Snapshot Games

Snapshot Games

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video game developer
Founded	2013; 11 years ago (2013)
Founders	Julian Gollop David Kaye
Headquarters	Sofia , Bulgaria
Number of employees	64[1] (2021)
Parent	Saber Interactive (2020–2024) Embracer Group (2024–present)
Website	snapshotgames.com

Snapshot Games is a Bulgarian video game developer headquartered in Sofia.^[2][3] Snapshot Games was founded in 2013 by Julian Gollop and David Kaye.^[2][4] Gollop is recognized for creating the X-COM video game franchise in the 1990s with X-COM: UFO Defense and X-COM: Apocalypse.^{[5][2][6][7][8][9]} Gollop also is the CEO of Snapshot Games.^[9] In addition to Gollop, the company includes about eight developers who are industry veterans with years of previous experience working for Ubisoft Sofia, Crytek Black Sea, and other Bulgaria studios.^[2]

History

On November 12, 2013, Snapshot Games was founded as a privately held corporation in the state of California of the United States.^[4] However, it is based in Bulgaria where its CEO, Julian Gollop, lives and where video game development costs are about one-third of what they would be for a similar studio in the United States.^[2][3][9]

In April 2014, Snapshot Games launched a Kickstarter to crowdfund the development of its first video game, Chaos Reborn.^[10] The effort was successful, generating over $210,000.^[10] The game was made available through the Early Access program of Steam on December 9, 2014 before it was released officially on October 26, 2015.^[11] The game received a score of 86/100 on review aggregation website Metacritic.^[12] PC Gamer awarded it a score of 87%, saying "A true wizard’s wheeze, and a fine return for one of gaming’s oldest tactical classics."^[13] The game also was nominated for a Golden Joystick Award in the 2015 Best Indie Game category but lost to Kerbal Space Program.^[14][15]

Julian Gollop teased the development of a new video game, Phoenix Point, on Twitter on March 18, 2016.^[16][17] For the next year, Snapshot Games worked on designing and producing the game.^[18] After investing $450,000 into this first year of development, the company launched a Fig crowdfunding campaign in April 2017 to obtain the $500,000 they budgeted to complete the game.^[3][19] The future of Snapshot relied on the success of the campaign.^[18] "There is no Plan B," Gollop said to the press at the time.^[18] The campaign was successful, raising more than $765,000 from over 10,300 different contributors.^[19] Snapshot Games has committed to release Phoenix Point in 2019.^[20][21]

In November 2020, Embracer Group announced that it acquired the company through Saber Interactive.^[22] In March 2024, Embracer sold Saber and many of its studios to Beacon Interactive. However, Snapshot was not included in the deal and remains under Embracer.^[23]

Video games

Year	Title	Platform(s)
2015	Chaos Reborn	Linux, Macintosh, Windows
2019	Phoenix Point	Macintosh, Windows
2020	Phoenix Point: Year One Edition
2021	Phoenix Point: Behemoth Edition	PlayStation 4, Xbox One
	Phoenix Point: Year One Edition	Stadia

References

1. "Embracer Group Annual Report & Sustainability Report 2020 / 2021" (PDF). Embracer Group. 25 August 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 August 2021. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
2. "Inspired by X-COM, Snapshot Games is creating Phoenix Point for fall 2018". VentureBeat. 2017-04-25. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
3. "Phoenix Point's Fig campaign promises new take on classic X-COM formula". Polygon. 2017-04-25. Retrieved 2017-06-13.
4. "Business Search - Business Entities - Business Programs | California Secretary of State". businesssearch.sos.ca.gov. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
5. Hall, Charlie (2017-05-02). "X-COM spiritual successor Phoenix Point hits $500K crowdfunding goal". Polygon. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
6. "Gamereactor UK". www.gamereactor.eu. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
7. "Phoenix Point, the Spiritual Successor to X-Com, Can Be Backed on Fig". geekreply.com. 29 April 2017. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
8. Williams, Mike (26 April 2017). "X-COM Designer Returns To the Genre With Phoenix Point". USgamer. Archived from the original on 2017-07-04. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
9. Osborn, Alex (2017-06-05). "Phoenix Point Boss Battle Gameplay Revealed". IGN. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
10. "Chaos Reborn - From the Creator of the Original X-COM". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
11. Meer, Alec (2015-10-09). "X-COM Creator's Chaos Reborn Is Born This Month". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
12. "Chaos Reborn". Metacritic. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
13. "Chaos Reborn review". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
14. "The Golden Joystick Awards 2015 - Voting Now Open - Geek Syndicate". Geek Syndicate. 2015-09-04. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
15. "Golden Joysticks 2015: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt wins five gaming awards - BBC Newsbeat". BBC Newsbeat. 2015-10-30. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
16. "X-COM creator Julian Gollop teases new game Phoenix Point". VG 247. 2016-03-18. Retrieved 2017-06-13.
17. Morrison, Angus (2016-03-18). "Julian Gollop announces new game, Phoenix Point". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2017-06-13.
18. "There is no Plan B". Gameindustry.biz. 2017-04-26. Retrieved 2017-06-13.
19. "Phoenix Point Crowdfunding Campaign". Fig. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
20. "X-COM spiritual successor Phoenix Point hits $500K crowdfunding goal". Polygon. 2017-05-02. Retrieved 2017-06-13.
21. "Phoenix Point by X-COM Creator Seeks Funding on Fig". wcctech.com. 2017-04-26. Retrieved 2017-06-13.
22. Takahashi, Dean (November 17, 2020). "Embracer Group acquires 10 game studios and a PR firm". Venture Beat. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
23. McEvoy, Sophie (2024-03-14). "Embracer sells Saber Interactive for $247m". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2024-03-15.

External links

• Official website