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Pixelberry Studios

Pixelberry Studios
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryGame Developer
FounderOliver Miao, Keith Emnett, Winston She
Headquarters
Mountain View, CA
,
United States
ParentNexon (2017-2024)
Series Entertainment (2024–present)
Websitepixelberrystudios.com

Pixelberry Studios is a mobile game development company based in Mountain View, California, United States.[1] Founded in 2013 by Oliver Miao, Keith Emnett, and Winston She, Pixelberry develops episodic narrative mobile games for Android and iOS, aiming to create "games with heart,"[2] beginning with Surviving High School and Cause of Death, which deals with themes of bullying, eating disorders and capturing serial killers.[3][4] Since then, the company has fully released three more mobile games: Hollywood U, High School Story and Choices: Stories You Play.[1][5][6][7][8]

History

Pixelberry launched Choices: Stories You Play in August 2016.[9][10][11] Like their previous games, Choices: Stories You Play is an interactive narrative game.[12][13] In it, players can pick "choose your own adventure" stories or "books" across multiple literary genre such as romance, adventure, mystery, fantasy, and horror.[13] Each "book" is divided into "chapters", and chapters are released on a weekly basis. The player character is usually highly customizable, from skin tone to gender.[11] Since the shutdown of their other games, Choices is the flagship game and primary focus for the studio.[11] In November 2017, Pixelberry was acquired by Nexon.[14]

In 2020, a planned plot line in one of Choices' most popular titles was leaked, leading to fan backlash and further criticism of racial insensitivity in Choices stories. Pixelberry's CEO issued a personal apology and pledged $100,000 to Black Girls Code, the Black Writers Collective, and the Latinx Writers Collective. He also committed the company to enact more representative writing and hiring practices.[15][11]

In 2022, Pixelberry launched a sister app to Choices, called StoryLoom which features creator-made, interactive stories.[16] On July 15, 2022, Pixelberry Studios announced that High School Story would have its servers permanently shut down on August 10, 2022.[17]

On January 22, 2024, Pixelberry announced it would shut down StoryLoom on February 29 and lay off 120 employees across multiple departments.[18][19][20] Pixelberry was acquired by Series Entertainment in July.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b "Mobile game takes a stand against cyberbullying". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 19 September 2017. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  2. ^ Strauss, Karsten. "Mobile Games With Heart? Pixelberry In 2015". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2018-04-26. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
  3. ^ "Inside The Game: Why Oliver Miao almost left gaming". pocketgamer.biz. Archived from the original on 2018-04-26. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
  4. ^ "After bullying, High School Story tackles body image and eating disorders". Polygon. Archived from the original on 14 June 2017. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  5. ^ "Pixelberry Studios Tackles Teenagers' Body-Image Issues With A New Mobile Game". TechCrunch. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  6. ^ "16 percent of teens consider suicide before graduation. This quest is for them". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 24 September 2017. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  7. ^ Priestman, Chris. "Ex-EA devs add cyberbullying-themed quests to High School Story to teach players how to deal with the issue themselves". Pocket Gamer. Archived from the original on 13 October 2017. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  8. ^ Ray, Somdyuti Datta. "Pixelberry's 'Choices' Was the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Escape I Needed". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2024-10-16.
  9. ^ "Choices on Twitter". 2016-08-04. Retrieved 2024-03-09.
  10. ^ "Choices on Twitter". 2016-08-17. Retrieved 2024-03-09.
  11. ^ a b c d Ray, Somdyuti Datta. "Pixelberry's 'Choices' Was the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Escape I Needed". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on 2023-07-29. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  12. ^ "Cause of Death". Facebook. 2016-08-17. Retrieved 2024-03-09.
  13. ^ a b "Choices, the new storytelling game from Pixelberry Studios, is a positive visual novel game with questionable intentions". kastorskorner.com. 2016-09-12. Archived from the original on 2018-04-23. Retrieved 2024-03-09.
  14. ^ "Nexon acquires High School Story developer Pixelberry Studios". VentureBeat. 2017-11-10. Archived from the original on 2018-04-26. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
  15. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2023-07-31. Retrieved 2023-07-31.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. ^ "Pixelberry Studios Launches StoryLoom Out of Beta to Give Interactive Content Creators Publishing Freedom". Business Wire. October 4, 2023.
  17. ^ "High School Story and Hollywood U - The Final Sunset". Pixelberry Studios. 2022-07-15. Retrieved 2024-03-04.
  18. ^ "2024 Studio Update". Pixelberry Studios. 2024-01-22. Retrieved 2024-03-04.
  19. ^ Kerr, Chris (January 17, 2024). "Nexon-owned mobile studio Pixelberry is conducting layoffs". www.gamedeveloper.com. Retrieved 2024-03-04.
  20. ^ Patel, Devon J. (February 9, 2024). "Santa Clara County game developer slashes 120 jobs as tech layoffs continue". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2024-03-04.
  21. ^ Blake, Vikki (2024-07-10). "Series Entertainment acquires mobile game studio Pixelberry Studios". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
Quelle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixelberry_Studios