Gameloft Barcelona

Gameloft Barcelona

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video game industry
Founded	2000
Headquarters	Carrer de Nàpols, 249, Barcelona , Spain
Products	Asphalt series (2013–present) Despicable Me: Minion Rush Disney Speedstorm
Owner	Gameloft
Number of employees	200 (2026)
Website	https://www.gameloft.com/gameloft-studios/barcelona

Gameloft Barcelona is a Spanish video game development studio founded in 2000 and based in Barcelona. It is one of the main studios of French video game company Gameloft and has developed more than 30 video games to date.

The studio's games include the Asphalt titles Asphalt 8: Airborne and Asphalt Legends, Despicable Me: Minion Rush, Zombie Infection, and Disney Speedstorm. As of 2026, the studio has over 200 employees.^[1]

The studio was founded in 2000. It is one of the oldest studios in the Gameloft group, alongside Gameloft Montreal and Gameloft Bucharest, which were also founded in 2000 (excluding Gameloft's headquarters, established in 1999 in Paris).^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Its first standalone title was Diamond Rush, released in 2006 on Java ME and BlackBerry. He stands out for its blend of 2D platforming and puzzle mechanics, as well as its archaeological adventure feel. It is often cited as one of the most notable mobile titles of the pre-smartphone era. The player controls an explorer whose objective is to collect diamonds across various environments (Southeast Asian temples, European castles, icy caves), while avoiding traps and enemies.^[6][7][8][9]

In 2008, the studio released puzzle game Diamond Twister, which achieved significant success and led to two sequels, Diamond Twister 2 and Diamond Twister 3. That same year, Gameloft Barcelona completed development of Zombie Infection, which also attracted a substantial player base and later received a sequel, Zombie Infection 2. It was also in 2008 that the studio released Hero of Sparta^[10][11][12]

In 2011, the studio released Six-Guns, an open-world western action game, which was at the time their most ambitious game.^[13] They also released two adaptation of Ubisoft games for mobile phones at the same time: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn and James Cameron's Avatar^[14][15][16]

In 2013, Gameloft Barcelona released Despicable Me: Minion Rush, launched as a free-to-play title. The game became a considerable commercial success, surpassing one billion downloads, and continues to receive updates as of 2026.^[17] In the same year, the studio released Asphalt 8: Airborne, part of Gameloft's flagship Asphalt franchise, taking over the franchise from Gameloft Montreal. The game was also a major success, achieving over 500 million sales, and remains actively supported. Asphalt 8 is also the highest-rated Spanish-made game of all time on Metacritic, with an average score of 91 out of 100.^{[18][19][20][21][22]}

Between 2015 and 2019, while the Gameloft group experienced significant financial and structural difficulties, the Barcelona studio was not affected by mass layoffs, unlike several other studios within the group. During this period, Gameloft's other Spanish studio, Gameloft Madrid, was closed.^{[23][24][25][26][27]}

In 2018, the studio released Asphalt 9: Legends, which, like previous entries in the series, was commercially successful. The game was ported to Nintendo Switch in 2019 and, following a strategic shift by Gameloft toward computer and console platforms, was later released on computer and Xbox consoles, before arriving on PlayStation 5 in 2024. To mark the franchise’s 20th anniversary, the game was renamed Asphalt Legends.^[28][29]

In 2023, the studio released Disney Speedstorm, a computer and console racing game inspired by Mario Kart, combining gameplay elements from the Asphalt series with Disney and Pixar-themed tracks and characters.^{[30][31][32][33][34]}