Today’s issue: the authors of DarkOrbit were bought by the Chinese, Kingdom will appear on mobile, and the authors of Scribblenauts are parting with part of the team.
1. The German developer of browser games Bigpoint (DarkOrbit, Drakensang Online) was acquired by the Chinese company Youzu Interactive (League of Angels) for €80 million. The deal will allow the companies to become “the only truly global publisher of online and mobile games,” according to an official announcement from Youzu. Good luck to them.
DarkOrbit
2. A flat indie sim about the construction of the Kingdom of the Kingdom from the Scandinavian Noio, warmly received by players and the press, but sold not the most impressive 150 thousand copies on Steam, will appear on mobile platforms.
Kingdom
3. 5th Cell studio, known for the Scribblenauts platformer series, is laying off 45 employees.
The cuts may be related to the failure of the crowdfunding campaign of the role-playing shareware game Anchors in the Drift, in which cards played the role of abilities.
Anchors in the Drift