The Coffee Stain is spreading – and it’s not the type you can wash off easily. Recently launching their new studio, Coffee Stain Malmö, the Stockholm-based publisher has planted its mug firmly on the desk of the mobile market – and it didn’t use a coaster, so it’s bound to leave a mark.
Over the past decade, Coffee Stain has established itself through a variety of much-loved titles, building itself up with some brilliant, unique IPs, and earning itself a rank among many gamers’ indie darlings lists. Because of all this, it’s easy to see why so many of you are excited about Coffee Stain Malmö, and can’t wait to see what mobile games the new studio puts out – whether they feature a familiar cast of beloved dwarves and crazy goats, or a host of totally new characters to meet and worlds to explore.
Malmö is headed by Daniel Persson, the vice president of mobile at Coffee Stain. Persson has worked on mobile games for a decade of his 20-year career in the industry, having previously worked with SYBO Games and mobile giant King, among others. Naturally, this guy really knows his stuff in this area, and he feels it’s the right time for Coffee Stain to expand into these territories. “Mobile continues to be one of the fastest-growing areas of gaming,” Persson explains. “With the incredible IPs in Coffee Stain’s roster, we have a fantastic opportunity to bring new and existing titles to the mobile space.”
When it comes to genres, it seems like the sky’s the limit for Coffee Stain Malmö. “No game types or models are off-limits to us, that’s what makes this industry so exciting,” Persson says. “We have already been producing premium experiences like Huntdown Mobile, as well as more accessible free-to-play models through Goat Simulator. Ultimately, making a great game will come first.”
Since Coffee Stain has so many recognisable, iconic titles – from the explosively successful (and adorably goofy) Goat Simulator, to the exceedingly popular survival sandbox game Valheim, and, my personal favourite, the rock-smashing, bug-blasting, space-dwarf-themed fun of Deep Rock Galactic. Naturally, we can’t help but hope to see some of these familiar properties land on mobile devices.
Don’t get your hopes up about any direct ports, though, as Persson states that Coffee Stain “don’t believe in ‘porting’ games to mobile”, as “to make a great experience, it really needs to be built with mobile in mind from the start. When you look at Huntdown for example, this game was originally built for mobile before it launched for PC, so [it] felt like a natural fit and performs really well.”
However, that doesn’t mean that any of these games are off the table for Malmö. “We have no titles confirmed yet,” Persson claims, “however we will be exploring opportunities with all of Coffee Stain’s IPs, looking at how we can make it feel right for the platform.” So there’s still hope for those of us looking to prove ourselves to Odin on the go, or carry a gaggle of badass space dwarves in our pocket.
Coffee Stain isn’t necessarily stopping at mobile, either – we may see them branching out into our favourite hybrid console at some point, too. Persson states that, “whether from Malmö, or through one of the other Coffee Stain divisions, Switch will be a platform we look at in the future.” So, fingers crossed that this fresh move into the mobile market gets Coffee Stain more of the recognition they deserve, and that we get to experience more of their titles, both familiar and brand new, on an even wider range of platforms.
That’s all we know about Coffee Stain Malmö and its first steps into mobile at the moment. We can’t wait to see what the future holds with this exciting development. In the meantime, you can head over to our list of the best mobile games to find something fresh to play while you wait.