Bandai Namco has acquired a minority stake in Limbic Entertainment, a German game development company founded in 2002 and based in Langen, for an undisclosed sum. The studio, best known for producing the Might & Magic series with Ubisoft and the 2019 strategy game Tropico 6, employs 65 people.
Tropico 6, a construction, management and political simulation game in the Tropico series, was released on Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux in March 2019, for PS4 and Xbox One in September 2019, and for Nintendo Switch in November 2020. The game was the fastest-selling title in the franchise, generating 50% more revenue than Tropico 5's debut.
Limbic will now develop two new unannounced franchises for Bandai Namco, which recently purchased Reflector Entertainment. The Japanese company is currently developing a cross-media franchise Unknown 9: Awakening, a next-gen adventure game that tells the tale of a young Indian girl who has a supernatural ability to access hidden dimensions.
Founded by Stephan Winter, Eike Radunz and Alexander Frey, Limbic developed the tenth installment in the Might & Magic video game series, Might & Magic X: Legacy, for Ubisoft, as well as Might & Magic Heroes VI in collaboration with Black Hole Entertainment and Virtuos. In August 2014, Ubisoft announced that Might & Magic Heroes VII would be produced in cooperation with Limbic. In October 2016 Ubisoft announced the end of its partnership with Limbic.
Bandai Namco is currently focused on developing more content from studios outside of Japan, as the Reflector acquisition and Limbic stake demonstrate. The company has a North American division in Santa Clara, California, known as Bandai Namco Entertainment America, and a European division in Lyon, France, known as Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz last year, Bandai Namco’s vice president for content, marketing and digital Hervé Hoerdt said, "We're a Japanese company. We still have this DNA of, you know, [being] a little bit risk averse. So usually, we are not at the forefront or we are not the first publishers to shoot a game on a new platform. And that's from a global perspective. [But] we will balance this with all the content that we seek on the European side."
Source: GamesIndustry