Leading Roblox developer The Gang has set its sights on the wider world of gaming.
As of today, October 22, The Gang has split into two separate companies, spinning off its original IP development arm into a company named The Gang Studio. Although two companies share the same majority owners, the new studio is an entirely distinct entity, with its own executive leadership and staff. The only business unit that the two companies will share is The Gang’s sound development team, which will rent some of its hours to The Gang Studio.
“All other resources are actually placed under and employed under each company’s identity,” said The Gang co-founder and chairman Marcus Holmström in an interview with GamesBeat. “This made it possible to take in an investor for the studio, rather than having another investor in the holding company.”
Founded in 2019, the Stockholm-based The Gang has become one of the most prominent game development companies on Roblox, creating popular experiences like “Strongman Simulator” and building virtual worlds for brands like Ralph Lauren and Vans. After cutting its teeth within the Roblox ecosystem, expanding into other game publishing platforms is a logical move for the company, according to The Gang Studio CEO Joel Edström.
“There are more games released on Roblox every day than on Steam in a whole year. To stay relevant on Roblox, you need to have laser focus and enormous passion for what you do,” Edström told GamesBeat in an interview. “Splitting the company allows us to grow without compromising our priorities with our clients or our players.”
Last week, The Gang Studio quietly published its first original title, a “Strongman Simulator” sequel titled “Strongman Ultra.”
“We also have a game on Steam that we haven’t really launched yet, and a few other games in development that also have big partners involved,” said Holmström, who declined to share more details at this stage of development. “We’re going to hit the ground running.”
Part of The Gang Studio’s future strategy will be to port popular Roblox games over to other platforms such as Steam, allowing the company to generate more platform revenue from popular games while widening their audience for potential brand integrations. As the user base of user-generated gaming platforms like Roblox and Fortnite ages up, The Gang Studio is betting that at least some of these players will graduate to Steam.
“There is an audience that has grown up on Roblox that is ready to consume content off of Roblox, and is amenable to those Roblox mechanics,” said David Taylor, CEO of the Roblox data analytics platform Creator Games. “Obviously, you can monetize at a much higher rate on Steam: A, there’s a higher propensity to spend on that platform, and B, they only take 30% of the revenue, so you get to keep most of what you generate.”
Potential gains notwithstanding, The Gang Studio will also face some challenges as it pushes outward from Roblox into other gaming platforms. Currently, players exhibit different user behaviors across Roblox and Steam. In Roblox, players jump around between numerous games during each play session, spending 10 minutes or less in each. On Steam, extended play sessions of individual games are the norm.
The launch of The Game Studio is backed by funding from the gaming-focused venture capital firm Behold Ventures, which is a minority owner of the company. (Holmström declined to share the specific amount or share of the investment, but said that it was a “big enough part for [Behold] to care.” The company’s ability to attract venture backing is a notable achievement during a period in which VC funding of gaming companies has slowed significantly. The overall number of investment rounds for gaming companies fell for six straight quarters between Q1 of 2024 and Q2 of 2025, according to investment banking firm Drake Star’s Q3 2025 Global Gaming Report.
“The team’s proven track record of creating top-performing Roblox games likely made it easier for them to secure this seed round,” said Drake Star partner Michael Metzger.
What set The Gang Studio apart from other gaming companies seeking investment in 2025 was its roots in the Roblox and UGC gaming space, according to Behold Ventures founding partner Lína Ingvarsdóttir.
“We’ve actively been reviewing Roblox as a platform for quite some time; it’s an area which still feels like a frontier for our industry.” Ingvarsdóttir said in a statement to GamesBeat. “We’ve sized up a number of companies in this space, and what The Gang has achieved so far really impressed us — both the skill, muscle memory and reputation that they’ve built, combined with their vision for how Roblox is evolving.”