Imperia Online turns 20, take a look back at the history of this small but mighty studio
Ave imperia
- Imperia Online is a long-running mobile developer now hitting twenty years old
- It was founded alongside its first release, the titular Imperia Online
- In times since, they've released and acquired a host of other games, such as the GameLabs catalogue
It can often be possible to underestimate just how young mobile is as a platform. While the history of it stretches back to the late 2000s, smartphone gaming as we know it started around 2015. Yet, many of the studios now in the mobile world have lengthy tenures, which is exactly the case with Imperia Online!
Celebrating 20 years since it was first founded in 2005, Imperia Online may not be a name you recognise, but you'll almost certainly know some of their catalogue. Not the least being Imperia Online itself, as this MMO strategy has been going for almost as long as the studio itself.
Imperia Online also boast a whopping 70+ releases in their catalogue, some of which were acquired from other studios. These include Siege: World War II, Crush Them All, War Commander: Rogue Assault and, of course, their acquisition of the entire portfolio of developer GameLabs.
Emperor
While Imperia Online may not have the fanciest graphics or gameplay, or a bunch of merge and match-three minigames (that honour goes to the rest of Imperia's catalogue), it has stood the test of time, doubtless because of so many loyal folk who've stuck with it throughout the years.Imperia Online's continued success is also a reminder of how much history there is in gaming, mobile included. And it demonstrates that at a time when high turnover and flighty trends seem to be prevalent, we should always remember there are some developers chugging along in the background quite loyally.
Still, there are some great new releases plugging the gaps here and there. And who knows? Maybe in ten years time we'll be writing about them too? Regardless, if you want to keep up with some of the latest and best launches from the last week, why not dig into our regular feature of the top five new mobile games to try this week?
