In early December, Playrix announced that it had spent $100 million on the purchase of game studios in 2019. One of the acquired companies was Serbian. Today it officially became known who exactly in Serbia was bought by the gaming colossus.
Lightstep Chronicles
We are talking about the studio Eipix Entertainment in Novi Sad.
Under the terms of the deal, it will become part of Playrix as a subsidiary of Playrix RS. It is not reported what kind of games the new asset will be engaged in. It is only known that he will develop free-play mobile games.
The interlocutors of the Kommersant edition estimated the proposed transaction at $ 40-50 million. We consider this estimate to be inadequately high. Eipix Entertainment has neither a strong portfolio nor a promising new project. At best, we could be talking about several million.
Most likely, for Playrix, the new studio was of interest exclusively as a formed team ready to implement tasks “from above”. Buying is faster, more profitable and less risky than forming a large studio from scratch. According to Playrix, 150 people work in the Serbian studio.
Eipix Entertainment was founded in 2005. Until 2011, she was engaged in outsourcing. She also actively developed premium hidden games for Big Fish Games. In total, the Serbs have released more than 50 similar games.
In recent years, Eipix Entertainment has also experimented in other niches. She produced VR projects, text quests, and mobile three-in-a-row. However, none of the projects fired (for example, the mobile cash register of the Free Farm Slam and Free the Witch did not even reach $ 100 thousand, and the Lightstep Chronicles quest released this August on Steam did not break the mark of 20 thousand copies sold). The company has not found its “Holy Grail”.
In this context, the deal with Playrix could be a salvation for Eipix Entertainment. She got the opportunity to operate further, as well as a strong partner, according to whose patterns it will be possible to create world-class box office hits.
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