It appears that the games company Zynga has been on a spending spree in its quest of acquiring game studios across Europe, notably Finland and Turkey, splurging over $3 billion in the process.
On March 3, the San Francisco, CA-based developer announced that it completed its acquisition of Echtra Games, the developer of the role-playing game, Torchlight 3. The financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.
Echtra Games is a San Francisco-based game studio co-founded by Max Schaefer in 2016. The studio worked to develop titles such as Diablo, Diablo II, and all three Torchlight games. The Torchlight III is an action role-playing game released in the fall of 2020 and is the last game developed by the company prior to the acquisition.
“We are thrilled to be a part of Zynga’s foray into PC and Console to facilitate truly platform-agnostic game development,” Schaefer said in an email. “We think the future at Zynga is bright, and we can’t wait to contribute.”
However, Zynga reiterated that its bolstered interest in Echtra Games was due to developers like Max Schaefer, who worked in developing major titles such as Diablo, Diablo II, The Sims 4, and the Torchlight franchises.
“Max and his team at Echtra Games are responsible for some of the most legendary game properties ever created, and they are experts in the action RPG genre and cross-platform development,” said Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau. “This acquisition will be instrumental in growing our iconic licenses and brands from mobile to PCs and consoles while helping to further expand Zynga’s total addressable market,” Gibeau commented.
Echtra Games uses proprietary cross-platform development tools and technologies based on Epic Games‘ Unreal Engine. Following the deal, Echtra Games will develop a new yet-to-be-announced role-playing game for cross-platform play in collaboration with Zynga’s NaturalMotion studio.
Schaefer commented that Zynga wants to see itself as a fully-fledged video game developer and publisher and thinks that his company is the right fit for Zynga to accomplish it.
“Getting to know the Zynga leadership team convinced us that we share values, a vision of where game development is going, and a culture that will benefit both parties,” Schaefer said. “Our team’s skills match their growth and expansion strategy perfectly. We wanted to find a home that matched our ambitious goals and vision for games, and we’ve found one.”
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