As Heroic Labs marks its 10-year anniversary, the company stands as one of the most trusted backend technology partners in the games industry. What began as a dream to build games has evolved into a platform powering over 600 million installs and nearly $5 billion in game revenue across studios of all sizes.
From their open-source Nakama game server to the launch of Heroic Cloud, Hiro, and Satori, the team has consistently championed scalable solutions for real-time, live, and connected gaming.
You originally set out to build a game studio. Ten years later, where does that dream stand? Do you have plans to develop games in-house someday?
That dream is very much alive; it’s just realized in an unexpected way. You see, our goal was always to build great games, and over time, we realized that helping thousands of developers build their own games was the best way to scale that vision. So, while we are not building titles in-house today, we’re deeply embedded in the creative process across the industry.
That said, never say never. We’re builders at heart, and the itch to create something end-to-end is still there. Who knows, maybe we’ll do a game jam one day. It’s been nearly a decade since the last one.
Looking back, what were the most difficult moments in Heroic Labs’ journey, and what did it take to push through them?
Honestly, the early days were brutal. Infrastructure for games wasn’t sexy. This was long before Unity, Applovin, and Epic achieved success. So when we talked to investors, their eyes glazed over like we were pitching another SaaS-for-someone-else’s-problem.
Meanwhile, most studios preferred building everything in-house, even if it cost them years of engineering time.
“We were blissfully unaware of the adventure that lay ahead.”
What got us through was sheer conviction in each other as founders. The three of us were friends long before we started Heroic Labs. So I guess we were working hard not to let each other down. Also, we weren’t just trying to build a product; we were building what we wished we’d had as game developers ourselves. And looking back, I’m really proud we did.
Today’s developers face rising costs, platform fragmentation, and pressure to ship fast while staying live. How do you see Heroic Labs evolving to meet these shifting demands?
That pressure is real. Players expect more, and thus studios are expected to do more with less, and across more platforms than ever. That’s exactly why we built a product portfolio with an open source game server (Nakama), a toolkit with meta game features (Hiro), a world-class live ops platform (Satori), and a scalable cloud solution (Heroic Cloud) to take some of that load off their shoulders.
Image Credit: Heroic Labs
But it’s not just about tech. It’s about focus. We aim to reduce complexity without reducing capability. We give developers the tools they need to move fast, iterate safely, and scale smart, without locking them into someone else’s vision.
With 600 million installs and nearly 5 billion in revenue supported, how do you maintain both ambition and focus as your team scales? What are the most important aspects of Heroic Labs’ internal culture today?
We’ve always been a product-first, engineering-led company. No layers of management, no performative talks, just people who love building good stuff and solving hard problems.
We’re remote-first and trust-based. That means autonomy isn’t just allowed, it’s expected. Everyone owns their piece of the puzzle that they focus on, and I believe that ownership drives ambition across our product lines. For example, we’re an engineering organization and we don’t have engineering managers. That speaks to the level of our ways of working.
Image Credit: Heroic Labs
Honestly? I wake up every day grateful to work with this hand-picked team. And I know this is not the case for many of the founders. That’s not something you can’t fake, and it’s what keeps us going even when the work gets hard.
After a decade of multiplatform development, from mobile and console to AR/VR, which platform or engine excites you most when you think about the future of game development?
I love where Unity and Godot are headed in terms of accessibility and cross-platform power. But I’m equally excited by the rise of creative ecosystems like UEFN and Roblox. They’re lowering the barrier to creation, and that’s a massive unlock for the next generation of developers.
For us, every new platform is both a challenge and an opportunity. If developers are building for it, we want to be right there with them, solving the backend problems before they hit production. And enabling the teams to build multiplayer live operated games for as large of a playerbase as possible.
As you look ahead to the next chapter, what’s on the horizon for Heroic Labs? Are there new problems you’re excited to solve, or new directions you’re eager to explore?
The mission hasn’t changed; we’re here to empower game makers. But the way we do that is evolving.
We’re going deeper with Heroic Cloud, automating more of the grind in live ops, and exploring how AI can help devs focus on the creative parts that actually matter.
We’re also thinking beyond infrastructure, toward becoming true partners in growth. Whether you’re launching your first prototype or running a top-grossing title, we want to be the people you trust in your corner.
And as cheesy as it sounds… I’m even more excited about the mission we set out on today than I was a decade ago.
Join Heroic for their 10-year anniversary party at Gamescom!
Heroic Labs is celebrating its first decade of empowering game developers worldwide at Gamescom next month. Word on the street is that it’s going to be the biggest party in town:
- Food and Drinks: Starting at 5:30 pm
- Rooftop Opens: 7:00 pm with live music and more drinks
- Entertainment: Casino tables, pinball and arcade machines, DJ, and of course – birthday cake!
- Location: KölnSKY, Ottopl. 1, 50679 Köln, Germany
Co-Founder of Heroic Labs
