Lego Digital Play buys Golf Clash founders' studio ForthStar
What's the deal? Lego Digital PlayDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has acquired ForthStar, a Manchester-based mobile game studio founded by the creators of Golf Clash. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal adds about 30 staff to Lego Digital Play, which previously had around 100 people in London and Denmark.
Who's involved? ForthStar's co-founders Paul Gouge and Alex Rigby built Playdemic, the studio behind Golf Clash — a mobile sports game that has generated more than $1 billion in revenue. The pair left Playdemic and founded ForthStar in 2023 to build and operate live-service games at scale.
The hire: Gouge will become head of games across Lego Digital Play, while Rigby will lead ForthStar as a flagship studio. The ForthStar team stays in Manchester.
What's the endgame? Lego Digital Play, spun out as a separate company from the Lego GroupDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → in early 2025, wants to bring Lego's building system into digital games for children and adults. Mobile is its starting point.
Why now? The deal is part of a deliberate build-out. Lego Digital Play has also acquired Offroad GamesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Light Brick StudioDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, assembling teams rather than betting on an existing hit.
What could go wrong? The founders' Golf Clash pedigree is useful but no guarantee. Lego says it wants new, authentic Lego experiences, not a repeat of that game's formula.
The signal: "When we look at the mobile market, it is the most democratic market where all the world's gamers are," said president Aaron Loeb. For Lego, mobile is the clearest route to reaching players globally — and acquiring proven teams is how it plans to get there.
Read more: pocketgamer.biz
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
