Elephant Games

Lore & Background

Initially called White Elephant, the company was renamed Elephant Games. Its first game was Jungle Heart (2003), followed by the RIP Trilogy. In 2004–2005, the company released three installments of the top-down arcade shooter RIP, first published by Meridian4 and later distributed as a trilogy on Steam. Since 2009, Elephant Games has focused on the Hidden Object genre, launching over 150 games with varied themes. Notable series include Lost in the City, Mystery Trackers, Grim Tales, Haunted Hotel, and Detectives United. The company has maintained a long partnership with Big Fish Games, winning multiple Big Fish Games Customer Favorites Awards. In October 2012, Elephant Games released its first free-to-play game, Found: A Hidden Object Adventure, on PC and iPad (now closed). Its second free-to-play game, Midnight Castle, was released in December 2013 and has remained active for over ten years.

Reader's Guide

Elephant Games has been a prolific developer in the casual gaming sector, particularly within the Hidden Object genre. Its extensive catalog of over 150 games, including long-running series like Mystery Trackers and Grim Tales, demonstrates a sustained output that has catered to a dedicated audience. The company's partnership with Big Fish Games, a major U.S. publisher and distributor, was instrumental in bringing its titles to a global market and earning multiple Customer Favorites Awards. By being an early licensee of Nintendo in its region and later releasing free-to-play titles like Midnight Castle, Elephant Games adapted to evolving platforms and business models. The company's geographic reach, with a team spanning from India to Argentina and headquarters in Yerevan, Armenia, highlights its international character. Its legacy lies in the consistent production of narrative-driven hidden object adventures that have maintained a loyal following over two decades.

Did You Know?

• The company was originally called White Elephant before being renamed Elephant Games.
• The free-to-play game Midnight Castle, released in December 2013, has been active for over ten years.

Midnight Castle and Free-to-Play Development

Elephant Games is recognized as the developer behind Midnight Castle, a free-to-play title that occupied a place within the casual gaming portfolio associated with Big Fish Games. Big Fish Games, the parent company headquartered in Seattle with a regional office in Oakland, California, operated as both a developer and distributor of casual games targeting computer and mobile device audiences. Elephant Games sat within this ecosystem as a development team contributing a title to the company's broader lineup. Their work on Midnight Castle placed them squarely in the free-to-play segment, a business model in which players access games without an upfront purchase. This model was a meaningful part of Big Fish Games' strategy as the company evolved from its 2002 founding, shifting over the years from traditional browser-based online games toward social and mobile platforms. Elephant Games' contribution to this segment represented one thread in the larger tapestry of casual game development that Big Fish Games cultivated across its various studios and external partnerships before the ownership upheavals that ultimately reshaped the company's direction.

Position Within the Big Fish Games Network

Elephant Games functioned as a development partner within the Big Fish Games network, a casual game company that had grown into a prominent force in the sector. Big Fish Games was founded in 2002 and expanded to include multiple internal studios—Self Aware Games, Triton Studios, Epic Ventures, and ARC Studios—split between its Seattle headquarters and Oakland office. Elephant Games existed alongside these in-house teams as an external developer contributing titles to the company's catalog. The broader company had navigated a long evolution: it acquired the Ion Thunder browser gaming site in 2007 (later rebranded as Atlantis, then Big Sea Games), passed one billion game downloads in July 2010, and opened a European headquarters in Cork, Ireland in 2009. By 2013, however, Big Fish Games had already closed its cloud-based games service, Vancouver studio, and Cork offices, signaling a company in constant restructuring. Elephant Games operated within this shifting landscape, contributing to a portfolio that was perpetually being reorganized, expanded, and trimmed as Big Fish Games pursued new strategic directions.

The BFG Entertainment Era and the End of Midnight Castle Support

In October 2025, a pivotal transition occurred when Aristocrat Leisure sold Big Fish Games to a newly formed owner company, BFG Entertainment. Under this new leadership, a wave of structural changes rippled through the company's development partnerships. Among the most consequential decisions was the termination of support for Elephant Games' free-to-play title Midnight Castle. This move was part of a broader pattern of contraction: BFG Entertainment's leadership also transferred ownership of the mobile games Evermerge and Gummy Drop to external publishers JetSynthesys and 7 Hits Games, and terminated its contracts with hidden object game developer GrandMA Studios. The company simultaneously announced plans to open a new internal studio dedicated to hidden object games, suggesting a strategic pivot toward in-house production. For Elephant Games, the ending of Midnight Castle support marked the effective conclusion of their active role within the Big Fish Games ecosystem. Their future as a development entity remained uncertain as the new ownership structure consolidated control and redefined which external partners would continue to operate under the Big Fish Games banner.

Legacy Amidst a Turbulent Casual Gaming Industry

Elephant Games' story is inseparable from the turbulent history of Big Fish Games, a company marked by dramatic ownership changes and serious financial controversies. After Churchill Downs Inc. acquired Big Fish Games in 2014 in a deal valued at up to $885 million, the company was resold to Australian gambling machine manufacturer Aristocrat Leisure for $990 million in 2018. Along the way, Big Fish Games faced a 2016 accusation of knowingly deceiving customers into monthly purchase agreements and a class action lawsuit over its Big Fish Casino app, which culminated in a $155 million settlement after a federal appeals court determined the app constituted illegal online gambling. Workforce reductions were severe: 15% of staff were cut in September 2018, and nearly half the workforce was eliminated by September 2020. In this context of relentless upheaval, Elephant Games' role as developer of Midnight Castle represented one of many partnerships that formed and dissolved. Their eventual displacement under BFG Entertainment's 2025 leadership was the latest chapter in a long pattern of restructuring that defined the industry's most prominent casual game publishers.

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