Vampire Survivors studio Poncle opens Japan and Italy offices, expands to 15 projects

Poncle is no longer behaving like a studio built around one runaway hit. The Vampire Survivors maker said it is opening new offices in Japan and Italy while working across 15 projects, a jump that signals a company trying to become a multi-project developer with international reach rather than a one-game success story.

The scale sounds even bigger at first glance, but the fine print matters. VGC later clarified that Poncle’s 15-project figure refers broadly to projects, which can include updates and downloadable content as well as new work, not necessarily 15 full new games. Even so, the number points to a pipeline that is far more active than the studio’s early reputation suggested, with Matteo Sapio saying some of the work is original intellectual property and some is collaboration inside existing universes.

That broader push comes with a fan-facing payoff. Poncle said Vampire Survivors has now passed 27 million players, a milestone that gives the studio the kind of leverage most indie teams never get. On Poncle’s own site, the company’s recent slate already looks like a small ecosystem: Vampire Crawlers launched on April 21, 2026, Vampire Survivors VR is in the mix, online play allows co-op runs over the internet, and crossover content has rolled out through Ante Chamber, Operation Guns and Ode to Castlevania.

The new offices also fit the way Poncle is thinking about growth. Japan is an obvious target for talent and partnerships, and the company has said it has received interest from Japanese studios. Italy gives Poncle another base in a country with its own strong development scene and a setup that can make local partnerships easier to build. For a studio that grew out of a surprise indie phenomenon, that kind of footprint suggests an effort to professionalize without losing the speed that made Vampire Survivors work in the first place.

Poncle’s publishing arm shows the same tension between ambition and caution. Under the Poncle Presents label, the company released Berserk or Die and Kill the Brickman, and previously said the arm was meant to provide funding, platform support, localisation, QA, release management and development advice. Luca Galante said the goal was to give something back to the indie community, and Poncle now says that arm is paused for the moment.

The bigger question is whether Poncle can keep its identity intact while it spreads out. Vampire Survivors already won Best Game at the 2023 BAFTA Games Awards, and that award now looks less like a finish line than the point where a breakout hit started financing a broader studio network.