While the teams at both NACON and Daedalic Entertainment have already been working together, most namely on the upcoming title The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, the two companies decided to tighten their collaboration. This transaction will enable NACON to acquire several key intellectual properties and to benefit from Daedalic’s remarkable publishing and game development expertise.
"We knew, through our current collaboration on Gollum, that NACON and Daedalic share the same values and the same objectives to deliver unique experiences to gamers. Therefore, it seemed logical to go further together and we’re extremely happy of this acquisition. It represents a significant step in Nacon's strategy," says Alain Falc, Chairman and CEO of NACON.
Daedalic is a studio that has developed games for renowned franchises such as Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth but is also well known for its own IPs including the Deponia series, Shadow Tactics, Blackguards, and The Whispered World. Their talented team of 87 people is sure to only further strengthen the future plans for NACON. Seeing how Daedalic has a large global footprint in both North America and China with titles such as Witch It!, Unrailed!, Partisans 1941, Hidden Deep, Iratus: Lord of the Dead, and Barotrauma, it will be interesting to see where this leads their ongoing titles. Not to mention the nine additional new games they had announced for release in 2022.
"After eventful years in which we always came out on top, I feel proud looking back at the past 15 years and the development of the company. Daedalic Entertainment has established itself as a publisher and developer of exceptional games across various genres and on all relevant platforms and has cemented that position globally. Together with Nacon, we are now taking the next step to further develop our catalog of games created by our own team as well as many incredible indie studios. We are looking back at a trusting and cooperative collaboration on The Lord of the Rings: Gollum and forward to an even brighter future together,” says Carsten Fichtelmann founder and CEO of Daedalic Entertainment.
Nevertheless, this integration of a 16th studio in less than 4 years strengthens NACON’s position as a leader in AA games. Let’s hope that they can manage to maintain synergy through this transaction so that we will soon be hearing good news for multiple titles that are now under their control.
Here’s the official deal that was made:
The first step of the deal was the signature of a Letter of Intent with exclusivity of negotiation. The acquisition of 100% of the share capital and voting rights of Daedalic Entertainment will have an overall maximum price of 53M€ on the basis of:
- a net price of 32M€ in cash upon signature;
- an earn-out payable for 100% in cash, based on performance until 2026
Final completion of the transaction is expected to take place in 2022, subject to usual conditions precedent.
