Playsaurus

Playsaurus is an American developer-publisher based in Los Angeles that is known for idle and incremental games. Founded in 2011, it debuted with The Browser-RPG Cloudstone, broke out globally with Clicker Heroes, and now operates a hybrid model, developing its own games such as [...] Quest and MrMine while publishing external projects including the Steam editions of Cookie Clicker and Sixty-Four.

History

Playsaurus’ first release, Cloudstone (open beta 2011, full launch 2012), mixed action-RPG mechanics with social-network distribution and laid the groundwork for the studio’s fantasy art assets, later reused in Clicker Heroes. Clicker Heroes (2014 browser, 2015 Steam) popularised the idle-clicker genre and became one of Steam’s most-played F2P titles. In 2017 the firm publicly rejected micro-transactions for its paid sequel, citing ethical concerns about “whales” and addiction.

The studio faced a high-profile patent-infringement suit in 2018 over virtual currency but vowed to fight, calling the claimant a “patent troll”. A year later Apple temporarily removed the mobile version of Clicker Heroes after a third-party trademark filing, spotlighting store-front vulnerabilities for indies.

Publishing & notable projects

In September 2021, Playsaurus launched PC version of Cookie Clicker, listed as the game’s Steam publisher. In 2024 the company released solo-developer Oleg Danilov’s Sixty-Four, a minimalist factory sim praised by Ars Technica for its “dark extractive journey” and previewed by Bleeding Cool ahead of launch.