Indie publisher tinyBuild has been slowly but steadily building up a number of acquisitions this year, ranging from DogHelm (Streets of Rogue) to We’re Five Games (Totally Reliable Delivery System). It’s now confirmed the acquisition of Versus Evil and its QA studio Red Cerberus for an upfront cost of $12.5 million. Potential earn-outs in the next three years could total $18.8 million, bringing the total to $31.3 million.
Obviously this is a bigger development than simply acquiring a developer – Versus Evil is responsible for publishing The Banner Saga games along with Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. It recently published the Metal Gear-esque stealth title UnMetal along with multiplayer title First Class Trouble. tinyBuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik spoke about the acquisition in a recent video, noting that it was a “complementary label.”
Versus Evil founder Steve Escalante also said, “The joining of tinyBuild couldn’t have come at a better time. By infusing capital and investing in more titles, I’m very excited about the opportunities that will open up for Versus Evil as a publisher.” As for Red Cerberus, it consists of 250 employees who will join tinyBuild, resulting in a headcount that number over 400. Time will tell if tinyBuild continues its expansion efforts in the coming year so stay tuned.