Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Game Developer |
Founder | Oliver Miao, Keith Emnett, Winston She |
Headquarters | Mountain View, CA , United States |
Parent | Nexon |
Pixelberry Studios is a mobile game development company based in Mountain View, California, United States.[1] Founded in 2013 by Oliver Miao, Keith Emnett, and Winston She, Pixelberry aims to create "games with heart,"[2] beginning with Surviving High School and Cause of Death, which deals with themes of bullying, eating disorders and capturing serial killers.[3][4] Since then, the company has fully released three more mobile games: Hollywood U, High School Story.[1][5][6][7] In November 2017, Pixelberry was acquired by Nexon.[8]
Pixelberry launched Choices: Stories You Play in August 2016. Since the shutdown of their other games, Choices is the flagship game and primary focus for the studio.[9] In 2020, a planned plot line in one of Choices' most popular titles was leaked, leading to fan backlash and further criticism of racial insensitivity in Choices stories. Pixelberry's CEO issued a personal apology and pledged $100,000 to Black Girls Code, the Black Writers Collective, and the Latinx Writers Collective. He also committed the company to enact more representative writing and hiring practices.[10] In 2022, Pixelberry launched a sister app to Choices, called StoryLoom which features creator-made, interactive stories.[1]
On July 15, 2022, Pixelberry Studios announced that High School Story will have its servers permanently shut down on August 10, 2022.