MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Founded in March 2005, Foundation 9 is a network of studios built from the companies The Collective, Backbone, Pipeworks, ImaginEngine and Digital Eclipse. It has sites all over the US and Canada and last month acquired Shiny from Atari. Earlier this year it also announced that it had secured a $150m investment promise from VC group San Francisco Partners.
Some of that money has helped fund today’s announcement, the acquisition of handheld-specialist Amaze will see the two groups’ network of studios merge – Amaze’s are KnowWonder, Griptonite, Monsoon and Fizz Factor.
The combined company will have over 750 staff. In July, chairman and CEO John Goldman told Develop that F9E would continue to acquire studios where ever it made sense to grow the business and strengthen its base of development talent – and he didn’t rule out an acquisition outside of North America.
“The team at Amaze has done a fantastic job in growing one of the most trusted and best run independent developers, period,” said Goldman of the latest deal.
"Our combined strength in handheld will be unparalleled, which provides excellent balance to our growing roster of over five next-gen titles. Together, we’ll offer our publishing partners an unrivalled breadth of resources and capabilities to help them achieve their goals.”
