The extraordinary success of Candy Crush Saga for King Digital has generated many consequences. King Digital had a successful IPO based in large part on how well Candy Crush Saga performed, and the company has made hundreds of millions of dollars from the title. It’s also led to game designer Tommy Palm leaving King to found a startup to make VR games, and now one of the other brains behind Candy Crush Saga is leaving King. According to a report in Dagens Industri, Alexander Ekvall has left the company to found a new firm to make mobile games. “There are two giants in the mobile market. King is one, Supercell the other. We want to be the third,” Ekvall said.
Ekvall has recruited six others to work in his new company which is still nameless as yet. Two of those are former developers for King Digital, and others have come from the Unity office in Stockholm. “I have sold some of my holdings in King to afford this,” says Ekvall. “It attracted me a lot to get to work in a small, tight team again. It is fast-paced and can break new ground. That’s how it started for me.”
The company is already working on its first title, which is aimed at the mobile, free-to-play segment. “I think we have found a niche and a genre that we can make to our own, like the other giants are not appropriated yet,” said Ekvall.
