New Star Games Ltd

New Star Games Ltd is a British independent video game development studio founded by Simon Read in 2004. Based in the UK, the studio has built a reputation for creating accessible yet surprisingly deep sports games that appeal to both casual players and dedicated fans.

The studio first attracted a global audience with New Star Soccer (2012), an award-winning football RPG in which players guide a single footballer from youth academy to world-cup glory. New Star Soccer won multiple BAFTA nominations and is credited with helping define the mobile sports RPG genre.

In 2020, New Star Games pivoted to American football and released Retro Bowl, a retro-styled management and arcade game that became a viral phenomenon. With its charming pixel-art aesthetic, intuitive swipe controls, and deep franchise-building mechanics, Retro Bowl surpassed 40 million downloads across iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, and browser platforms.

New Star Games operates as a lean independent studio, with Simon Read often credited as the primary developer on the company's flagship titles. This small-team approach allows the studio to iterate quickly and maintain a direct relationship with their player community.

Simon Read is the British game developer and founder of New Star Games. A lifelong sports fan, Read began developing games independently in the early 2000s and launched the original New Star Soccer as a browser-based free game before expanding it to mobile platforms.

Read is widely praised in the indie game community for his ability to design game systems that are easy to pick up but difficult to master — a philosophy clearly visible in both New Star Soccer and Retro Bowl. He frequently engages with his player community on social media, sharing development updates and responding to player feedback.

His work on Retro Bowl earned coverage in major outlets including The New York Times, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated, with journalists praising the game's ability to capture the spirit of classic football without overwhelming complexity.

• January 2020Retro Bowl launches on the Apple App Store.
• August 2020Retro Bowl arrives on Google Play for Android devices.
• Early 2021The game goes viral as sports content creators share clips of dramatic moments, pushing downloads past 5 million within weeks.
• September 2022Retro Bowl launches on Nintendo Switch, reaching console players for the first time.
• 2023Retro Bowl College is released, expanding the franchise to college football.
• 2026Total downloads surpass 40 million across all platforms.

• Accessible design: anyone can play within seconds, no tutorial required
• Deep strategy: dozens of seasons reveal layers of team-building depth
• Nostalgia: the pixel-art style resonates with players who grew up with classic sports games
• Shareability: dramatic moments — last-second comebacks, unbeaten seasons — are easy to screenshot and share
• Free to play: no paywall on core gameplay makes it accessible to everyone
• Cross-platform: the same save experience on browser, mobile, and Switch