Stillfront Group announced today that it is acquiring 100% of Califonia mobile gaming studio Storm8.
Stillfront is calling this one of the biggest acquisitions in its history. The deal will cost the group $300 million, $75 million of which will be in Stillfront shares.
Storm8 specializes in casual mobile games like Dragon Story. In 2017, the studio cut more than half of its jobs, laying off 130 people. This acquisition gives the company sizable bank in face of these relatively recent rough times.
Many of Stillfront’s games focus on strategy fans, which is typically a male dominated market. The company notes that Storm8 will give it access to a different audience, specifically females aged 25 to 45.
Storm8 also works on licensed games, including Property Brothers Home Design, which released last year. According to Sensor Tower, this is currently the studio’s most popular games in terms of downloads, earning 900,000 downloads last month.
Stillfront is a Sweden-based global group of gaming studios that often involves itself in acquisitions like this. Last year, it bought mobile strategy game studio Kixeye for $90 million.
