Goodgame Studios founders Kai and Christian Wawrzinek will give up their positions of CEO and chief strategy officer (respectively) of the mobile game company next February.
The brothers will serve as shareholders of Stillfront, a publisher and developer that merged with Goodgame in 2018 in order to take Hamburg, Germany-based Goodgame public.
The Wawrzinek brothers and Fabian Ritter started the game company in 2009. Kai had a doctorate in law and his brother Christian had a doctorate in orthodontics. But they were bored with their professions and decided gaming was more fun. They made games such as a free-to-play online poker title.
The company grew to more than 300 million registered users in 26 countries. Empire: Four Kingdoms is the company’s highest-grossing game.
“Stillfront’s acquisition of Goodgame is a perfect strategic fit and we are very encouraged by the realization of synergies we have seen during 2018,” said Kai Wawrzinek, in a statement.
“The timing is now right for us to hand over daily management of Goodgame, allowing us more time to create value for Stillfront as active shareholders.”
Stillfront Group CEO Jörgen Larsson said in a statement, “Goodgame Studios is performing well, with strong profitability and a solid pipeline for future game releases. The management team of Goodgame has an impressive track record, and we have a strong leadership in place to ensure an orderly transition while building on the positive business momentum seen across the Group.”