Embracer Group has entered into an agreement to fully acquire Vertigo Games, which is a video game developer and publisher that exclusively focuses on VR.
Vertigo Games has developed and published games such as Arizona Sunshine, Skyworld, and World of Diving. They have a new game coming, After The Fall, and are seemingly on the up and up. The deal closed for 50 million Euros, with 40 million paid in cash and 10 million in newly issued B shares. They will be joining the Koch Media (Deep Silver) side of the Embracer family, although like most of the Embracer studios continue to primarily operate independantly. Embracer believes this will move them strongly into the VR area, and that it will take off, with new hardware announced at Facebook Connect, and AAA VR brands like Half-Life Alyx growing interest in the platform.
Beyond After The Fall, Vertigo Games has several other titles in the pipeline, either in publishing or arcades. They include Traffic Jams, Pathcraft, and Unplugged although they mentioned 6 in total.
“Since we decided to focus exclusively on VR gaming in 2013, we have experienced rapid growth with the release of global hit Arizona Sunshine, and we have our most ambitious project to date, After the Fall. The VR gaming market seems to be on the edge of really taking off with the coming together of better, more accessible hardware and more and more high-quality content being released and announced. We believe that now is the time to accelerate and in Koch Media and Embracer we have found the perfect partner to do so together with”, said Richard Stitselaar, CEO of Vertigo Games.
THQ Nordic Launches New Studios
In related news, THQ Nordic (which is now under the same umbrella as Vertigo Games) has added two new development studios under their umbrella, which includes a new branch of Rainbow Studios (who's US studio is known for off-road racing) in Montréal, Canada. This studio will help THQ Nordic with co-production by producing assets and helping other studios within THQ Nordic. The second studio is Brno in the Czech Republic who will work on a Strategy/RPG title.
Pretty cool news all around, and a very busy day for Embracer. For more information on both the acquisitions and the opening of new studios, be sure to go to EmbracerInvestor on Twitter and this press release on Vertigo Games here.
What do you think of this news? Have bought any THQ Nordic games recently? Let us know in the comments!
