:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/30048275/techno-10-25-02-2014.0.jpg)
Boss Fight Entertainment — a free-to-play and mobile-focused studio founded by former Zynga veterans — will have its first title published by casual games giant Big Fish Games, the companies announced today.
This new game will be a casual title designed to bring new players into the genre, which Boss Fight notes in a press statement previously seemed unaccessible to a wider, not-so-niche audience. The genre and theme of the title is "different than past Big Fish offerings" and should "surprise the industry."
Big Fish's past success with reaching new audiences and growing its player base with free-to-play titles is why Boss Fight has chosen to publish with them.
"We were impressed with Big Fish's ability to take Big Fish Casino and scale it worldwide to the number one grossing app in the casino genre, and the only casino game to make it into the top ten of both of Apple's 2013 top-grossing lists," said Boss Fight president and CEO David Rippy in a press statement. "We are confident that with our game and Big Fish's distribution and audience-building acumen, we have a winning combination. "
"Big Fish is growing and changing fast. It is not the company it was even a year ago," added Big Fish general manager and vice president of studios Chris Williams. "Successfully transitioning its PC legacy business to mobile, Big Fish launched five free-to-play games in 2013, and more than half of its 2013 mobile revenue stemmed from those products. In 2014 the company will be focused on launching hit free-to-play games — some in genres that may be unexpected.
"The game with Boss Fight is one of those surprises, and represents a strategy of moving beyond the conventional casual genres and mechanics, investing deeply to build hits and grow our audience."
Boss Fight Entertainment was founded in mid-2013 and was already well underway on its first title as of last month. The Dallas-based studio is made up of veterans from Zynga's now-closed Bonfire Studios, whose resumes include successful social, console and PC games like Age of Empires and Castleville.
