London-based tech company Improbable today has acquired game developer, and former technology partner, Midwinter Entertainment.
The US developers are the upcoming online action-shooter ‘Scavengers’.
This acquisition is the first by an established studio, which the firm said signals its commitment to building and supporting games which use its ‘SpatialOS’ game development platform.
Based in Washington, and co-founded by former ‘Halo’ franchise creative director Josh Holmes, Midwinter joins Improbable’s recently-announced internal game studios in Canada and the UK.
Midwinter’s debut title, ‘Scavengers’, was announced in March 2018 alongside a multimillion-dollar investment in the game by Improbable.
Improbable said the acquisition would high calibre of technical expertise and significant experience developing for AAA games. Their continued contribution to Improbable’s core technology, SpatialOS, will now be streamlined, joining Improbable’s other internal studios in furthering the platform, making it a more useful tool for independent game developers and studios building multiplayer games.
Midwinter will retain creative independence while benefiting from closer technical and organisational integration with SpatialOS, which enables faster, more flexible and innovative game development.
“I’ve been hugely excited by Midwinter and Scavengers since the first time I talked to Josh,” said Herman Narula, CEO and Co-founder of Improbable.
“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 ground-breaking 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.”
Josh Holmes, co-founder and Studio head at Midwinter Entertainment said: “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.”
“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.”