The French video game company Nacon acquired the developer of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, Daedalic Entertainment. The two companies were already in business together because Nacon is the publisher of the next Gollum game; however, the two companies have now “decided to strengthen their collaboration”. Let’s find out all the details together.
Nacon buys Daedalic Entertainment
Daedalic’s current management, including the founder and CEO Carsten Fichtelmann and the COO Stephan Harms, will continue to manage the studio “with a high degree of autonomy in development and publication”. Nacon it will help with salesthe publication they marketing efforts.
Nacon will pay 32 million euros in cash to buy Daedalic. Daedalic, on the other hand, can earn up to 53 million euros if it will be able to reach certain “performance” parameters by 2026. The deal is expected to close in 2022. The board of directors of Nacon has the agreement has already been approvedthe biggest ever for French company.
Daedalic, based in Hamburg, was founded in 2007 and has since developed and published more than 90 games by its team of 87 employees. Prior to The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, Daedalic made games in the Pillars of the Earth, Deponia, Shadow Tactics and The Whispered World franchises.
In the announcement, Nacon stated that Daedalic has “nine new additional games” in development that will be released in 2022, although most of them have not yet been announced. However, Nacon’s announcement hinted that there could be another The Lord of the Rings game in development. The French company in fact said:
In 2019, Daedalic Entertainment first announced its partnership with Middle-Earth Enterprises, a division of The Saul Zaentz Company. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is the first video game born from the partnership, with the possibility of other new experiences in the future.
Nacon said that with the acquisition of Daedalic, the company further establishes itself as a “leader in AA games”. Daedalic is the 16th study of Nacon. To conclude, Daedalic CEO Carsten Fichtelmann said:
After eventful years in which we have always come out as winners, I feel proud looking back on the last 15 years and the development of the company. Daedalic Entertainment has established itself as a publisher and developer of outstanding games in various genres and across all relevant platforms and has cemented this position globally. Together with Nacon, we are now taking the next step to further develop our catalog of games created by our team and many incredible indie studios. We look back on a confident and cooperative collaboration on The Lord of the Rings: Gollum and look forward to an even brighter future together.
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