Frictional Games AB is a Swedish video game company that works on its own and is located in Malmö. It was started in January 2007 by Thomas Grip and Jens Nilsson. The company focuses on creating survival horror games that have very little or no fighting actions. It is most famous for its games Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010) and Soma (2015).

History

Frictional Games was started by Thomas Grip and Jens Nilsson. Before creating the company, both had limited experience in the video game industry, having only worked on short-term projects. They began working together when Nilsson joined Grip on a project called Unbirth, which was later cancelled. They continued to collaborate on other projects and officially formed Frictional Games on January 1, 2007. The company was based in Helsingborg, Sweden, though most team members worked from other parts of Europe. Frictional's first game was Penumbra: Overture, based on a technology demo titled Penumbra and released in 2007. It was originally planned as the first part of a trilogy, but due to issues with its publisher, Lexicon Entertainment, Frictional changed partners to Paradox Interactive. Under Paradox, the remaining two games in the trilogy were released as one game called Penumbra: Black Plague in 2008, followed by an expansion pack titled Penumbra: Requiem the same year.

Over a period of exactly three years, Frictional created and published Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The game was released on September 8, 2010, and received mostly positive reviews. However, Frictional expected it to face challenges in becoming popular and profitable because it did not have a third-party publisher. Amnesia: The Dark Descent sold 36,000 copies in its first month and a total of 1,360,000 copies within two years, earning the company about $3.6 million, compared to its $360,000 development budget. According to Nilsson, the team struggled with ideas for continuing the Amnesia series and worried that another Amnesia game might fail. Instead, they hired The Chinese Room as a third-party developer to create a second game, providing guidance on horror elements while The Chinese Room handled the story and gameplay. The game, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, was released by Frictional in 2013.

While working on A Machine for Pigs, Frictional began developing a new game that eventually became Soma. The game was announced shortly after the release of A Machine for Pigs and was self-released by Frictional on September 22, 2015. It received mostly positive reviews and sold 92,000 copies in ten days, compared to Amnesia: The Dark Descent’s 20,000 first-week sales. In its first year, Soma sold 450,000 copies, compared to Amnesia: The Dark Descent’s 390,000 first-year sales.

In 2016, Frictional Games announced the start of production for two new, unannounced games due to the success of Soma. By 2019, the company planned to begin pre-production on a third unannounced game. In August 2017, Frictional moved its offices from Helsingborg to new locations on Stora Nygatan in Malmö. At that time, the company had 16 employees, with half of its 25 staff working in the Malmö offices. Amnesia: Rebirth, a follow-up to The Dark Descent, was announced with a trailer in March 2020 and released in October 2020.

Frictional Games released Amnesia: The Bunker on June 6, 2023, marking the fourth game in the Amnesia series.

As of October 2025, Frictional Games began releasing an ARG teaser for a joint project with Kepler Interactive. Updates to SOMA directed players to an interactive website for a fictional Hotel Samsara, encouraging them to sign up for future updates. Ontos, a spiritual successor to SOMA, was announced with a trailer at the 2025 Game Awards. The game will feature Stellan Skarsgård and follow "a search for answers [which] quickly spirals into something far stranger."

Technology

The HPL Engine is a game engine developed by Frictional. It is named after writer H. P. Lovecraft. The first version, called HPL Engine 1, was used to create the Penumbra series. This version became open-source software on May 12, 2010, with most of its code licensed under GNU GPL-3.0-or-later. HPL Engine 2 was used for Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, as well as prototype versions of Gone Home. It was also released under the GNU GPL-3.0-or-later license on September 23, 2020. HPL Engine 3 was used for Soma and later developed into HPL Engine 3.5, which was used in Amnesia: Rebirth and Amnesia: The Bunker. A newer version, HPL Engine 4, is planned for use in Ontos.