Back 27 Aug 2025

How Winking Studios is driving business growth through joy and entertainment

Winking Studios powers 22 of the world’s top gaming companies, with its CEO Johnny Jan now positioning the company for even stronger global success.

When Johnny Jan, founder and CEO of Winking Studios, reflects on the gaming industry, he puts it simply: “In good times or bad, people will always turn to games for entertainment, connection, and escape.”

To Johnny, this belief isn’t just a romantic musing. 

It is a reality he is intimately familiar with, having run his studios since 1997, progressing to become a game art outsourcing and game development studio offering services to majority of the world’s biggest gaming companies. 

Its current client roster spans 22 of the top 25 global gaming firms, including Tencent, Sony, Microsoft, Nexon, and Square Enix.

Unlike headline-grabbing game publishers with viral hits—think Game Science’s Blackmyth: Wukong or Epic Games’ Fortnite—Winking Studios operates behind the curtain. 

“We’re part of the value chain that brings gaming experiences to life behind the scenes,” Johnny explains.

Currently, Winking Studios is embedded across four of the five stages of game development: pre-production (concepts and prototyping), production (large-scale art asset creation), release, and ongoing updates. 

By providing studios with both scalability and specialised skill sets, Winking Studios helps clients manage costs, shorten timelines, and enhance quality.

“People often think outsourcing is just about reducing costs,” Johnny stresses. 

“External partners like Winking Studios have become essential in the gaming industry, enabling gaming companies to manage the increasing scale, complexity and timely delivery of modern games while meeting player expectations for quality and creativity.”

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