Published on: 25/04/2022

Acquisition spree: Animoca Brands ‘not done acquiring’, says founder

Hong Kong-based video game software and venture capital company Animoca Brands has said that its acquisition spree was yet to be concluded.

The statement was made by the company’s founder and Executive Chairman, Yat Siu via Decrypt last week. According to Siu, the company was looking for acquiring studios from various fields, not only to expand its operations as one of the leading blockchain and crypto investors but to also gain more exposure.

“We’re not done acquiring,” Siu said. “What we’re looking to do is to acquire companies in different fields of gameplay in which we don’t quite have the exposure.”

Animoca’s acquisition

The company is not only a leading investor in blockchain and NFT startups but also a known publisher of NFT and Ethereum-based metaverse games. One of them is The Sandbox, which they developed together with PIXOWL INC.

Most recently, the company acquired three studios, namely Darewise Entertainment, Grease Monkey Games, and Eden Games. Based on Siu’s explanation, the company is less likely to stop acquiring more studios in the future.

There is another reason behind Animoca Brands’ current acquisition spree, which is to accelerate the company’s growth and to provide high-quality blockchain-based video games.

“We can accelerate that much faster, which is why we are acquiring these studios with this kind of reputation,” Siu added. “and building very high-quality games on blockchain.”

Siu explained more about the company’s growth through acquisition, saying that applying a traditional video gaming business model is difficult for Animoca Brands.

Siu added that the company is depending mostly on taking small cuts out of a larger secondary peer-to-peer sales which could potentially translate to more revenues compared to pushing out primary sales out of a video game premium title.

Moreover, Siu said that Animoca Brands’ “acquisition culture”, to say the least, was established to provide a safety net in the long run for its acquired studios.

“What we realized almost four years ago when we embarked on this mission is that it’s very hard to onboard people and studios into the space unless—essentially, the responsibility of making a mistake is not theirs anymore,” Siu added. “In other words, if things go wrong, it’s our fault.”

Animoca, Eden Games

In the case of the company’s most recently acquired studio, the French developer Eden Games. Animoca Brands is reportedly slated to develop the studio’s REVV motorsport ecosystem.

After Eden Games’ inception in 1998, the studio had worked on mainly console titles racing video games, such as V-Rally and Test Drive Unlimited. The studio made its foray into mobile games with its hit title F1 Mobile Racing. Animoca Brands gears itself towards this type of gaming development and make it “crypo”.

“With its quarter of a century of expertise in building high-quality motorsport video games, Eden Games will enhance and accelerate the development of the REVV Motorsport ecosystem and add powerful value to the REVV community and the racing metaverse,” Siu explained.

“We are excited to start the next chapter of Eden Games by joining Animoca Brands,” Eden Games co-founder and head of studio David Nadel added.

“We look forward to producing new experiences that challenge the status quo within the motorsport genre and venture into new frontiers such as Web3 alongside a leader in the space.”