Xsolla Acquires Ludo to Advance Player Engagement and Monetization

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2025--

Xsolla, a global leader in video game commerce, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Ludo, a platform designed to drive community engagement through code-free social quests. This strategic acquisition brings Ludo’s innovative technology into the Xsolla portfolio, combining its questing tools with Xsolla’s Web Shop and other Xsolla Rewards Solutions to help developers worldwide increase player engagement, drive retention, and unlock new monetization opportunities beyond the traditional app store model. As the #1 web shop provider in the video games industry, with over 500 web shops launched, Xsolla and Ludo will take mobile players' experience to the next level for game developers.

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Ludo’s integration with Xsolla centers on incorporating Community Quests into Xsolla’s ecosystem, giving developers a simple, built-in way to spark engagement through gamified social experiences. This aligns Ludo’s expertise in player activation with Xsolla’s robust commerce infrastructure, creating a seamless path from gameplay to web-based purchases and turning community participation into revenue-generating behavior.

The timing is significant. New platform flexibility allows mobile developers in the U.S. to promote and link to their web shops directly from their games, unlocking more seamless access to external purchasing experiences. This shift means developers can now:

With these capabilities combined with Ludo’s community-driven questing tools, developers can now create full-circle engagement loops that increase monetization, drive loyalty, and grow their player base without adding development overhead.

“Welcoming Ludo to the Xsolla family strengthens our push to give mobile game developers accessible, innovative tools,” said Chris Hewish, Chief Strategy Officer at Xsolla. “With an expanded Xsolla Rewards ecosystem, we’re adding loyalty and questing features that turn player engagement into lasting growth for games and their communities. The integration empowers developers to create dynamic quests that reward players for in-game purchases, social participation, and community-building actions such as joining a Discord channel or engaging on social networks. This opens up new avenues for re-engagement, loyalty, and increased conversion, all without requiring additional development resources or burdens on game developers.”

“Player loyalty is shaped the moment or even before the game begins; a dynamic questing system rekindles that spark every day, turning fleeting engagement into a sustainable, ever-growing community,” said Renee Russo, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Ludo.

“By adding advanced community quests and rewards at checkout, developers can nurture their communities, raise conversion rates, and protect margins,” said Annie Reardon, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Ludo. “Xsolla remains at the forefront of game commerce, and we’re thrilled to team up – blending rich out-of-game experiences with steady, player-driven growth to drive user acquisition and incremental revenue opportunities for games around the globe.”

In the coming months, Xsolla will continue rolling out tools and integrations built on Ludo’s capabilities, simplifying implementation and providing developers with actionable, data-driven insights. The goal is to give developers of all sizes the ability to grow their games, increase lifetime player value, and build vibrant, engaged communities.

For more information or to begin integrating Ludo, please visit: xsolla.pro/ludo

About Xsolla

Xsolla is a leading global video game commerce company with a robust and powerful set of tools and services designed specifically for the industry. Since its founding in 2005, Xsolla has helped thousands of game developers and publishers of all sizes fund, market, launch, and monetize their games globally and across multiple platforms. As an innovative leader in game commerce, Xsolla’s mission is to solve the inherent complexities of global distribution, marketing, and monetization to help our partners reach more geographies, generate more revenue, and create relationships with gamers worldwide. Headquartered and incorporated in Los Angeles, California, with offices in London, Berlin, Seoul, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Raleigh, Tokyo, Montreal, and cities around the world.

For more information, visit xsolla.com

(Graphic: Xsolla)

(Graphic: Xsolla)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Ahn Sung-ki, one of South Korean cinema’s biggest stars whose prolific 60-year career and positive, gentle public image earned him the nickname “The Nation’s Actor,” died Monday. He was 74.

Ahn, who had suffered blood cancer for years, was pronounced dead at Seoul's Soonchunhyang University Hospital, his agency, the Artist Company, and hospital officials said.

“We feel deep sorrow at the sudden, sad news, pray for the eternal rest of the deceased and offer our heartfelt condolences to his bereaved family members," the Artist Company said in a statement.

President Lee Jae Myung issued a condolence message saying Ahn provided many people with comfort, joy and time for reflection. “I already miss his warm smile and gentle voice,” Lee wrote on Facebook.

Born to a filmmaker in the southeastern city of Daegu in 1952, Ahn made his debut as a child actor in the movie “The Twilight Train” in 1957. He subsequently appeared in about 70 movies as a child actor before he left the film industry to live an ordinary life.

In 1970, Ahn entered Seoul’s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies as a Vietnamese major. Ahn said he graduated with top honors but failed to land jobs at big companies, who likely saw his Vietnamese major largely useless after a communist victory in the Vietnam War in 1975.

Ahn returned to the film industry in 1977 believing he could still excel in acting. In 1980, he rose to fame for his lead role in Lee Jang-ho’s “Good, Windy Days,” a hit coming-of-age movie about the struggle of working-class men from rural areas during the country’s rapid rise. Ahn won the best new actor award in the prestigious Grand Bell Awards, the Korean version of the Academy Awards.

He later starred in a series of highly successful and critically acclaimed movies, sweeping best actor awards and becoming arguably the country’s most popular actor in much of the 1980-90s.

Some of his memorable roles included a Buddhist monk in 1981’s “Mandara,” a beggar in 1984’s “Whale Hunting,” a Vietnam War veteran-turned-novelist in 1992’s “White Badge,” a corrupt police officer in 1993’s “Two Cops,” a murderer in 1999’s “No Where To Hide,” a special forces trainer in 2003’s “Silmido” and a devoted celebrity manager in 2006’s “Radio Star.”

Ahn had collected dozens of trophies in major movie awards in South Korea, including winning the Grand Bell Awards for best actor five times, an achievement no other South Korean actors have matched yet.

Ahn built up an image as a humble, trustworthy and family-oriented celebrity who avoided major scandals and maintained a quiet, stable personal life. Past public surveys chose Ahn as South Korea’s most beloved actor and deserving of the nickname “The Nation’s Actor.”

Ahn said he earlier felt confined with his “The Nation's Actor” labeling but eventually thought that led him down the right path. In recent years, local media has given other stars similar honorable nicknames, but Ahn was apparently the first South Korean actor who was dubbed “The Nation's Actor.”

“I felt I should do something that could match that title. But I think that has eventually guided me on a good direction,” Ahn said in an interview with Yonhap news agency in 2023.

In media interviews, Ahn couldn’t choose what his favorite movie was, but said that his role as a dedicated, hardworking manger for a washed-up rock singer played by Park Jung-hoon resembled himself in real life the most.

Ahn was also known for his reluctance to do love scenes. He said said he was too shy to act romantic scenes and sometimes asked directors to skip steamy scenes if they were only meant to add spice to movies.

“I don’t do well on acting like looking at someone who I don’t love with loving eyes and kissing really romantically. I feel shy and can’t express such emotions well,” Ahn said in an interview with the Shindonga magazine in 2007. “Simply, I’m clumsy on that. So I couldn’t star in such movies a lot. But ultimately, that was a right choice for me.”

Ahn is survived by his wife and their two sons. A mourning station at a Seoul hospital was to run until Friday.

FILE - South Korean actor Ahn Sung-ki smiles for a photo on the red carpet at the 56th Daejong Film Awards ceremony in Seoul, South Korea, June 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

FILE - South Korean actor Ahn Sung-ki attends an event as part of the 11th Pusan International Film Festival in Busan, South Korea, Oct. 13, 2006. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)