Koch Media has announced their agreement to acquire Polish developer Flying Wild Hog, best known for their revived Shadow Warrior franchise. The studio will continue to act as an independent company within the Koch Media family, meaning that their existing deals for Shadow Warrior 3 to be published by Devolver Digital, and their action-RPG IP in development for Jagex, and a still unannounced title in partnership with Focus Home Interactive will continue
Michal Szustak, CEO Flying Wild Hog Studios said, “We are absolutely thrilled that Flying Wild Hog will be joining Koch Media and the Embracer family. […] We fell in love with Embracer’s vision to build an alliance of diverse and talented studios who keep their independence and creative freedom. It’s an incredibly compelling opportunity which is why we’re delighted by this partnership and what it holds for our future.”
It all sounds wonderful and rosy, when put like that, but it’s another clutch of eggs being dropped into an ever-expanding basket. Here we see the sticky tendrils of Embracer Group extending once more, the holding company formerly known as THQ Nordic which fully owns… THQ Nordic the publisher and Koch Media, Saber Interactive, Coffee Stain, Amplifier Game Invest, and Quantic Lab.
It’s a truly vast empire of game publishers and game developers. It means that Flying Wild Hog are now in the same game development and publishing web as Metro developer 4A Games (owned by Saber Interactive), Darksiders developer Gunfire Games (owned by THQ Nordic the publisher), Little Nightmares developer Tarsier Studios (part of Amplifier Game Invest), and on and on.
So it’s yet another video game company acquisition, with seemingly anything and everything up for sale right now. A number of other already gigantic companies have recently announced or concluded other major acquisitions, including Microsoft acquiring Bethesda parent company Zenimax, and Codemasters agreeing to a buyout by Take-Two.
Source: press release
