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Publisher Devolver Digital has begun trading on the London Stock Exchange, floating at around $950 million. That makes Devolver the largest US company to go live on the London Stock Exchange (via GI.biz).
Devolver’s stock went live at 8am on Thursday morning, raising $261 million around its admission and valuing the company at $950 million.
Additionally, Sony has already made a 5 per cent investment in the publisher, while NetEase purchased an 8 per cent stake. Devolver staff are still the minority owners however, with its founders and all current employees owning a stake in the company.
“Today we’ve become a publicly traded company,” said Devolver. “At first blush that can certainly sound like a departure from a group of friends starting a boutique game label, but really it’s a kind of validation for our team and our partners. We’re insanely proud of what we’ve accomplished over the last decade, and we genuinely believe this will make us even better.
As part of the announcement, Devolver also revealed that it has acquired Enter the Gungeon developer Dodge Roll, FireFly Studios (known for the Stronghold series) and Reigns studio Nerial.
“So what does this mean for your sixth favorite game publisher? This means Devolver Digital will be able to continue to invest into all the games we’re working on now, partner on new ones that we’ve previously not been able to consider, and add more of the fine people we love working with into our cadre of consummate video game professionals.
“That last point is an important one – over the past year or so we’ve brought our longtime partners and friends Croteam (Serious Sam, The Talos Principle), Dodge Roll (Enter the Gungeon), Nerial (Reigns, Card Shark) and FireFly Studios (Stronghold series) into the strong but gentle arms of Devolver Digital. Those developers and our team looked ahead and saw that we’d be working together forever so we lovingly acquired them, mostly so they would hang out with us more. The games and experiences that these four studios have planned are incredible and each maintain their full creative autonomy afforded to them throughout our relationship. No specific plans for Enter the Gungeon 2 but rest assured we’ve asked them more than once.
“The team at Devolver Digital is forever thankful for the support you’ve shown to us and the developers that have trusted us as partners and we’re beyond excited at what the future holds. We’re all still sitting at a picnic table talking about video games, it’s just a bigger picnic table. Oh, and please buy Inscryption.”
