The Bigben Group is restructuring their company in advance of a planned IPO.
If you're unfamiliar with the Bigben Group, well... that wouldn't be a surprise. This massive company has a number of game developers underneath it, the majority of which focus on the AA market. Those are games that fall somewhere in-between massive AAA releases and indie games, although they're a fair bit closer to AAA.
Bigben's developers primarily create simulators and sports titles like WRC 7 and Rugby 20. While these are indeed niche products, they do well enough to keep the lights on. In fact, they're doing so well that they're changing up the way the company works and moving towards an IPO.
How is the Bigben Group Changing?
To start, the Bigben Group will be shuffling around its corporate structure as reported by GamesIndustry.biz. Nacon will now be the overall umbrella for all Bigben companies. Nacon used to be the gaming accessories brand for the company.
This new corporate plan is already underway. Currently, companies and assets are being shuffled around to work in the new structure. Once this is complete, they'll move forward with kicking off an IPO.
If you're not much into the stock market, you may only be vaguely familiar with the term "IPO". Standing for "Initial Public Offering", this is an event that takes place when a company transitions from private ownership to public ownership via the stock market. Typically, a certain number of stocks are sold at a starting price and the market will ultimately determine the value of the company. If things go well, the people who currently own Bigben (or a portion of it) will do very well financially.
In any case, this shouldn't change things up too much for the game developers themselves. The Bigben Group (now Nacon) will continue to focus on making great AA games, so I guess you can keep looking forward to Rugby 21.
What do you think of the Bigben Group going public? Do you play any games published by this company? Let us know in the comments below!
