The video game industry went on a shopping spree in 2021. During the year, a handful of larger companies consistently bought up a shipload of smaller companies at a rate that announced a new acquisition every few weeks.
All of this, of course, was overshadowed by the great: In March Approved by supervisory authorities Microsoft’s $ 7.5 billion purchase of Zenimax (Bethesda’s parent company), a consolidation of the game development superpowers under the The organization chart of the Xbox studios steadily swelling. But 2021 was also riddled with a number of less than ten-digit acquisitions, some of which made headlines. Here are the main ones.
Netflix buys Night School Studio
Well, that didn’t take long. In May, Reports circulated that Netflix was looking for an executive specifically tasked with driving the streaming giant’s foray into video games, which began with experiments like Black mirror: Bandersnatch. Two months later, Netflix has hired Mike Verdu (formerly EA and Oculus). And then in September it bought Night School Studio, an independent outfit that is best known for Oxfree. The duo make sense: Night School makes moody, choice-based games, and Netflix has historically played with adventure witnesses packaged as a prestige TV special. In the past few years, Netflix has produced successful adaptations of Dota, Castlevania, and League of Legends. And then there is that Oxfree
Continue reading: Netflix’s video game service says the right things
The developer announces production Oxfree II, which would be the first game to be released under this new agreement, will not be affected by the acquisition and will be released next year. That wouldn’t be Netflix’s first game, however. In November, Netflix has added five video games to its streaming offering, including two previously released (and lukewarm received) adjustments to Strange things.
Epic buys Mediatonic
March, Epic Games has bought Mediatonic, the studio behind the ardently popular platformer Royale of 2020, Fall guys. At that time, Mediatonic was planning to publish it Fall guys on Xbox and Switch. That has since been postponed to 2022, with the game still only available on PlayStation and PC. In addition, to this day Fall guys has still not landed in his new overlord’s metaverse, Fourteen days, although Data miners claim such a transition is imminent.
The acquisition of Mediatonic is just the latest example of Epic’s intention to dominate the party game metaverse. In 2019, it bought Psyonix, the developer of Missile league, the car soccer sport game about hearing extremely catchy EDM catchy tunes. A year and a bazillion crossover events later, Epic pulled out Missile league from availability on Steam. For now, Fall guys
Epic buys Harmonix
Mediatonic wasn’t Epic’s only major acquisition in 2021. Last month Epic caught Harmonix, the creators of Rock bandto design “musical journeys and gameplay” for Fourteen days. As the pandemic progressed, various popular musicians held digital-only concerts in Fourteen days for big stars like Ariana Grande; It’s not immediately clear whether Harmonix would work on such experiences or rather develop things similar to the rhythm games for which the studio made its name. In any case, Harmonix says it will keep its back catalog on Steam even though Epic runs its own competing PC storefront.
Nintendo buys Next Level
It’s not that often that Nintendo buys game development studios outright, but the company started the year around Official acquisition from Next Level Games, the Vancouver-based creators of Luigi’s Mansion 3. The studio previously developed the 3DS games Metroid Prime: Federation Forces and Luigi’s mansion: Dark Moon, both received praise from Kotaku‘s reviewers.
Sony buys Housemarque
Honestly, if you’d asked me on the fly at any point earlier this year, I would have guessed Housemarque is a first-party Sony studio. Since 2012, only one of the Finnish studio’s games (Nex Machina) came out on a non-PlayStation (PC) platform. But it lasted until June, after the acclaimed release of return on PlayStation 5 that Sony has officially switched on Housemarque as a first party studio.
Sony buys Bluepoint Games
Everyone saw this coming as the news was accidentally revealed in a tweet three months earlier, but in September Sony has bought Bluepoint Games. Best known for producing luxurious remakes of popular games like Demon souls and Shadow of the colossus, Bluepoint is currently working on original games, studio boss Marco Thrush told IGN.
Fuck it, Sony will buy them all
In July, Sony has taken over Nixxes, a studio known for working on PC ports on popular games. (In the past few years, Sony has started bringing its biggest games to the PC.) September followed the purchase of Run sackboy! Run! Developer Firesprite. Just this month Sony bought Valkyrie Entertainment, a Seattle-based team primarily acting as the support studio for AAA games, including the upcoming ones God of war Ragnarok. And on top of that in March Sony bought Evo, the fighting game tournament, in collaboration with Endeavor. No, not technically a development studio, but still holy shit when it comes to gaming.
Tencent buys Turtle Rock
Tencent continued its foray into gaming with the December Purchase of Turtle Rock Studios, fresh from the release of Back 4 blood, the developer’s busy multiplayer zombie shooter. Turtle Rock was the sixth major purchase for the multinational conglomerate after controlling interests in Klei entertainment (known for Not to starve), Yager (Spec Ops: The Line), and Stunlock (Battle rit). Tencent also bought direct in 2021 Sumo group and Fatty shark, a Swedish indie studio.
Embracer buys Gearbox
In February the Embracer Group – the mega-corporation owned by THQ Nordic and Koch Media –Gearbox bought, the developer of Borderland and the publisher of games like Godfall and Tribes of Midgard. 2K, the longtime editor of Borderland, says this merger will have no impact on future games in the eternally blatant line of co-op shooters. A fantasy-inspired spin-off, Tiny Tina’s wonderland, is scheduled for release next March.
Embracer buys Aspyr
That same day Embracer bought Gearbox, it also took in Aspyr, a company best known for porting games to different devices. Aspyr is currently working on a full-fledged remake of the 2004 RPG Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, planned for a release on PC and PS5.
Take-Two buys Roll7
Take-Two Interactive is best known for releasing megawatt hits in the United States Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and NBA 2K Franchises, in addition to games in the comparatively smaller, but still blockbuster Borderland and BioShock Series. But the NY-based company is trying its hand at lighter fare with its Private Division label. Take-Two bought Roll7 (the developers of the OlliOlli Skateboard Games) and placed it under the purview of Private Division. OlliOlli world is planned for February.
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