The Finnish studio Papukaya is preparing to close down
It has become known that the mobile game development studio Papukaya is disbanding. It was founded in 2020 by veterans from Supercell, Rovio, and Seriously Digital, with the aim of creating games for people "who do not consider themselves gamers."
Papukaya's CEO Drussila Hollanda wrote on LinkedIn that working with experimental games turned out to be too challenging, especially in a market that is becoming increasingly difficult for newcomers to enter.
"As I began to understand the nature of this beast, I had to ask myself increasingly serious questions: 'Is the F2P segment really the best fit for what we envisioned?', 'Am I even the right leader for this company, am I capable of guiding us to success?'" Hollanda wrote. "It was tempting to ignore these thoughts and continue moving forward with blind optimism, but ultimately I came to the conclusion that the wisest decision for the company would be to hit the brakes and reassess our situation."
Hollanda shared that over three years, her studio developed 12 prototypes and seven game projects. She eventually brought two games to release—Color Connect! and B&B Dreams.
Holland thanked her team and expressed gratitude to Supercell, which invested €2.7 million in Papukaya.