Head’s up, game devs: The mobile game makers at Talking Tom developer Outfit7 announced this week that they’re opening a new studio in Barcelona, Spain.
If you’re a dev looking for work in Barcelona this seems like a notable event, but even if you aren’t it’s nice to see a new studio opening up in Barcelona as the Spanish game industry (which currently seems dominated by mobile and work-for-hire studios) continues to grow.
Outfit7’s new Barcelona location will be led by longtime staffer Dani Bajc, and it’s reportedly meant to work on “innovative new Talking Tom and Friends projects, as well as our several yet-to-be-revealed mobile games.”
The company, founded in 2009, found success early on with its Talking Tom mobile app, in which a shrill animated cat repeats whatever is said into the phone’s microphone. It’s since gone on to build Talking Tom out into a family-oriented transmedia franchise (including a smattering of F2P mobile games), and last year it was acquired by a Chinese firm for ~$1 billion.
Shortly thereafter, it was sold to another Chinese company (Jinke Entertainment Culture) for roughly the same price.