 Logo in use since 2016 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 2010; 15 years ago (2010) |
| Founders |
|
| Headquarters | , Sweden |
Key people | Robert Lazic (Studio Manager) |
| Revenue |  657.2 millionkr[1] (2022) |
Number of employees | 123[1] (2022) |
| Parent | Coffee Stain Holding AB |
| Website | coffeestain.com |
Coffee Stain Studios AB is a Swedishvideo game developer based inSkövde. Founded in 2010 by nineUniversity of Skövde students, the company is best known forGoat Simulator, which was released in April 2014, andSatisfactory, released in September 2024. Their parentholding company also operates Coffee Stain Publishing, apublisher, and majority-owns developers Coffee Stain North (formerly Gone North Games) and Lavapotion. In November 2018, the Coffee Stain group was acquired by THQ Nordic AB (later known asEmbracer Group).
Coffee Stain Studios was founded in 2010 inSkövde, Sweden, by a group of nine students at theUniversity of Skövde: Anton Westbergh, Johannes Aspeby, Mikael Mård, Oscar Jilsén, Gustaf Tivander, Daniel Lundwall, Markus Rännare, Joakim Sjöö and Stefan Hanna.[2] Their first game,I Love Strawberries, was released at the end of that year foriOS byAtari.[3]
In 2010, Coffee Stain participated in "Make Something Unreal", amodding competition forUnreal Tournament 3 held byEpic Games andIntel, with their mod,Sanctum.[4] The mod was received well, leading Coffee Stain to adopt theUnreal Development Kit to developSanctum into a standalone game.[4] In March the following year, the company struck a five-year licensing agreement with Epic for theirUnreal Engine 3 technology.[5]Sanctum as a standalone game was released in April 2011,[4] and was followed by a sequel,Sanctum 2, in May 2013.[6] In February 2014, Coffee Stain acquired the rights forI Love Strawberries from Atari and re-released the game for iOS with some improvements.[3]
Coffee Stain gained significant recognition with their April 2014 release ofGoat Simulator.[7] While the title received mixed critical reviews, as it was released in a purposely buggy state to take advantage of itsragdoll physics, it became highly successful throughLet's Play videos andlive streamers. By August 2014,Goat Simulator had outperformed all sales of the studio's previous games combined,[7] and had generated overUS$12 million in revenue by March 2016.[8]
On 23 February 2017, Coffee Stain announced Coffee Stain Publishing, asubsidiary that would act as thepublishing entity within the Coffee Stain group.[9] The first title to be released through Coffee Stain Publishing wasHuntdown by Swedish development team Easy Trigger Games.[9] The following day, Coffee Stain acquired a minority stake in Danish developerGhost Ship Games, and became the publisher of their upcoming game,Deep Rock Galactic.[10] In April 2017, Coffee Stain also gained a minority stake in newly foundedGothenburg-based studio Lavapotion.[11] In July 2017, Daniel Kaplan, the first employee of Swedish developerMojang, left Mojang to join Coffee Stain Publishing.[12]
On 30 January 2018, Coffee Stain announced Levelling the Playing Field, a funding initiative aimed at small companies that employ at least as many women as men and require at most 1 millionkr (about$127,000) in funding.[13] Through this initiative, Coffee Stain invested in Danish developer Other Tales Interactive (a team of two women) in exchange for a minority stake.[13][14] A second studio,Stockholm-based Kavalri, was invested in under this programme in November 2019.[14] The following day, Coffee Stain acquired a majority stake in Gone North Games, a Swedish developer that had developed Coffee Stain-publishedA Story About My Uncle anddownloadable content forGoat Simulator.[15] With the acquisition, Gone North Games was rebranded as Coffee Stain North.[15]
On 14 November 2018, the Coffee Stain group of companies and its intellectual property were acquired by Swedish holding company THQ Nordic AB (later known asEmbracer Group) for 317 million kr (about$34.9 million), with the potential of additional payouts should they reach certain milestones.[16] Coffee Stain continues to operate independently within Embracer Group, with Coffee Stain co-founder Westbergh remainingchief executive officer.[16] At the time, the Coffee Stain group had 45 employees, of which Coffee Stain Studios employed 24.[2] This number rose to 25 by August 2019.[17]
Coffee Stain expanded Levelling the Playing Field in September 2020 to cover teams including racially and ethnically diverse people, women andnon-binary people. Happy Broccoli Games became the third investment under this initiative.[18] On November 18, 2020, Embracer announced they would purchase out the 40% stake in Coffee Stain North from their founders and transition it to a fully owned subsidiary of Coffee Stain.[19]
In August 2021, Embracer Group acquired Ghost Ship Games and Easy Trigger, putting them both under the umbrella of Coffee Stain Holding.[20] In March 2022, Coffee Stain announced that they had partnered with Rare Earth Games, an Austrian developer owned by Coffee Stain's sister company Amplifier Game Invest, to publish a new co-op action IP.[21]
In August 2022, as part of a large purchase of properties, Embracer was confirmed to have acquired a "secret developer" for $100 million which would transition under Coffee Stain. In December, it was revealed by several news outlets that the purchase was of theRoblox game developer Shortcake AB and their game"Welcome to Bloxburg" for $100 million, and renamed the studio as Coffee Stain Gothenburg.[22] The game's creator, Coeptus, officially confirmed the new partnership in January 2023.[23]
In May 2025, Embracer Group is spinning off Coffee Stain Group and its related subsidiaries into its own independent entity by the end of 2025.[24]
Ghost Ship Holding, the holding business for developer Ghost Ship Games, was acquired by Embracer Group in August 2021 and placed under Coffee Stain Holding. It operates as a separate subsidiary.[27]
| Year | Title | Platform(s) | Publisher(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | I Love Strawberries | iOS | Atari |
| 2011 | Sanctum | macOS,Windows | Coffee Stain Studios |
| 2013 | Super Sanctum TD | iOS, macOS, Windows | |
| Sanctum 2 | Linux, macOS, Windows,PlayStation 3,Xbox 360 |
| |
| 2014 | Goat Simulator | Android, iOS, Linux, macOS,Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3,PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360,Xbox One |
|
| 2019 | Satisfactory (early access) | Windows | Coffee Stain Publishing |
| 2024 | Satisfactory | Windows | Coffee Stain Publishing |
| Year | Title | Platform(s) | Developer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | A Story About My Uncle | Linux,macOS,Windows | Gone North Games |
| 2016 | The Westport Independent | Android,iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows | Double Zero One Zero |
| 2018 | Puppet Fever | Windows | Coastalbyte Games |
| 2019 | Tick Tock: A Tale for Two | Android, iOS, macOS,Nintendo Switch, Windows | Other Tales Interactive |
| 2020 | Deep Rock Galactic | PlayStation 4,PlayStation 5, Windows,Xbox One,Xbox Series X/S | Ghost Ship Games |
| Huntdown | Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One | Easy Trigger | |
| 2021 | Valheim | Linux, macOS, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S | Iron Gate |
| 2022 | Midnight Ghost Hunt (early access) | Linux, macOS, Windows | Vaulted Sky Games |
| 2022 | Goat Simulator 3 | PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android | Coffee Stain North |
| 2022 | Songs of Conquest | macOS, Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch | Lavapotion |
| 2024 | Goat Simulator Remastered | PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S | Coffee Stain Studios, Coffee Stain North,Fishlabs |
| 2025 | Teardown | PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S | Tuxedo Labs |
| TBA | As We Descend | Windows | Box Dragon |
| Jump Space | Windows, Xbox Series X/S | Keepsake Games | |
| Into the Unwell | Windows | She Was Such A Good Horse |
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