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Company Profile

Kixeye

Kixeye is a video game company founded in July 2007 and headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia, 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. Following their initial launch, Kixeye's games generated twenty times more revenue per daily active user than other social games, retaining active users five times longer on average.

History
Beginnings Developers David Scott and Paul Preece founded Kixeye as Casual Collective in Berkshire, England to "make games that we grew up playing and that we love playing." They initially started by developing thirteen Flash games. In mid-2009 when searching for new venues for their strategy games, Scott and Preece decided to move their Flash knowledge to Facebook. After developing Minions on Ice and TSG: Missions as Casual Collective, they hired Will Harbin (co-founder of Affinity Labs) as CEO and moved the company's headquarters to San Francisco from Berkshire, England. An average play session lasted greater than 30 minutes, players averaged between three and four sessions a day, and retention was over seven months. 2011-2014 After a company name rebrand in late April 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 six-month window between 2012 and 2013. 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. Later that year, Kixeye took action against racism by laying off employees reported for misconduct, following a former contractor post on Tumblr. 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. It was recently announced on Vega Conflict's Discord that the game will be coming to an end on May 15th 2026 2015-present In 2016, Kixeye launched mobile game War Commander: Rogue Assault, the prequel to War Commander. In 2019, Kixeye headquarters moved from the San Francisco office (now closed) to the Victoria, British Columbia office, and Clayton Stark was appointed CEO. On June 3, 2019, Kixeye was acquired by the Stillfront Group for US$90 million. ==List of games==
List of games
'As Kixeye (April 2011- onward):' ;Battle Pirates Released in May 2011, Battle Pirates is a real-time strategy game. In the year 2067, a terrorist-sparked world war has wiped out 95% of life on Earth. Survivors are split into five factions that engage in bloody battle on the high seas. ;War Commander War Commander is an MMORTS that entered exclusive beta access to IGN readers on September 1, 2011, and soon after in open public beta on September 13, 2011. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic landscape thirty years after civilization and governments have collapsed. In the game, people are divided into small, warring factions fighting for control of Earth's remaining natural resources. War Commander: Rogue Assault is a free-to-play game available on both iOS and Android platforms. ;Siege: Apocalypse Siege Apocalypse is a free-to-play real-time strategy video game. It is a prequel to War Commander: Rogue Assault. Players engage in PVP battles with the objective to destroy the opponent's base. Players can earn and deploy units and tactics via collectible cards. Siege: Apocalypse was released in January 2022 and is available on iOS and Android platforms. ;Rise of Firstborn Rise of Firstborn is a free-to-play 4X strategy mobile game originally developed by Netmarble and published by Kixeye in 2021. The game was previously known as Iron Throne. Players collect heroes and build a kingdom where they can ally with other players in world PVP. Discontinued games 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 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", 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. 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." An expansion for Backyard Monsters titled Inferno was released in January 2012 and in November 2012 a new world map was released. Backyard Monsters is no longer supported and player numbers have fallen significantly since its inception shortly after the final Hell-Raisers event held on March 26, 2013. It was closed down at the demise of Flash on December 31, 2020. ;Desktop Defender In Desktop Defender, players defended their desktop from creatures called "creeps." 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. ;Minions Minions briefly entered beta testing and was then fully released on November 18, 2008. ---- 'As Casual Collective with their defunct web portal (2008- early 2011):' Seventeen original Flash games on old Casual Collective's online web portal in 2008 to early 2011. • Attack of the Buggles (AotB) • Backyard MonstersBattle Pirates (Beta version on old site before company's name change & new site) • Buggle Connect (Formerly called Buggle in January–November 2008) • Buggle StarsDesktop Armada (Single player title: DA: Missions in January–November 2008) • Desktop Defender (New version of Desktop Tower Defence) • Desktop TD Pro (Formerly called MPDTD in January–November 2008 - probably being "Multi Player Desktop Tower Defence") • FarragomateFlash Element TD (Old title in January 2008. Closed before December 2008.) • Flash Element TD 2 (FETD 2) • MinionsMinions on IcePushSplitter 2The Space Game (TSG) • TSG: Missions References ==External links==
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