| FinBlade | |
| Type: | Private |
| Foundation: | 2007 |
| Founder: | John Chasey, Fergus McNeill, Steve Longhurst & Barry Simpson |
| Location City: | Eastleigh |
| Location Country: | UK |
| Industry: | Mobile game & Mobile application development |
FinBlade is a British mobile game and mobile app developer. FinBlade was founded by John Chasey, Fergus McNeill, Steve Longhurst and Barry Simpson in August 2007. Much of the FinBlade team previously worked at mobile game developer IOMO.[1]
The studio were one of the first supporters of the Zeemote Bluetooth analogue joystick for mobiles with their 2-Player Fireworks title announced in January 2008.[2]
Later that month the new studio received critical success when FinBlade won the TIGA Best Mobile Game category for, developed for the New Media division of Eidos Interactive.[3] This was followed in June 2008 where they were nominated in the Best New UK/European Studio category in the Develop Industry Excellence Awards.[4]
In the second half of 2008, making use of the Bedrock technology from Metismo the studio's output was largely focused on the Apple iPhone with many original and licensed titles appearing and charting on the App Store.[5]
Google Android support quickly followed with versions of many of their titles appearing for distribution on Handango, before billing support was added to the Android Market.[6] FinBlade later received nominations in the 'Best Casual Game' and '2009 Groundbreaker' categories for Tennis Slam in the Handango Champion Awards for the Android.
In June 2009 with the advent of a broader range of mobile content available on the iPhone FinBlade also started developing applications, commencing with Red Bull GP on the iPhone, published by Red Bull Racing, The Men Who Stare at Goats app promoting the film adaption of Jon Ronson's book, followed by a match report and news centre app for Liverpool F.C. All the app titles reached the top of their respective category charts in the UK App Store.
In December 2009 the iPhone title Battleship, based on the Hasbro board game and developed by FinBlade, was published by EA Mobile to critical acclaim, described as the 'best board game adaption yet'[7] by cNET.com and receiving a Gold Award from mobilegamefaqs.com.[8]
2010 saw a series of mobile versions of the Deadliest Catch TV series from Discovery Channel, published by Hands-On Mobile which won the Mobile Village Superstar Award in the Consumer App: Game category,[9] and another Hasbro title Pictureka!, published by EA Mobile.[10]
In 2011 the multi-format title Spellathon was developed for the charity mencap, a spelling-bee game featuring Stephen Fry, on the web and mobile devices which seeks to both educate and raise funds for the charity.
During 2013 they agreed a deal with Puzzler Media, a subsidiary of DC Thomson to create a new social / mobile destination for puzzle players, Puzzler World.[11]