Hipster Whale

Hipster Whale is a Melbourne-based video game developer and publisher known for accessible arcade-action games, casual mobile titles and distinctive voxel artwork. Founded in November 2014 by Matt Hall and Andy Sum, the studio established its reputation with Crossy Road, a mobile game built around the familiar question of why the chicken crossed the road. Its activities span original game development, publishing, licensed collaborations and adaptations across mobile, subscription gaming, PC and consoles.

Crossy Road became the studio’s flagship franchise, surpassing 340 million downloads according to the supplied research. Its approach to free-to-play design emphasized non-intrusive monetisation and broad accessibility. The studio subsequently expanded its development and publishing work while continuing to build games around straightforward arcade concepts.

Original games and collaborations

In 2015, Hipster Whale collaborated with Bandai Namco Entertainment on PAC-MAN 256, an endless maze game inspired by the original arcade title’s Level 256 glitch. The following year, it worked with Disney Interactive Studios on Disney Crossy Road, bringing Disney and Pixar characters into voxel environments. Its publishing activities also include Piffle, developed by Mighty Games.

Crossy Road Castle extended the studio’s original franchise into cooperative platforming. It launched on Apple Arcade in 2020 and expanded to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch in 2024. The studio’s catalogue also includes Apple Arcade editions of existing games, reflecting its work across different distribution models and platforms.

Hipster Whale combines game concept development, art and mechanics design with full-cycle production, live operations, multiplayer engineering and cross-platform adaptation. Following its acquisition by Atari SA in June 2026, it continues to operate autonomously from Melbourne, contributing to the group’s mobile game activities.