Bugbear Entertainment

Bugbear Entertainment is a Finnish game development studio founded in Helsinki in 2000 by Janne Alanenpää. The studio focuses exclusively on racing games and is best known for the FlatOut series and Wreckfest. In November 2018, THQ Nordic acquired a majority stake in the company, bringing Bugbear into the THQ Nordic and Embracer Group family.

Bugbear Entertainment Games

Bugbear’s first release was Rally Trophy in 2001, published by JoWooD Productions. A historic rally simulation for PC. The studio followed that up with Tough Trucks: Modified Monsters in 2003 for Activision, a monster truck game that was a fun game and found an audience in the United States.

The studio made its name with FlatOut in 2004, a demolition derby-style racing game released for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 that blended arcade racing with destructible environments and ragdoll physics. FlatOut 2 followed in 2006, expanding on everything that made the original work. FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage brought the series to Xbox 360 in 2007. When publisher Empire Interactive collapsed, Bugbear lost the rights to the FlatOut name, and subsequent entries in the series were developed by other studios.

Ridge Racer and SEGA Rally

After losing the FlatOut franchise, Bugbear took on work-for-hire projects for major publishers. They developed SEGA Rally Revo for SEGA in 2007 and Glimmerati for the Nokia N-Gage in 2005. In 2012 they developed Ridge Racer Unbounded for Namco Bandai, a departure from the traditional Ridge Racer formula that leaned into destruction and open city racing. Ridge Racer Driftopia followed as a free to play title in 2013 before the studio moved on.

Wreckfest

Wreckfest started life as Next Car Game, announced in February 2013 as Bugbear’s first independent release. A Kickstarter campaign launched in November 2013 but was cancelled before hitting its goal, after which the game moved to Steam Early Access where it built a dedicated following. The full release came in 2018 under the name Wreckfest, published by THQ Nordic, and went on to release on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The game became available on Game Pass and received years of content updates including licensed vehicles and crossover content with Carmageddon. Wreckfest 2 is currently in Early Access on PC with a console release to follow.

Bugbear Entertainment and THQ Nordic

THQ Nordic acquired 90% of Bugbear in November 2018 for an undisclosed sum at the same time it acquired Coffee Stain Studios. Janne Alanenpää remained as CEO and creative director following the acquisition. Bugbear operates as a subsidiary of THQ Nordic under the Embracer Group umbrella. The studio has approximately 28 employees and continues to operate out of Helsinki.