The 23-year journey of Kiloo Games is coming to an end, as the studio is now laying off staff ahead of its closure. The Danish team is best known as co-developer of Subway Surfers, one of the most popular mobile games ever.
MetroLand
Kiloo Games hasn’t officially announced the closure, but it was reported by Game Developer, which cited a LinkedIn post by design director Thomas Frøhlich. “12 years later the journey with Kiloo ends as all employees have been served with a warning about termination by the end of the month,” he wrote, thanking his colleagues and the studio itself.
Frøhlich wasn’t the only Kiloo employee to share the news about the layoffs. Senior UI/UX designer Natalia Rebrova noted that the entire company has been terminated, and 3D artist Mogens Skjold Overbeck also wrote that “the studio is closing its doors.”
The real reason behind the company’s closure currently remains unclear, but it looks like all 100 employees will be laid off.
Founded in 2000 by Jacob Møller, Kiloo Games has developed a handful of mobile games based on various brands such as Hugo, Maya the Bee, and Happy Tree Friends. Its most popular titles include Smash Champs, Frisbee Forever, and Spellbinders.
However, the company is best known for Subway Surfers, which was co-developed with SYBO Games. Kiloo has also been the game’s publisher from its launch in 2012 to 2020, when SYBO took over the full operation of the project. Last year, Subway Surfers surpassed 4 billion lifetime downloads globally.
After breaking up with the game, Kiloo tried to make another endless runner, MetroLand. The title came out in 2022, but didn’t find much success in the mobile market. According to AppMagic, it generated under 2 million downloads and reached around $17k in revenue.