Fishlabs

Fishlabs was founded in 2004 by Michael Schade and Christian Lohr, incorporated under the name Fishlabs Entertainment GmbH.[2] That same year, the company received a round of financing, which allowed them to pay for development expenses for several years while generating revenue from their releases.[3] It developed advergames like Barclaycard's Waterslide Extreme.[4] In May 2010, Fishlabs planned a series B round and announced its plans to move into the massively multiplayer online games market.[5]

By mid-2013, Fishlabs had run out of money; in October, 25 jobs were cut before the company went into self-administration.[3] On 2 December, media company Koch Media announced that it had acquired Fishlabs, which would henceforth operate as the dedicated mobile studio for its game publishing label, Deep Silver.[2] As the agreement was an asset deal, all of Fishlabs' assets, including 52 employees, were transferred to Koch Media and incorporated in a new division, called Deep Silver Fishlabs.[3] The company's former legal entity, Fishlabs Entertainment GmbH, was to be dissolved, and both founders left the company.[2] Schade and Lohr left the company and founded Everspace developer Rockfish Games.[6] As result of the change in ownership, and the associated financial stability, Fishlabs also moved into video game publishing.[3]

Fishlabs employed 95 people in January 2023.[7] In November, Embracer Group, the parent company of Koch Media (now known as Plaion), underwent cost cutting restructuring. It was announced that layoffs would affect around 50 Fishlabs employees.[8]

• Official website