Outfit7

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Outfit7
Industry	Games Mobile App
Founder	Samo Login Iza Login
Headquarters	Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Key People	Samo Login (co-founder) Andrej Nabergoj (former CEO)
Websites	outfit7.com talkingtomandfriends.com talkingtom.tv talkingtomandfriends.tv

Outfit7 (formerly Outfit 7 and later OutFit 7) (also known as Outfit7 Limited) best known for its flagship entertainment brand Talking Tom & Friends, was founded in October 1, 2009 led by CEO and co-founder Samo Login. Outfit7 first created Talking Tom Cat in 2010.

Talking Tom & Friends is lauded as the fastest entertainment app series to reach 300 million downloads; this was achieved just 19 months after its launch. The app franchise then went on to hit one billion downloads in June 2013 and in February 2014 it was announced that the apps had reached 1.5 billion downloads globally and had more monthly users than Twitter. By 2017, the app franchise had 7 billion downloads. Outfit7's free-to-download Talking Tom & Friends apps have been downloaded in over 230 countries and territories worldwide, from North Korea to Vatican City.

A favorite of Jeffrey Katzenberg and featured on ABC's Modern Family, the Talking Tom & Friends apps have been praised for their successful combination of unique humor, creativity and self-expression. Users can tickle, poke and talk to the fully animated 3D characters that then repeat the words back in their own voice and, in the My Talking Tom app, fans can customize and care for their very own Talking Tom.

As of now, Outfit7 has five animated series and chart-topping YouTube singles, and has become the biggest and most downloaded app franchise of the last decade, according to Newswire UK.

History

In 2009, Samo and Iza Login were Slovenian high school students who studied computer science in college and decided to get into the business of apps. The two had saved $250,000 while working for local IT companies, and the Logins, who legally changed their surname to match their career. Alongside six friends, they set up an office in the capital, Ljubljana. Their first few attempts were unsuccessful, having created a soccer app, a travel guide to Iceland, and a “wealth affirmation” tool that shared financial mantras.

Talking Tom & Friends

After some more unsuccessful attempts, Samo Login, who was not interested in making games due to competition, came up with the idea to create an app based around a character. Samo Login purchased a $60 feral cat model off the 3D-model website TurboSquid and handed the model to his developers, who coded the animations and talkback feature, creating the app which would come to be known as Talking Tom Cat, which was published in June of 2010. Within 13 days, Talking Tom Cat reached one million downloads, and Outfit7 would immediately call to how and what made the success of this game, therefore spawning countless spin-offs. Within six months, Outfit7 had already raised 41 million downloads, and began plans for 100 million by the end of 2011. Within only another month, Outfit7 had now gained 60 million downloads. During this success, Samo Login retired his position as CEO and gave it over to Andrej Nabergoj.

By 2011, due to the rising popularity of the series, Outfit7 began looking at opportunities to bring the series to Hollywood, by producing books, comics, television shows or movies. Around that time, Outfit7 also began work on their next big project. Talking Gina the Giraffe, their first virtual toy game, Andrej Nabergoj described as the "future of mobile toys, and toys in general", and claimed that Gina was designed to "give users the opportunity to connect with our characters on a much deeper level".

After Gina, Outfit7 began naming their line-up. Early trademarks and interviews show different names such as Talking Animals. The final name was decided as "Talking Friends", and the logo featured an image of Talking Tom and Talking Gina. Outfit7 then began to create more simplistic apps again. That year, Talking Tom Cat 2 and Talking Ben the Dog would release, which would end up being some of Outfit7's most popular apps ever. By the end of the year, Outfit7 had successfully gained 190 million monthly users, and their apps had received over 300 million downloads.

In 2012, Outfit7 had gained a lot more traction. They began hosting deals, promotional team-ups, and partnerships. Outfit7 signed deals with merchandisers such as Dragon-i and ToyToyToy Ltd, and Disney Interactive to create produce online television based on Outfit7's extremely popular characters. The final results ended up with Outfit7 opening their own official store, Talking Shop, with the Talking Friends Superstars and Talk-Backs releasing on it, and Disney Interactive producing an online mini-series called Talking Friends. That year, Talking Tom, Talking Ginger and Talking Angela's names would all be put in Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

In 2013, Outfit7 slowed down on releasing apps, in order to release their biggest app, they ever created. After Talking Ginger 2 released in April, Outfit7 would remain silent until late that year. My Talking Tom released on 11 November 2013, and Talking Friends gained more popularity than ever before. My Talking Tom, unlike other apps, was an advanced virtual pet system where you could raise your own Tom. Around that point, Outfit7 also began thinking of ways to rebrand the series.

Reboot

In 2014, Outfit7 reached two-billion downloads. To celebrate this, Outfit7 once again teamed up to announce another up-coming television series, Tom on the Road, as well as an upcoming movie. Unlike Talking Friends, this series would be full-length, and the series would once again star Tom and his friend group. In December of that year, the series was rebranded and rebooted into Talking Tom and Friends, and the Talking Tom and Friends television series released in time for Christmas. Afterwards, My Talking Angela was released to coincide with the new branding system. Outfit7 also began to delist games that no longer grew traction or received updates, including games such as Talking Gina the Giraffe. After 2014, no news on the new Talking Tom movie would come until 2018.

Acquisition by Chinese investors

Around 2016, Outfit7 began looking for a lucrative deal to sell their company. In January 2017, Outfit7 signed a deal with United Luck Consortium to sell their company. This was the case until later that same month, Samo Login and Iza Login were out together, and met up with two men from the Chinese company, Zhejiang Jinke Peroxide Company. The news of Outfit7 selling was not announced until press releases that said that Outfit7 had been sold to the United Luck Consortium for $1,000,000,000. However, four days later, another press release stated that United Luck had sold Outfit7 to Jinke Culture Technology Company. In 2018, Outfit7 changed their logo to match the current apps they develop.

Afterwards, Outfit7 started developing Chinese apps for the Jinke cooperation, and has developed hugely successful apps since, including games such as Talking Tom Gold Run. In 2018 My Talking Tom 2 released, which was their first huge release in three years. In 2019, Outfit7 closed their store, Talking Shop, which had previously been renamed to the Talking Tom and Friends Official Store. In 2021, My Talking Angela 2 was released. To commemorate this release, Talking Tom and Friends and all its spin-offs were rebranded as Talking Tom & Friends.

Currently, Outfit7 has announced their plans to create apps and franchises other than Talking Tom. Outfit7 has currently released apps such as Mythic Legends and Swamp Attack 2 to form a newly formed company. As well as this, a Talking Tom movie is currently in the works with Marla Studios. Furthermore, a new Talking Tom & Friends 3-D animated series, Talking Tom Heroes: Suddenly Super is set to be releasing soon as well.