In the coming weeks, Rockstar Games will close the deal to acquire the Indian studio Dhruva Interactive. Now the developer is owned by the Swedish publisher Starbreeze AB.
Payday 2
Rockstar buys 91.82% of Dhruva shares for $7.9 million. The purchase of the studio by Starbreeze itself three years ago cost $8.5 million.
The Dhruva team will join the Rockstar India staff in Bangalore, now numbering 500 employees. At the same time, she will continue to work on her current outsourced projects.
Founded in 1997, Dhruva Interactive Studio was the first game studio in the country. Now she is one of the largest developers in India. Dhruva specializes in art design. More than 300 developers under the leadership of Dhruva founder Rajesh Rao helped create Halo 5, Forza Horizon 3, Prey, as well as Payday 2 from Starbreeze, etc.
Dhruva Interactive has been a beacon of Indian game development for decades, and we are excited that it will join the Rockstar family. The joint work of the Dhruva team and the existing staff at Rockstar India will enhance the capabilities of the studio and strengthen the Indian community of game developers.
Rockstar India Manager
The sale of a controlling stake in Dhruva comes amid the plight of Starbreeze. Last fall, the publisher announced a restructuring after the failure of the game Overkill’s The Walking Dead. Recall that he finished 2018 with a big loss of $ 144 million. And recently, the company’s management admitted that Starbreeze is dangerously close to closing: the current year, according to Gamasutra, the publisher may not survive.
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