Can Supercell Make Another Clash of Clans?
Clash of Clans Supercell Games/Supercell

The maker of Clash of Clans wants to shake up mobile gaming again. Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen believes the industry is overdue for innovation — and he says his company is ready to take bold steps to get ahead.

Despite having launched some of the most successful mobile games in history, including Clash of Clans and Brawl Stars, Paananen said the market has shifted drastically. Games are no longer cheap or simple to make, and consumers now expect much more from their mobile experiences.

Speaking to the BBC, the Finnish tech boss said: 'We need to take bigger risks. We have to create new kinds of game experiences.'

Mobile Games Are Now More Expensive to Build

Paananen explained that one reason new titles are becoming rare is the cost of development. In the early days of smartphones, mobile games were easier and cheaper to produce than console or PC titles. But that has changed.

'Building games has actually become a lot more expensive,' he said. 'The platform enables you to do way more today than 10 years ago. And the bar is just way higher in consumers' minds.'

Even Supercell has stumbled. In 2024, the company released Squad Busters, which launched strong but lost momentum quickly. 'The truth is that it hasn't met our ambition, at least not yet,' he admitted.

Can Supercell Create the Next Clash of Clans?

Currently, Supercell has 10 teams working on new games at various stages of development. Each team operates with a high level of independence — part of the company's strategy to drive creativity.

'We have a lot of very talented, ambitious teams who are trying to reimagine what mobile games might look like in, say, 2030. I wish I had the answer. I don't. But you can certainly expect different types of game experiences than you've seen so far on mobile,' said Paananen.

While there is no confirmation of another Clash of Clans-style blockbuster, the CEO hinted at exciting things to come. The goal is to build something lasting.

Long-Term Playability Is the Goal

For Supercell, success means more than just downloads. Paananen said the team always asks one crucial question: 'Why would people play this game in five or 10 years?'

He said they aspire to be in the same class as Nintendo — a company known for building games with staying power. 'They've been around more than 100 years,' he noted.

Supercell's approach is to take complex ideas and make them easy to access, wrapped in 'cartoony and fun' design. That simplicity, Paananen believes, is part of what makes their titles so successful.

But the mobile gaming world is changing fast — and to stay ahead, Paananen insists Supercell must evolve. Taking bigger risks, he says, is the only way forward.

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