London-based cloud games start-up Improbable has acquired developer Midwinter Entertainment.
No monetary value has been put on the deal, which sees Midwinter become the third internal studio at the SpatialOS maker following its Edmonton outpost - headed up by BioWare vet Aaryn Flynn - and a new London developer.
Midwinter was founded by vets from Halo maker 343 Industries; studio lead Josh Holmes (pictured), principal development manager Peter Burzynski and principal software engineer Fredrik Persson. The company announced its first game, Scavengers, in March 2018.
“From the beginning, our collaboration with Improbable has been mutually rewarding and this move allows us to join forces to create something bigger and better,” Midwinter co-founder and studio boss Josh Holmes said.
“Joining Improbable’s game studios enables us to collaborate more directly with the studios in London and Edmonton, and the SpatialOS platform team. This, in addition to Improbable’s significant investment in the development of Scavengers, will allow us to accelerate our development and bring our vision for the game to life much more vividly than would otherwise be possible.”
Improbable co-founder and CEO Herman Narula added: “I’ve been hugely excited by Midwinter and Scavengers since the first time I talked to Josh. The game development talent at our studios is world-class and is showing us the way when it comes to using SpatialOS to build and iterate on game worlds quickly to introduce groundbreaking games to market. We are very excited by Scavengers and its potential - but also equally thrilled to see how Josh and his team work alongside our global game studios to build solutions and features that help transform the experience of game development for our customers in the future.”
This acquisition follows three games using Improbable's SpatialOS tech being cancelled in quick succession; Bossa Studios' Worlds Adrift in May, followed by Mavericks from Automaton - due to the company slipping into administration the next month - and finally Spilt Milk's Lazarus in August. Improbable said that these aren't related and that there is risk inherent to making games.
