Focus Home Interactive buys out Streets of Rage 4 and Wonder Boy developer Dotemu for €38.5 million
Indie studio Dotemu will be joining a new home, following a buyout of the company by European major publisher Focus Home Interactive. The developer is known for their work developing retro-themed revivals of franchises, such as Streets of Rage 4, Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, and the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, while also having assisted in multiple ports, including Ys Origin and Final Fantasy VIII Remastered. Focus Home Interactive acquired them for €38.5 million Euros ($45.5 million USD), with the CEOs of the respective companies sharing their excitement for the future, which will allow Dotemu more resources to work on their games and expand their team with.
This marks the third major buyout for Focus Home Interactive within the last year, with the publisher having recently acquired The Surge developers Deck 13 as well as Streum On Studio, who created Necromunda: Hired Gun.
Cyrille Imbert, CEO of Dotemu, added: “Joining the Focus Home Interactive Group was an obvious choice for Dotemu. We share the same passion for video games, the same desire to improve, as well as the same values of respect and benevolence towards our partners and teams. While continuing its activities, this new collaboration will allow Dotemu to benefit from the incontestable expertise of Focus Home Interactive's teams for the production of AA titles and thus launch the production of future remakes or sequels on licenses of first-generation 3D consoles (the games of the early 2000s).
While retaining the editorial and strategic independence that has made it so successful, Dotemu will be able to give even greater ambition to its projects and give itself the means to broaden the range of services offered to studios, in order to guarantee the success of their productions on the retro label as well as on the publishing label The Arcade Crew. Therefore, Dotemu is ideally positioned to achieve its ambitious growth plan to triple its turnover in the medium term. My mission will also be to share Dotemu's expertise with Focus Home Interactive's teams, to select and convince talented teams to join the Group in order to build, together, a key player in the video game industry on a global scale.”
Source