Ubisoft acquires free to play game developer Owlient

Ubisoft have announced the acquisition of free-to-play game developer Owlient and their Howrse brand.

The team at Owlient has been known for their management of online game-playing communities, and their Howrse brand has almost two million monthly active users.

“We are thrilled to welcome the talented team at Owlient to Ubisoft.  Over the last five years they have developed an architecture dedicated to delivering and monetizing games as a service, as well as the skills of attracting and retaining online communities,” said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer at Ubisoft.  “This acquisition is the next step in the acceleration of Ubisoft’s free-to-play strategy following last year’s launch of Settlers Online, CSI Crime City and Heroes Kingdoms, as well as the recent beta launch of our ambitious title Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Online.”

“Joining the Ubisoft team will allow us to accelerate our international business and to expand our expertise and our games to new platforms.  It also lets us integrate our proven online services architecture with Ubisoft’s so that we can help grow their brands online,” affirmed Olivier Issaly, chief executive officer of Owlient. “We are proud of what our team has accomplished and confident that joining Ubisoft will allow us to continue that success.  We’d also like to thank our shareholder Innovacom, who has accompanied the Owlient team over the years as we developed.”

Ubisoft have acquired a lot of new devs as of late, so it seems like the company is going from strength to strength.