PC games giant Valve has acquired the developer behind indie darling Firewatch Campo Santo.
The deal was announced via a blog post on the studio's website, in which the firm has announced that it will be relocating to Valve's offices in Bellevue Washington.
There, the game maker will continue work on its sophomore title, In the Valley of Gods, which was announced at 2017's Game Awards. That title is set to launch in 2019.
The amount of the deal is not disclosed.
"If you’re the type of person who gives two flips about this news, we can elaborate a little bit on this big decision, "the studio wrote.
"First, we really like making video games. Furthermore, and perhaps more accurately, we really like making and producing entertainment. From the day-to-day production of our last game, Firewatch, to the way we run the company, make merchandise, meet players at expos and shows, send out a quarterly literary journal, throw open-to-the-public game demos in the middle of an artificial forest—all of it is geared towards surprising, delighting, and entertaining the customers who have shared in our success.
"In Valve, we found a group of folks who, to their core, feel the same way about the work that they do (this, you may be surprised to learn, doesn’t happen every day). In us, they found a group with unique experience and valuable, diverse perspectives. It quickly became an obvious match."
Campo Santo continued: "We had a series of long conversations with the people at Valve and everyone shared the satisfaction we take in working with people whose talents dwarf our own to make things we never thought possible. Both sides spoke about our values and how, when you get right down to it, we, as human beings, are hard-limited by the time we have left when it comes to making the things we care about and believe in. They asked us if we’d all be interested in coming up to Bellevue and doing that there and we said yes."
This could be part of Valve's renewed commitment to making video games. The firm announced to media in March that as well as DOTA 2 card game Artifact, the Steam giant was going to be making more titles moving forward.
Campo Santo was founded in 2013 by veterans of Telltale Games, Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin. Firewatch, the studio's debut title, was released in 2016 to critical acclaim.
