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

 

[godreborn]

I bought all 4 of those games, and I plan to get Shredder's revenge. I beat ys origins, good but short. I'm missing one of the spell upgrades in that.

 

[Flame]

Dotemu sold for €38.5 million when compared to these company which ive never heard of selling for billions

 

[Xzi]

I'm fairly indifferent toward this news, but the stuff Focus publishes is usually pretty middling in terms of quality, so hopefully DotEmu retains most of their autonomy after this acquisition. Super hyped about Shredder's Revenge either way.

 

[MarkDarkness]

Dotemu has been a great company, and I am happy that they get the money to give them stability. On the other hand, this kind of buyout usually has very mixed outcomes... hopefully it will lead them to being able to get even bigger retro IPs and keep working their magic on them.

 

[xdarkx]

Focus Home??? Is it the same Focus Home that screw over some developers such as Limestone and Frogwares? If so, that sucks.

 

[jt_1258]

don't be me...don't fall for line breaks and think they where bought for just $45.56...non million

 

[mattyxarope]

Seems like a bad deal?

All of those games were well received...

 

[subcon959]

Give them as much money as they need to develop a Paprium clone (call it Streets of Rage 5) since I'm never going to get to play that game.

 

[vree]

So euhm is this good or bad?
As long as it's not like microsoft buying bethesda and screwing every sony users I'm ok with it xD.

 

[DaFixer]

I loved Street of rage 4!
I hope we get more games like that one.

 

[Yomizana]

I loved Street of rage 4!
I hope we get more games like that one.

Agreed. Streets of Rage 4 is a fantastic game.

 

[slaphappygamer]

I loved Street of rage 4!
I hope we get more games like that one.

I’m hoping that Shredders Revenge will be similar. It looks fucking rad!

 

[MadMakuFuuma]

Dotemu has been a great company, and I am happy that they get the money to give them stability. On the other hand, this kind of buyout usually has very mixed outcomes... hopefully it will lead them to being able to get even bigger retro IPs and keep working their magic on them.

sor4 is big enough for me, but i agree. imagine if they make an agreement with capcom, and we get "final fight 4", for example. to be honest, my dream is that some kind of remake/remaster for some master system games (like land of illusion) came out of this. i mean, we have now alex kidd DX made by other company...

 

[ChrisMCNBVA]

i can't wait for the new turtles game from dotemu later this year

 

[gumbyx84]

Do we think they will still get to do retro revivals under new ownership? That's my major concern. Ye, they can make new games like Shredder's Revenge but I don't think we will see stuff like Streets of Rage 4 from them now.