The studio was founded in 2000. It is one of the oldest studios in the Gameloft group, alongside
Gameloft Montreal and Gameloft
Bucharest, which were also founded in 2000 (excluding
Gameloft's headquarters, established in 1999 in
Paris). While Gameloft Barcelona now has more than 240 employees, the studio started with fewer than 50 employees, and had 150 in 2016. Its first standalone title was
Diamond Rush, released in 2006 on Java ME and BlackBerry. It is cited as one of the most notable mobile titles of the pre-smartphone era. The player controls an explorer whose objective is to collect diamonds across various environments (Southeast Asian temples, European castles, icy caves), avoiding traps and enemies. In 2007, the studio released its second project,
Rise of Lost Empires, in which the player leads a medieval kingdom, manages resources, recruits units, and progresses through a story-driven campaign inspired by PC strategy games. Upon release, the game received favorable reviews, praised for its ambition and production quality on mobile platforms, despite criticism regarding imprecise controls and certain technical limitations. In 2008, the studio released puzzle game
Diamond Twister, which achieved significant success and led to sequel,
Diamond Twister 2. That same year, Gameloft Barcelona completed development of
Zombie Infection, which also attracted a substantial player base and later received a sequel,
Zombie Infection 2 (developed by Gameloft Shanghai). It was also in 2008 that the studio released
Hero of Sparta, and of which Gameloft Barcelona will release a sequel,
Hero of Sparta 2, in 2010. In 2011, the studio released
Six-Guns, an open-world western action game, which was at the time their most ambitious game. They also released two adaptations of
Ubisoft games for mobile phones at the same time:
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn and
James Cameron's Avatar In 2013, Gameloft Barcelona released
Despicable Me: Minion Rush, launched as a
free-to-play title. The game became a commercial success, surpassing one billion downloads, and continues to receive updates. In the same year, the studio released
Asphalt 8: Airborne, part of Gameloft's flagship
Asphalt franchise, taking over the franchise from
Gameloft Montreal. The game was also a major success, achieving over 500 million sales, It is the most downloaded arcade racing game on mobile platforms and became the highest-rated Spanish-made game of all time on
Metacritic, with an average score of 91 out of 100. Asphalt 8 deeply revamped the gameplay of the franchise, notably by adding verticality to the tracks (with jumps). Between 2015 and 2019, while the
Gameloft group experienced significant financial and structural difficulties, the Barcelona studio was not affected by mass layoffs, unlike several other studios within the group. During this period, Gameloft's other Spanish studio, Gameloft Madrid, closed. In 2018, the studio released
Asphalt 9: Legends, which, like previous entries in the series, was commercially successful. The game was ported to
Nintendo Switch in 2019 and, following a strategic shift by Gameloft toward
computer and console platforms, was later released on computer and
Xbox consoles, before arriving on
PlayStation 5 in 2024.
Asphalt 9 : Legends introduces a more advanced nitro system, far more frequent and impactful jumps in the gameplay, as well as 360° spins of the cars to eliminate opponents, while also adding new game modes over the course of updates. To mark the franchise’s 20th anniversary, the game was renamed
Asphalt Legends. Gameloft Barcelona continues to release updates for
Asphalt Legends and
Disney Speedstorm in parallel. Updates for the
Despicable me : Minions Rush game (created by Gameloft Barcelona in 2013) also continue, but are now developed by Gameloft Ukraine (Gameloft Kharkiv and Gameloft Lviv). In 2026, the studio gradually begins recruiting for an "premium game" which will be dedicated to the
PC and
console platforms (like most new Gameloft games). == Gameloft Barcelona Games ==