Metaverse pioneer Improbable has sold its gaming division Multiplayer Group.
MPG, acquired in 2019 for £30 million, provides multiplayer services to dozens of global publishers including Activision Blizzard and Epic Games.
It has been sold to listed acquisitive games firm Keywords Studios, based in Dublin, for £76.5m after growing its workforce six-fold to around 360.
“We are delighted to see MPG embark on its next chapter with Keywords, who we’ve always seen as a like-minded business partner,” said Improbable founder and CEO Herman Narula (pictured).
“Nurturing and fostering ventures across Sports, web3, fashion is at the heart of our philosophy and allows us to realise lasting value. We are confident that MPG will continue to grow within the Keywords environment, while this first success allows us to continue to deliver on our venture dealbook in 2024.”
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Improbable, the UK’s poster child for virtual worlds technology for more than a decade, narrowed losses by £131 million to just £19m last year.
The London company, 12th on our MediaTech 50 ranking this year, saw revenue growth of 2.6x to £78m in 2022 after adopting a more targeted operating model amid the hype of the metaverse.
Having made a loss of £129m in 2020 then £152m in 2021, it had hoped to achieve profitability in 2022 but just fell short.
In June this year it disposed of its defence and national security business to deepen its focus on the metaverse.