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Press release:
Kajaani Finland, December 15th 2017 – Finnish game studio Critical Force has just released a new update for their mobile eSports game Critical Ops.

The latest version of Critical Ops, 0.9.5, was released last week on IOS and Android devices. Several new features are included in the update, but the most significant addition is the friend chat. This feature enables all Critical Ops players to chat with their friends in real time. This helps them to communicate better, build teams more easily and improve their overall strategies.

There has been an onslaught of social features for Critical Ops this Autumn. The previous version 0.9.4 introduced the extremely popular party ranked game mode. It provides teams and clans a new competitive play mode where the matchmaking is based on the teams’ prowess.

The latest version also features a new map called Brewery. This deathmatch map brings barrels of fun thanks to its peculiar setting. This time the battles are fought in a genuine beer brewery in the midst of beer tanks and fermenters. Brewing beer is a popular worldwide phenomena and Critical Force is right there with the rest of the beer-loving world.

“We wanted to bring something social to Critical Ops for the holiday season. Social features are vitally important to our success since they help in getting people to come back and play more,” says CEO of Critical Force Veli-Pekka Piirainen. “Making our games and support tools socially active coupled with high production values are key values to us as a company.”

Winterfest
Critical Force’s first Winterfest started on December 13th. It is a celebration of the holiday season. Critical Force wants to make the holiday season special for their players by offering them Winterfest themed exclusive skins and other holiday content.

Critical Force – a Finnish success story
Critical Force got started five years ago when CEO Veli-Pekka Piirainen and a small team of developers produced their first prototype of a multiplayer first person shooter for the mobile platform. Through incremental stages Critical Ops was eventually developed from this prototype. Critical Ops proved to be exceptionally suitable for mobile esports. From that day on Critical Force have engaged in pioneering work in the development of mobile esports.

The last couple of years have been extremely significant for Critical Force. The company moved to their current office in the center of Kajaani in the summer of 2016 and since then they have renovated and expanded several times due to the growth of the company. Critical Force received a $4.5 million seed investment from Korean game publisher conglomerate NHN Entertainment in the fall 2016. This is one of the biggest ever seed investments for a Finnish gaming company.

In the span of a little over a year Critical Force has grown exponentially from a 15 person core team to a family of over 60 games industry professionals. There are now employees of 13 different nationalities on the team. In addition to having employees in Kajaani, Finland there are now employees both in Seoul, South Korea as well as in Los Angeles in the United States.

Critical Force was also awarded best Finnish game developer of 2016. Critical Force’s hallmark mobile esports title Critical Ops has now been downloaded for over 30 million times and the game hasn’t even been officially released yet.