Interview with Nitro Games’ CEO Jussi Tähtinen

For those not yet familiar with Nitro Games – could you briefly describe the company, your business model, and how you position yourselves within the global games market?

Nitro Games is a Finland-based game development company founded in 2007, making it one of the more established independent studios in the Nordic games industry. The company has a clear focus on action-oriented and shooter games and has built deep expertise within that segment over nearly two decades.

The business model is twofold. Nitro Games develops and invests in its own game titles, which are launched globally across multiple platforms, with a primary focus on PC and mobile. In parallel, the company operates a partner business, offering its development expertise to larger game companies. This combination allows Nitro Games to balance long-term value creation from its own IPs with more stable, service-based revenues.

Nitro Games has a clear focus on action-oriented mobile games and live-service titles. How do you view your competitive positioning in a market that has become increasingly crowded and cost-driven?

The games market has become highly competitive and increasingly cost-driven, with a large number of studios competing primarily on price. Nitro Games does not aim to be the lowest-cost provider. Instead, the company positions itself around quality, reliability, and proven execution.

With close to 20 years of operating history, Nitro Games has a track record that allows it to offer a more premium and dependable alternative to less established studios. This is particularly attractive to industry buyers and partners who value delivery capability and long-term cooperation over short-term cost savings.

Several of your titles are built around long-term live operations rather than short launch cycles. How do you think about player retention, monetization, and content cadence when developing and operating your games?

Live-service design is central to how Nitro Games approaches development. Rather than focusing solely on the initial launch, the company designs its games around long-term retention, monetization, and continuous content updates.

This requires building production pipelines that can support an ongoing content cadence while remaining cost-efficient. Player behaviour and market trends evolve over time, and the ability to adapt without significantly increasing costs is a key part of sustaining live-service titles.

The mobile games market has seen significant changes in recent years, including higher user acquisition costs and shifts in platform dynamics. How has this influenced your development strategy and go-to-market approach?

In response to rising user acquisition costs and changing platform dynamics, Nitro Games has deliberately diversified its operations. One part of this has been strengthening the B2B partner business, which provides more predictable and less marketing-intensive revenue streams.

At the same time, the company has diversified across platforms and business models. In addition to mobile, Nitro Games has expanded into areas such as browser-based games and iGaming-related projects. This broader platform mix helps reduce dependency on any single distribution channel.

You have previously highlighted efficiency and scalability in your development processes. How do you work internally to balance creative ambition with commercial discipline?

Nitro Games operates with a scalable organisational model. The company runs two studios in Finland with approximately 50 employees, supported by an external network of partners, contractors, and freelancers. This structure allows Nitro Games to scale resources up or down based on project needs without permanently increasing fixed costs.

In addition, the company applies strict lifecycle management to its projects. Game performance is continuously measured during development, and projects that do not meet predefined performance criteria are discontinued. This disciplined approach ensures that creative ambition is balanced with commercial responsibility.

Partnerships with platforms, publishers, or other industry players can play an important role in scaling game titles. How do you view collaborations as part of Nitro Games’ growth strategy?

Partnerships are a cornerstone of Nitro Games’ strategy. Rather than building a very large internal organisation, the company relies on collaboration both in development and, in particular, in publishing and distribution.

By working with publishers and platform partners under shared-risk and shared-reward models, Nitro Games can access new markets and audiences while limiting financial risk. This approach supports scalable growth without compromising flexibility.

Looking ahead, where do you see Nitro Games in one year from now?

Action and shooter games will remain the company’s core focus. Nitro Games has initiated new approaches within this segment since late last year and is currently working on several initiatives that have not yet been publicly announced.

Overall, the ambition is to have a broader and more active portfolio than today, with additional projects progressing alongside existing operations.

Finally, from your perspective as CEO, what are three reasons why Nitro Games is an interesting company to follow at this stage of its development?

First, Nitro Games combines long industry experience with new initiatives that open up future growth opportunities.

Second, the company has recently delivered its strongest financial performance to date, demonstrating improved execution and operational stability.

Third, despite its long history, Nitro Games is entering a new phase with multiple projects and strategic initiatives underway, indicating that a significant part of its growth journey still lies ahead.