NaturalMotion's My Horse tops 5 million downloads as firm snatches W3i's Nick Bhardwaj

Following up its previous news that My Horse's daily active users had hit 500,000, NaturalMotion has now revealed total downloads for the firm's first freemium release as 5 million.

As a result, My Horse now accounts for almost half of the 12 million downloads NaturalMotion's titles have amassed to date, clocking up 2 million daily game sessions – as of November – in the process.

At the time, CEO and co-founder Torsten Reil described My Horse's performance as an "incredible sign", given the studio had "barely spent anything on user acquisition".

It's onwards and upwards from here on, however, with NaturalMotion – which initially specialised in animation technology, deployed in the likes of Grand Theft Auto IV, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - having recently poached W3i's former business development executive Nick Bhardwaj to serve as VP of user acquisition and monetisation.

"We are delighted that Nick is joining our growing San Francisco office," added Reil.

"With our recent success of My Horse and a packed release pipeline for the coming months, we are assembling a strong team to build a new type of mobile games publisher.

"Understanding our users is hugely important to our business, and Nick’s experience and drive puts him in a unique position to gain deep insights and enable their execution."

[source: Inside Mobile Apps]