French video game company Nacon–formerly Bigben Interactive–has acquired The Lord of the Rings: Gollum developer Daedalic Entertainment. The two companies were already in business together, as Nacon is the publisher of the upcoming Lord of the Rings game, but now the two companies have “decided to tighten their collaboration,” Nacon said in a news release.
Daedalic’s existing management, including founder and CEO Carsten Fichtelmann and COO Stephan Harms, will continue to run the studio “with a high degree of autonomy in development and publishing.” Nacon will help with sales, publishing, and marketing efforts going forward.
Nacon is paying 32M€ in cash to buy Daedalic, while Daedalic can earn up to 53M€ if certain “performance” metrics are met by 2026. The deal is expected to close in 2022. Nacon’s board of directors has already approved the deal, which is Nacon’s biggest ever.
The Hamburg-based Daedalic was founded in 2007, and has developed and published more than 90 games since then from its team of 87 employees. Before the Lord of the Rings, Daedalic made games in the Pillars of the Earth, Deponia, Shadow Tactics, and The Whispered World franchises.
In the announcement, Nacon said Daedalic has “nine additional new games” in development for release in 2022, though it seems most of them have not been announced yet. However, Nacon’s announcement teased that another Lord of the Rings game might be in the works.
“In 2019, Daedalic Entertainment first announced its collaboration with Middle-earth Enterprises, a division of The Saul Zaentz Company. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is the first video game to be born out of the partnership, with scope for more new experiences in the future,” Nacon said.
Nacon said that with the acquisition of Daedalic, the company establishes itself further as a “leader in AA games.” Daedalic is Nacon’s 16th studio.
“After eventful years in which we always came out on top, I feel proud looking back at the past 15 years and the development of the company,” Daedalic CEO Carsten Fichtelmann said. “Daedalic Entertainment has established itself as a publisher and developer of exceptional games across various genres and on all relevant platforms and has cemented that position globally. Together with Nacon, we are now taking the next step to further develop our catalogue of games created by our own team as well as many incredible indie studios. We are looking back at a trusting and cooperative collaboration on The Lord of the Rings: Gollum and forward to an even brighter future together.”
In other Lord of the Rings news, the film and video game rights are now reportedly on sale.
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