News

Demiurge becomes an independent studio after its co-founder buys it back from Sega

It will continue to run Marvel Puzzle Quest and Sega Heroes

Date Type Companies involved Size
April 15th, 2020 acquisition Demiurge Studios
Sega
Not disclosed
Demiurge becomes an independent studio after its co-founder buys it back from Sega

Demiurge co-founder Albert Reed has repurchased the company from Sega.

As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, Reed and his business partner Geoffrey Hyatt acquired the studio. With its new independence, Bart Simon has been appointed CEO. Initially, Reed left the company in 2017.

Sega purchased the independent studio in February 2015.

"It is very much the same company it was when it was acquired," said Reed.

"About the same size. The vast majority of the staff is actually the same. A lot of it is actually pretty similar. When we were discussing things with Sega, it was an easy conversation because myself and my business partner already kind of knew everything."

Reed added: "We're finding those ways of running mobile games porting back into console and PC.

"And because there are not a lot of studios that have built triple-A console content and mobile free-to-play content, we're really in a unique position to help console PC developers to navigate what it means to run a game as a service, do real live operations, roll out new content, and continually tune and balance a game as it evolves."

Key focus

Currently, the studio plans to continue to run both Marvel Puzzle Quest and Sega Heroes. Furthermore, Reed claimed Demiurge would support the development of games for other companies rather than its own titles.

"That's what we're going to focus on for the next 12 to 18 months," said Reed.

"We have a really long history of partnering with the top studios and publishers. Some other indies might look down their noses, but we've found it to be incredibly rewarding work. You get to work with fantastic IPs and learn from the best developers. It's a great business."


Staff Writer

Kayleigh is the Staff Writer for PocketGamer.biz. Besides PGbiz and PCGI she has written as a list writer for Game Rant, rambling about any and all things games related. You can also find her on Twitter talking utter nonsense.