Tilting Point has acquired mobile RPG Star Trek Timelines from original developer Disruptor Beam and established a new studio to focus on the game.

Wicked Realm Games will operate out of Boston, and is staffed by 19 former Disruptor Beam developers, including CTO David Cham, who will head up the studio.

"Disruptor Beam made a decision to refocus its development efforts on their Disruptor Engine platform. At the same time we saw the opportunity to invest much more in Star Trek Timelines as we see it as a "forever" game. This created a perfect opportunity on both sides at the right time. Not only are we big fans of Star Trek Timelines, but we also are committed to long term live operations for the title," said Tilting Point CEO Kevin Segalla and president Samir El Agili in a joint statement to PocketGamer.biz.

"This acquisition is a natural next step of our progressive publishing model in which we seek to progressively build deeper relationships with our developer partners, and it also allows us to provide a new permanent home for Star Trek Timelines - with operations moving to our new studio Wicked Realm Games led by team members who have been key to the game's overall success."

Progressive publishing

Despite now owning and operating a development studio, Tilting Point still doesn't consider itself a developer. This is instead a move as part of its publishing platform - albeit a lot more hands on.

"Tilting Point will continue to act as a centralized publisher that works with a wide network of partners," said El Agili and Segalla.

"We’ll continue to move forward with a strong focus on our unique progressive publishing model, which is split into two main phases:

• Helping developers scale their game that is already live on the market. This usually starts with UA funding, UA expertise and creative production, as well as ASO to in-game optimization depending on the developer’s needs.
• Becoming co-development partners and creating a successful trajectory for the next game. In this extended phase, we offer funding and co-develop the game together, as well as negotiate successful licensing deals and leverage the support of our design and marketing teams.

"In some cases, a deeper partnership leads us to fully owning and operating a game, and Star Trek Timelines is a perfect example of the complete "progressive" path - from the initial UA funding to the game becoming part of our roster of great games."

Warp speed

Wicked Realm will focus all its efforts on live ops for Star Trek Timelines, with new content planned around the recent tv series Star Trek: Picard coming in April. Tilting Point is also looking to grow the studio further down the line.

Disruptor Beam unveiled its live ops platform Disruptor Engine back in April 2019. We spoke to CEO Jon Radoff about the company's plans to become the "Epic of live ops" not long after.

Tilting Point has been involved in Star Trek Timelines since December 2017, when it entered a UA partnership with Disruptor Beam. It made a further investment in the partnership in September 2018.