Products Video games Founded 2009 | Website Z2Live.com Parent organization King | |
Type Subsidiary of King Digital Industry Mobile online video game developer Key people Lou Fasulo, Ed Fries, Ryan Murphy, Shanis Windland, Mark Alkhazov Headquarters Seattle, Washington, United States Video games Battle Nations, Trade Nations | ||
Z2Live is an American video game developer based in Seattle, Washington. All of Z2Live's games are available for free with premium content available for a fee. As of 2016 it a subsidiary of King Digital division of Activision Blizzard.
History
Z2Live was founded in 2009 by David Bluhm and Damon Danieli with the goal of creating an Xbox Live style gaming platform. With the announcement of Apple's Game Center, Lou Fasulo, SVP, pivoted the company to its current business of creating highly social freemium games for mobile. The company's first game was Trade Nations, a city building simulation, which achieved critical acclaim as well as viral success within its first few months on the iOS platform. Following the initial success of Trade Nations, the company received additional investment from Seattle's Madrona Venture Group as well as Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The company's next game, MetalStorm, brought the freemium model to aerial combat flight simulators while also earning acclaim for its integration of AirPlay mirroring. Following MetalStorm, the company released its third iOS title Battle Nations which combined city building mechanics with strategy-based PvP. The company also expanded in 2012 with the acquisition of Big Sandwich Games, a Vancouver-based game developer company.
On February 12, 2015, Z2Live was acquired by King Digital Entertainment plc.