King, which we know with Candy Crush Saga and came to the fore with its acquisition by Activision Blizzard in the recent history, announced that it has acquired the artificial intelligence software company Peltarion.
About the acquisition, President of King Tjodolf Sommesstad commented:
“We are proud to announce the acquisition of Peltarion. Machine learning technology is moving quickly, and by increasing our investments in this field, we expect to deliver even more creative content to our 250 million monthly players* (Q1 2022) across the globe. We believe the talented Peltarion team, together with the powerful technology they have built, will help us serve our players even more effectively with more engaging games and content. This is yet another step towards our mission of making the world playful.”
Stockholm-based Peltarion was founded in 2004 by Luka Crnkovic-Friis and Måns Essén, becoming one of Sweden’s most established AI firms. Crnkovic-Friis and Essén will take leadership roles at King and focus on developing the company’s AI and machine learning capabilities.
Peltarion CEO Luka Crnkovic-Friis gave the following words in his speech:
“This is a monumental chapter in Peltarion history. We are excited to be part of a big AI success story in the Nordics, especially with Stockholm at its base. We are impressed with King for being one of the most successful Swedish tech companies and mobile game developers of modern time. The scale and reach of King, with iconic franchises like Candy Crush Saga, is a great match for our technology. The opportunities with AI seem to be endless, and we cannot wait to unlock the potential of working together.”
Peltarion is the developer of a codeless, machine learning operations platform that empowers users to design, train and manage deep learning models. According to King, the purchase will accelerate using artificial intelligence and machine learning technology on King’s gaming platform.
King’s Chief Technology Officer Steve Collins added:
“It’s rare to find a team with such a depth of expertise in machine learning and AI technology combined with a long history of successfully delivering this capability to many different organizations in diverse domains and markets. We are privileged to be in a position to welcome the Peltarion team into the King family. We have an ambitious vision for the future of mobile games. Together with Luka, Måns, the team and their powerful AI platform, we’re accelerating our plan to use AI in how we create and operate our games to deliver this vision and to delight our players even more.”
With this investment, King aims to become a high-end artificial intelligence and machine learning center by recruiting talented people in game design, development, and live operations.
