New Way To Pay
Voodoo buys Beach Bum to diversify monetisation from ads to IAPs
Israeli startup did $70 million in past 12 months
Open Doors
CrazyLabs acquires Firescore Interactive to boost Indian hypercasual ecosystem
The companies launched a new hub together in July
Great Guns
Tilting Point raises $235 million to accelerate studio acquisition strategy
General Atlantic leads first equity raise
Sky High
$60 billion worth of deals in the games industry have already taken place in 2021
Drake Star Partners adds up the activity
Triple Word Score
MTG acquires Indian word game studio PlaySimple for $360 million
There's also a $150 million earn-out
Gear Up
Looking for your mobile games studio to be acquired? Here's what recent M&A data is telling founders
Pollen VC's Martin Macmillan highlights the trend
Expansion
Nazara buys a majority stake in MENA publisher Publishme
Spends $3 million for a 70% stake
527 Individual Deals
Game deals in 2021 have reached $49 billion in value so far
Drake Star Partners digs into the data
Data Is Power
Skillz acquires Aarki for $150 million
First move since joining the New York Stock Exchange
Mini Tencent
Miniclip continues its own mini-rollup, acquiring Supersonic Software
Long time indie sells out
No Slowing Down
Embracer is looking to spend $2 billion on another 20 deals
Raised another $890 million in March
Alpha To Omega
How Vungle’s M&A activity aligns with its wider platform vision
TreSensa deal is part of the process
Vertical Integration
Vungle's third big acquisition is cloud-based ad creative outfit TreSensa
Building out a complete platform
More Cash
Game Taco snaps up GSN Games' Worldwinner
Skill-based gaming consolidates
Another Add
Krafton snaps up mobile games studio Dreamotion
Building out the plan
Not For Sale
Why Life is Strange dev Dontod rejected several M&A proposals
But did sell a minority stake to Tencent
Small Gains
Why Zynga’s Chartboost acquisition is more strategic than reactive
COO Matt Bromberg explains
Big Deal
Zynga acquires adtech outfit Chartboost for $250 million in cash
Vertical consolidation happening
Standing Tall
Zynga-owned Rollic acquires High Heels dev Uncosoft
Hypercasual M&A
Big Bang
Game M&A hit all-time high of $39 billion in Q1 2021
280 deals made during the quarter
Sell Out
Xsolla announces Xsolla Exit Strategies services
New service for developers
All Seeing
Xsolla acquires data viz outfit Slemma
Better viz, better business
Welcome To The Family
Keywords snaps up Climax Studios for up to $60 million
The latest in a line of acquisitions
Buying Spree
Stillfront M&A head Marina Andersson on making the perfect acquisition
Discussing a very busy 2020
Splash The Cash
Report: Microsoft among companies looking to buy Discord
Chat platform is apparently up for sale with a $10 billion price tag
Welcome Aboard
Brian Chadwick joins Agnitio Capital as managing director
"I have long admired Agnitio Capital and Shum Singh"
Such Discipline
Take-Two says it lost Codemasters to EA due to its "disciplined approach"
CEO and chair Zelnick admits that it was "disappointing" to not snap up the UK racing specialist
Done Deal
Tencent secured 31 games-based deals in 2020
"Tencent is in no danger of losing its No.1 position in the games market, but it is beginning to feel some pressure"
Money Money Money
$33.6 billion was spent on games industry investments last year
$12.6 billion came from M&As
Splash The Cash
Embracer acquires A Thinking Ape and 11 other games studios
Company now operates 58 developers
Big Money
Codemasters agrees to sell to Take-Two
Racing firm goes to the GTA parent company for close to $1bn
Fast Mover
Zynga buys hypercasual outfit Rollic for $168 million
All-cash deal gains 80% equity
10 Years On
Disney enters social gaming battle with $763 million Playdom deal
The Mouse is in sharing mode
Master The Meta
Master the Meta: China's crackdown, new EU rules, and $7.8 billion of deals
News and insights from the Master the Meta team
Eat Or Be Eaten
Despite $1.8 billion Peak deal, Zynga isn't 'acquisition-ed out'
President of publishing Bernard Kim on a hungry beast
Better Together
Twitter acquires playable ad outfit CrossInstall
Building a strong monetisation channel
Candy Land
Stillfront Group acquires BitLife developer Candywriter for $74 million
Total deal worth up to $195 million including earn-out bonuses
Licensing Not Publishing
Disney reportedly looking to offload Marvel Strike Force developer FoxNext Games
House of the mouse no longer interested in game development
Top Dog
How Zynga used M&A and forever franchises to become the world's number one mobile games company
"Personally, this is actually a quest that I’ve been going after since my days at EA Mobile"
Finland Report
Finland's transformation from games start-up capital to mobile heavyweight
Ahead of Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki on October 1st and 2nd 2019, we take a look at the current state of the Finnish games industry and how it's changed
M&a
THQ Nordic acquires Milestone, Gunfire Games and Goodbye Kansas Game Invest
Racing specialist Milestone, Darksiders maker Gunfire and investment firm Goodbye Kansas Game join the European publisher firm's portfolio
Fund Raise
Update: Stillfront Group to raise $53 million from directed share issue; seeks up to $106m from bond loan
Company wants to add cash to its M&A warchest
Still Going Strong
Stillfront Group plots further M&A as profits double in 2018
"We are staffing up for more M&A activity and remain as confident as ever in our screening process and post-acquisition strategies"
Rapid Growth
IronSource claims $900m run-rate for 2019 as it eyes up acquisitions and IPO
Big year ahead for the ad tech firm
Going Public
Scientific Games subsidiary SciPlay files for IPO
Readies itself for potential acquisition spee; has entered into $150 million revolving credit facility
Busy Bees
Animoca raises $3.3 million and acquires German developer Stryking
Picks up studio initial $1.1m deal that could rise to $3.3m
Wild
Gamigo acquires casual games developer WildTangent
WildTanget’s portfolio features over 4,000 games including the Fate series
Born Again
Rising from the ashes: Former Flaregames CEO Klaas Kersting on why he’s founding Phoenix Games
“There’s a cyclical pattern of consolidation with every new platform, and we’re at the stage now with mobile where it’s more competitive and expensive than ever"
Money
5th Planet Games lands $4.85 million in financing for future acquisitions
Hugo resurfaces with a new name and a renewed drive to buy, buy, buy
War Chest
THQ Nordic raises $225 million through share sale for further mergers and acquisitions
European publishing firm's M&A shows no sign of slowing down