Facebook Games Forbes. April 5, 2012.
  3. De Vere, Kathleen. "Monetizing Social Games on Facebook". Inside Social Games. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  4. Ayzenberg A-List Summit John Getze Kixeye Interview. GamerLiveTV. March 1, 2012.
  5. Social Games Don't Have to Suck YouTube. August 18, 2011
  6. Thompson, Mike. Two Years Later Backyard Monsters Continues to Thrive on Facebook. Inside Social Games". March 20, 2012.
  7. Takahashi, Dean. Kixeye's War Commander brings real time strategy to Facebook gaming. Venture Beat. September 13, 2011.
  8. Slangen, Simon. The Casual Collective - Fun Online Multiplayer Flash Games Make Use Of. January 15, 2009.
  9. Takahashi, Dean. Kixeye re-brands and pivots into hardcore social games with Battle Pirates. VentureBeat. April 28, 2011.
  10. Hyman, Paul. Gaming the New Era of Facebook Gamasutra. February 9, 2011.
  11. Takahashi, Dean. Kixeye quietly makes big bucks on hardcore Facebook games. Venture Beat. March 16, 2012.
  12. Ashby, Alicia. Backyard Monsters Review Archived 2012-07-30 at the Wayback Machine GameZebo. May 7, 2010.
  13. Lemaire, Elodie (3 January 2011). "Le Mochi Award du meilleur jeu social 2010 est attribué à..." Picabum (in French). Retrieved 2 August 2011.
  14. https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/761396
  15. https://venturebeat.com/2019/06/03/stillfront-acquires-kixeye/
  16. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/08/real-problem-sexist-video-game-hiring-strategy/325039/
  17. http://www.ebony.com/news-views/what-can-be-done-about-racism-in-technology-981
  18. "Battle Pirates on Facebook".
  19. "Battle Pirates".
  20. Rao, Leena. Gaming Startup The Casual Collective Rebrands as Kixeye; Launches Battle Pirates on Facebook. Tech Crunch. April 28, 2011.
  21. Venture Beat
  22. "Ravenwood Fair Crosses 10 Million Players on This Week's List of Fastest-Growing Facebook Games by MAU".
  23. "Gamasutra - Features - Gaming The New Era Of Facebook". Gamasutra. UBM TechWeb. Retrieved 18 June 2011.
  24. "Backyard Monsters on Facebook".
  25. Gibbons, Pat. An Interview with Dave Scott, Backyard Monsters' Executive Producer Archived 2012-06-25 at the Wayback Machine. Gamers Daily News. March 18, 2012.
  26. "A Message from Kongregate". Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  27. "Backyard Monsters usage". Archived from the original on January 8, 2013.
  28. Meunier, Nathan. "Desktop Defender Review". GameZebo. Archived from the original on 30 May 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  29. "Desktop Defender on Facebook".
  30. "WrongThinker Thinks #10 - In Which We Say Goodnight".
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