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The new umbrella brand for Product Madness, Plarium and Big Fish, with plans to become "the greatest mobile-first games business in the world".

November 18, 2021

5 Min Read

[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Game Developer and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press]

Author: Pixel United

18 November – LONDON – The mobile-first games division of Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (ASX:ALL) has today unveiled its new name and brand - Pixel United.  Previously known as Aristocrat Digital, the rebrand reflects an ambitious new vision: to become the greatest mobile-first games business in the world, as part of Aristocrat’s growing and diversified operations. 
 
Pixel United, headquartered in London, already has one of the world’s most diverse and best performing free-to-play games portfolios, driven by its three cornerstone businesses – Product Madness (UK), Plarium (Israel) and Big Fish (USA) – with a growing team of 3,000+ people and around 20 creative studios located across the globe.  Its portfolio of genre-leading games include RAID: Shadow LegendsTM, EverMergeTM and Lightning LinkTM among the 7 Pixel United titles that today rank in the Top 100 games in the U.S.
 
Pixel United has established its position as an industry-leader in mobile-first games development and publishing, with a strong record of organic growth and portfolio expansion across multiple genres, including RPG/Strategy, Social Casino, Casual, and most recently, Action.  The business’ operating model also supports the scaling of new studios and start-ups, allowing teams to retain their entrepreneurial foundations while accessing the global marketing, LiveOps, and development capabilities of the wider organisation.  Earlier this year, the company announced the acquisitions of Futureplay (Finland), Playsoft (Poland), as well as start-up studios in Finland and Barcelona. 
 
Commenting on the re-brand, Michael Lang, CEO, Pixel United said, “There has never been a more exciting time to be in mobile-first games.  As announced in Aristocrat’s fiscal 2021 results presentation today, our mobile-first games businesses generated a record USD $1.8 billion dollars in revenues in 2021, building on our all-time-high performance in 2020.  As demand for our games continues to rise, we are stepping up our efforts as industry leaders, embracing a new name and business-to-business brand that will allow us to capture our opportunities fully.”
 
Pixel United continues to expand its operations and diversify its product portfolio across genres and is today a Top 5 publisher in Tier 1 Western markets.  Over the 2021 fiscal year, Pixel United’s investments in LiveOps, new games releases and world-class talent have led to a suite of games that are now played by around 7 million players every day.
 
“Our global teams are as diverse and geographically spread as the people who play our games”, added Lang.  “This is our greatest strength and what allows us to create new games that global audiences love to play.  Our businesses are passionate about taking our creative, product capabilities and marketing activities to new heights.  We want our studios to remain hubs for innovation, where creativity and talent can thrive.  The new Pixel United brand captures our desire to protect the autonomy of those individual businesses, while unlocking opportunities for further collaboration, creativity and innovation,” said Lang.
 
The new logo reflects the Pixel United ethos and is itself highly inventive.  It allows the nine elements that make up the core logo to be endlessly reconfigured, to make original yet instantly identifiable iterations. Much like a pixel, the component parts of the logo unite to create something greater than the sum of its parts.  Its new retro-like font is a nod to the heritage of computer games, tying the long history of innovation that defines this industry with the brand’s confident turn to the future.
 
“Each of our businesses is unique, yet united behind one central goal: to build the best games that our players love”, Lang added.  “The Pixel United brand reinforces our future growth ambitions as a portfolio, and the strength of our commitment to our people, product, players and partners.”  As part of its rebrand, Pixel United has also underlined its ambitious Responsible Gameplay and ESG aspirations. 
 
Aristocrat Group CEO & Managing Director, Trevor Croker, said “With its global scale and ambitious plans, it’s the right time to replace the informal ‘Aristocrat Digital’ name with a new identity that both truly describes our mobile-first publishing operations and helps to accelerate its growth.”
 
“Under the banner of Pixel United, and their talented leadership team, Aristocrat’s mobile-first games business will continue to be a vital part of our Group’s diverse and growing operations, playing a key role in delivering our shared mission to ‘bring joy to life through the power of play’ to all of our stakeholders, every day” Croker concluded.  

About Pixel United
Pixel United is the free-to-play, mobile-first games business of Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (ASX: ALL).  Formerly Aristocrat Digital, Pixel United is driven by a purpose to build the best games and drive for positive change.  Pixel United has three major operating businesses that span multiple key game genres: Product Madness (London, UK), Plarium Global (Tel Aviv, Israel), and Big Fish Games (Bay Area, California and Seattle, Washington, USA).  As a global business, with a growing team of 3,000 people in 18 locations worldwide, Pixel United leverages its live ops, in-house development, business intelligence and marketing capabilities and strong investment in talent, to fuel its performance and deliver sustainable long-term growth.  www.pixelunited.com
 
About Aristocrat
Aristocrat Leisure Limited (ASX: ALL) is a leading global gaming content and technology company and top-tier mobile games publisher, with more than 7,000 employees in over 20 locations around the world.  Aristocrat offers a diverse range of products and services including electronic gaming machines, casino management systems and free-to-play mobile games. The company’s regulated gaming products are approved for use in more than 300 licensed jurisdictions and are available in more than 80 countries. For further information visit www.aristocrat.com. 

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