Supercell 2.0: Clash of Plans

Founded in 2010, Supercell was a Helsinki, Finland-based mobile gaming company that had developed and launched five global hit mobile games: Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Hay Day, Brawl Stars, and Boom Beach. The company’s early philosophy was that it could produce hits by designing the company with a structure and culture that would prove compelling to the world’s top developer talent. Developers worked in small, autonomous groups called cells with little oversight. The formula was a success. Supercell had nearly $2 billion in annual revenues, and Clash of Clans alone had generated gross revenues of over $10 billion since inception. However, the company had not released a hit game in five years. In early 2022, Paananen asked in a blog post whether Supercell’s best days were behind it. As a result, in summer 2023, he and Supercell's leadership decided to restructure the company into two divisions—New Games and Live Games. The New Game cells would retain the small team structures, which were largely flat and non-hierarchical, but the Live Game cells would add more traditional structure and hierarchy to exploit franchise hits. Now, Paananen wondered if Supercell could continue to attract top talent despite its shift to more traditional ways of managing the business. As importantly, what would it take to restore the company's winning streak by originating more new games and growing its global blockbusters?