Grinding Gear Games was based in 2006 by Westies Chris Wilson and Jonathan Rogers and Erik Olofsson, a Swede they met whereas enjoying on-line.
Grinding Gear Games’ co-founders (from left) Chris Wilson, Jonathan Rogers and Eric Olofsson, pictured close to their Henderson workplace in 2014. Photo / Richard Robinson
They used crowdfunding to develop Path of Exile (nonetheless the agency’s solely title).
In 2018, Tencent purchased an 88% stake in Grinding Gear Games for what the Overseas Investment Office mentioned was a “consideration that exceeds $100 million”.
Over the intervening years, Tencent has step by step purchased up the founders’ remaining stakes. It now has 100% possession.
Throughout, Wilson remained as chief govt and held a seat on the board as properly.
Co-founder leaves for brand new challenge
In January, Path of Exile followers famous his absence from the sport. In February, he resigned as a director, withRogers taking his place on the board and likewise taking up the reins as CEO.
Wilson was the second of the three founders to depart. Olofsson left Grinding Gear in 2022 to discovered Erik’s Curiosa, maker of an old-school offline sport, Sorcery: Contested Realm.
Wilson instructed the Herald he’s based a start-up, Light Pattern – a brand new sport studio that’s recruiting workers. He would solely supply: “I am intentionally not talking about my new project for a few years, so that I don’t set any expectations.”
Staff numbers leap, Exile 2 shut
Meanwhile, Rogers was comfortable to offer an replace on Grinding Gear’s progress in its new monetary yr.
“In December, we released our sequel, Path of Exile 2, into Early Access and reached the number one position on the global top sellers list of Steam [online gaming distribution platform] with over 850,000 players online, more than doubling the previous PoE1 [Path of Exile] record,” he mentioned.
“We have over 240 staff in New Zealand now and are continuing to hire – although we are quickly running out of office space.
“Contrast that to April 2024, when we only had 180 staff in-house.”
READ MORE: Video sport sector jobs up 20.5% with tax rebate, however half of funds unclaimed
When Tencent took management in 2018, Grinding Gear had 114 workers at its long-time headquarters – a nondescript workplace constructing close to the Henderson Pak’nSave (a distinction to a different Tencent funding – RocketWerkz with its spacecraft-themed digs on the prime of the brand new PwC Tower on Auckland’s waterfront).
“Our major goal now is to finish Path of Exile 2 and get it out of Early Access and into full release. We don’t have an announced timeline for that, but we will continue to release content for it every four months until it’s done,“ Rogers said.
“In the meantime, Path of Exile 1 continues to get content updates every four months as well.”
The rising Auckland workers numbers shall be music to the ears of the Government and NZ On Air – or no less than a aid {that a} new 20% rebate is working (an NZ On Air report had whole sport sector employment rising by a fifth to 1300 within the yr to March).
Wilson was one of many trade leaders who mentioned they’d be pressured to arrange store in Australia with a purpose to stay aggressive within the expertise struggle, if New Zealand didn’t match the tax rebates being provided throughout the Tasman.
Grinding Gear was a recipient within the newest NZ On Air funding spherical. (The scheme provides 20c again on each $1 spent on a online game, as much as a $3m cap.)
Postscript: A Musk second
Path of Exile has lengthy been a favorite with the fantasy crowd, but in addition had a mainstream media second in January when Elon Musk claimed to be one of many sport’s prime gamers.
The Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder used X, previously Twitter to spotlight his Path of Exile abilities as a part of a social media showcase designed to disclose his “world-class” abilities enjoying varied titles, which he had bragged about on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
But because the New York Times reported on January 26: “The community of gamers he’s long tried to impress turned against him. It started with a livestream of Mr Musk playing Path of Exile, a popular action role-playing game known for its difficulty. Despite his account showing he had earned one of the game’s highest levels, his game play looked like that of an amateur.”
Internet sleuths made YouTube videos and took to Reddit threads to dissect his game play, exposing mistakes a novice would make, the Times said.
There were allegations that Musk was guilty of “boosting” – hiring a talented gamer on the sly to go online to his account and construct it up.
There was circumstantial evidence for the frowned-upon practice (and it does go to the heart of the gaming ethos; the “Grinding” in Grinding Gear Games is a nod to what fantasy players called “the grind” of building a character).
“Gamers pointed out that Musk’s Path of Exile account has been active at times he couldn’t have been playing himself, like on Monday [January 20] morning, while he was at Trump’s inauguration,” the Times reported.
Musk was accused of the same jape with another popular game, Diablo IV, for the same reasons.
Wilson has maintained a diplomatic silence.
Ninja Kiwi takes revenue, income hits
Ninja Kiwi was based by Kumeū brothers Chris Harris (left) and Stephen Harris.
Meanwhile, Ninja Kiwi has reported a $28.8m net profit on $77.6m revenue for the year to December 31, 2024 – down from its $40.9m profit on $89.5m revenue for 2023.
The result was net of a $32.0m dividend paid to its Scandinavian owner, down from $42m last year.
The mobile gaming specialist was bought by Sweden’s Modern Times Group (MTG) in a 2021 deal worth kr1.2 billion (Swedish krona, $203m) – with kr406m ($68m) of that total being contingent on performance targets.
In 2020, the Technology Investment Network estimated Ninja Kiwi’s revenue at $50m for its TIN200 list of our largest tech exporters.
Ninja Kiwi was founded by Kumeū brothers Chris and Stephen Harris. It first released its hit game Bloons in 2007. The founders could not be immediately reached for comment. The game had some six million active users at the time of the company’s Swedish takeover.
Ninja Kiwi has also been a recipient of NZ On Air’s gaming sector rebate.
LinkedIn Insights says the firm has 18 staff currently, including seven in Auckland (the rest are in the UK – primarily Scotland, where it bought another small gaming studio ahead of the MTG acquisition), from 16 in 2023.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s enterprise workforce. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the know-how editor and a senior enterprise author.
