Your Gaming and Esports Update
Deals
EA Acquires Glu
EA announced its plans today to acquire Glu in a deal worth $2.4 billion. The companies expect the acquisition to close in second quarter of this year. This is EA’s second major acquisition in recent weeks, following its move to bring publisher Codemasters under its umbrella. Glu is known for the aforementioned Kim Kardashian Hollywood game as well as other mobile hits like Tap Sports Baseball, Dine Dash Adventures, and Disney Sorcerer’s Arena. As a mobile publisher, Glu specializes in bigger-budget mobile games, often with full 3D visuals.
Homa Games raises $15M
French startup Homa Games has raised a $15 million seed round led by e.ventures and Idinvest Partners. The company has built several in-house technologies that can take a game from prototype to App Store success. It partners with third-party game studios and has a few in-house game studios as well. OneRagtime, Jean-Marie Messier, Vladimir Lasocki, John Cheng and Alexis Bonillo are also participating in today’s funding round. This is quite a big funding round, but Homa Games already has some impressive metrics. For instance, the startup’s games have been downloaded 250 million times overall since the creation of the company in 2018. It has signed an IP partnership with Hasbro to launch a Nerf-themed game that has been working quite well.
SplashLearn Raises $18M
SplashLearn, a 10-year-old U.S.-headquartered edtech startup that teaches children through a game-based curriculum, has raised $18 million in a new financing round as it looks to expand to more markets. San Francisco-based Owl Ventures led the Series C funding round in SplashLearn, and Accel, which had earlier invested $7 million in the startup’s Series B, also participated in the new round. In an interview with TechCrunch, SplashLearn co-founder and chief executive Arpit Jain said one of the biggest hurdles the education system faces today is that kids do not wish to learn, so you have to broach the subject in a way they find engaging.
Phoenix Games Acquires SmileyGamer
Phoenix Games announced the purchase of mobile developer SmileyGamer for an undisclosed sum. The Belgian studio specializes in match-three titles, with the acquisition aiming at scaling its existing portfolio and expanding it with seasonal games. SmileyGamer had annual revenue of £5 million prior to the acquisition, the announcement said, and its return on ad spend has doubled since the Phoenix Games’ purchase, with ad revenue also growing 50%.
Road Studio Raises zł2m
Movie Games subsidiary Road Studio is set to raise zł2m, split equally in terms of sourcing between institutional investors and a public equity crowdfunding campaign conducted via the Crowdconnect.pl platform. The investment will be the final tranche raised by Road Studio ahead of its planned debut on the WSE-run NewConnect market, while the proceeds will be used to support the development of further transportation and travel titles, such as Alaskan Truck Simulator and European Motorcycle Simulator
Powder Raises $14M
Powder, a French startup that helps you share video clips of your favorite games, follow people with the same interests and interact with them. The company has raised a $14 million Series A round led by Serena. Powder wants to build the video infrastructure for social gaming. While many communities of gamers already share content on Twitch, Discord and Reddit, there isn’t a dominant mobile app focused on gaming. Powder can capture video content from any platform. You can record with your console and access your footage by connecting your account with Powder. You can capture videos on your PC using the company’s desktop app. You can also capture videos of mobile games.
Asmodee Acquires Board Game Arena
Asmodee has acquired Board Game Arena, a digital platform for playing board games. The giant board game publisher made the announcement today, but it did not release any terms of the acquisition (including how much it paid for Board Game Arena). While Asmodee does have a significant portfolio of digital adaptations of its board games (think Gloomhaven, Scythe, or Ticket to Ride), this move is all about bringing tabletop games into a virtual tabletop. According to an Asmodee spokesperson, Board Game Arena saw 600% growth in 2020.
Updates
Dan Ricco is Now Overseeing the Company’s AR and VR Products
Apple’s former hardware leader, Dan Riccio, is now overseeing the company’s still-secretive work on augmented and virtual reality products, according to Bloomberg. Riccio stepped back from Apple last month, after serving as senior vice president of hardware engineering since 2012. At the time, Riccio said he would remain at the company with a focus on “creating something new,” but he didn’t say what that would be.
Epic Games Releases MetaHuman Creator
Epic Games has unveiled its MetaHuman Creator, a new browser-based app that enables game developers and creators of real-time content to slash the time it takes to build digital humans from weeks to less than an hour. And as you can see from the images in this story, the tools can create highly realistic human characters.
Kingdom Hearts is Coming to PC
Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix’s action roleplaying mashup of Square Enix, Disney, and Pixar characters, is coming to PC for the first time. The series will be available as an Epic Store exclusive on March 30th, the company announced today. Titles include Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Remix — enhanced versions of Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 — Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind, Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory. Although the series has spanned a variety of platforms, from its beginnings as a PlayStation title to its arrival on Xbox consoles and handhelds for many of the series’ spinoffs, it has never made the leap to PC.
