Xbox Live Arcade Developer RedLynx Enjoys Record Year

Helsinki, Finland-based RedLynx is a digital success story. The company announced today that 2009 was its most successful year since the studio first launched in 2000. RedLynx published or co-published four games - Trials HD (XBLA), Monster Trucks Nitro (PC), Monster Truck Nitro (iPhone) and DrawRace (iPhone) - which added up to 1.5 million copies worldwide. Trials HD, a kind of modern day Excitebike, was a big hit when it launched on Xbox Live last August.

RedLynx quickly realized that it could do very well by focusing more on digital than retail. "In 2008 we published one game, Trials 2 SE for PC," said Tero Virtala, CEO of RedLynx.  "It was well received and sold more than 150,000 copies.  After that release, we started to focus more heavily on developing and publishing our multi-platform games on digital channels, significantly increasing sales. Obviously, that strategy has worked well."

He continued, "This year is looking even better, as we're bringing 8-10 new games to market. We have experienced teams, strong partners, and a unique development model that lets us significantly expand our offerings while keeping the extremely high quality for which our games are known." 

"Making great games that resonate with gamers from all around the world is the key to our success," added Antti Ilvessuo, creative director and co-founder of RedLynx. "We strive to add that extra something that players love, and they have responded."

Part of RedLynx's digital strategy has also been to offer free promotional web versions of its key titles, thereby targeting a much wider audience.  The company said that during 2009, these web versions were available on more than 5,000 websites and were played 100 million times.