Paul Thelen

Big Fish Games is a casual gaming company based in Seattle, with a regional office in Oakland, California, owned by Aristocrat Leisure. It is a developer and distributor of casual games for computers and mobile devices.

The company was founded in 2002. In 2009, it announced the opening of their new European headquarters in Cork, Ireland.

In August 2013, the company announced the closing of its cloud-based games service, Vancouver studio and Cork offices.

In 2014, the company was acquired by Churchill Downs Inc. in a deal valued at up to $885 million.

In 2018, Churchill Downs sold Big Fish to Australian slots manufacturer Aristocrat Leisure for $990 million.

Big Fish Games has a number of studios split between the Seattle office and Oakland office that develop games: Self Aware Games, Triton Studios, Epic Ventures and ARC Studios.

Games developed by the various Big Fish studios include:

• Drawn series: Dark Flight, The Painted Tower, Trail of Shadows
• Fairway Solitaire HD
• Hidden Expedition series
• Mystery Case Files series

The company entered browser gaming with its acquisition of the game website Ion Thunder in 2007; the service was re-branded as Atlantis following the acquisition. The service, which was later revamped as Big Sea Games in 2009, was shut down in 2010 as part of the company's shift from traditional online games to social games on Facebook and mobile apps. It has also spawned an independent online community to discuss all things Big Fish related