Danish studio Kiloo Games lays off staff before July closure

Danish developer Kiloo Games is closing down. On LinkedIn, design director Thomas Frøhlich says the studio's 100-person staff was "served with a warning about termination by the end of the month."

"I’m grateful for all the great people I’ve met along the way, either internally or in collaborations with other studios," wrote Frøhlich. "Thank you to all my colleagues for the experiences we have shared. [...] Thank you to all the players that enjoyed our games, [and] thank you to Kiloo for all the learnings."

His statement is further corroborated by other employees on LinkedIn, who said they were looking for work. 

Kiloo was founded in 2000 by Jacob Møller, and was later joined by his brother Simon to run the company. Over the decades, the developer has developed mobile games for brands such as LEGO, Worms, and Denmark's 1990 franchise Hugo. 

In 2012, it published Subway Surfers, an endless runner for iOS that was co-developed by SYBO Games (which took the game's publishing rights in 2020). Following its release to Android that same year, it became extremely popular, and had over 1 billion downloads in early 2018. 

A year after Subway Surfers' release, Kiloo merged its subsidiaries—app makers GivingTales and Manatee, along with shopping portal Katoni—to form the Kiloo Group. 

Kiloo's most recent (and final) game was 2022's MetroLand - Endless Runner on iOS and Android. 

Note: This article has been updated to clarify Kiloo's involvement with Subway Surfers ended in 2020, after which the game's publisher rights were transferred over in full to Sybo Games.