Hot Five: Supercell to acquire Metacore, Kohort raises $7m in Series A, and CCP rebrands to Fenris Creations
To help get you primed and ready for another week in mobile gaming, we’ve curated the biggest stories you need to know from the last seven days.
1) Supercell to acquire Merge Mansion studio Metacore as 160 jobs could be cut
Metacore’s largest shareholder Supercell is fully acquiring the remainder of the company and bringing Merge Mansion into its portfolio.
"While Merge Mansion remains a strong and stable game with a loyal player base and a strong brand, its growth has plateaued over the past few years, and Metacore’s new games investments have not succeeded in launching new games globally," said Metacore CEO Mika Tammenkoski.
"I truly believe Supercell is the best future home for Merge Mansion."
2) Exclusive: Kohort raises $7m to build UA AI agents for mobile
Mobile analytics firm Kohort raised $7 million in Series A funding to build user acquisition agents for mobile studios.
The round was led by The Raine Group, having also invested in Kohort's seed round last year.
3) Unity launches open beta for Unity AI game development tools
Unity AI has launched in open beta, offering a suite of AI-powered tools to help developers build games within the Unity ecosystem.
Access depends on subscription tier and AI credit availability, but is built directly into the Unity Editor and can be utilised across Unity 6 and above.
4) Eve Online studio CCP rebrands to Fenris Creations as Google takes minority stake
CCP has rebranded to Fenris Creations following a management buyout valued at $120m.
The studio was previously owned by South Korean publisher Pearl Abyss, but after the buyout it will be governed by its own board of directors. Google has also taken a minority stake, as Fenris Creations has signed a research partnership with Google’s AI division DeepMind.
British studio Perchang Games has launched Perchang World as an Apple Arcade exclusive, featuring comedian James Acaster in his first video games role.
The game has positioned Acaster in the role of narrator, instructing players and leaning into quirky British humour during gameplay.
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