Aonic Group, the parent company of developers like nDreams and Red Games Co., have acquired the research tech firm Prime Insights for $250 million.
This is the latest in a spree of acquisitions made by the company, the largest so far to date, marking the objectives of the group to cement their position in the industry.
Paul Schempp, CEO of Aonic Group, had this to say: “This transaction marks a major step in our vision of becoming a dominant global player. Bringing together scale, data and technology will be the key to sharpening our competitive edge.”
Aonic Group Portfolio
Not all of the companies and businesses working under Aonic Group are games developers, however.
Part of what they’re hoping for from Prime Insights is a greater step towards becoming a “unified global rewards and data platform.”
With Prime Insights operating as a survey platform, it’s likely that this will be used to help better understand the player behaviour of those who play their developed mobile games. They don’t just focus on mobile games, however, with some of their developers like nDreams specialising in VR development.
Aonic Group Layoffs
Despite the recent string of acquisitions, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for the companies in Aonic Group. nDreams themselves recently laid off nearly 20 percent of its workforce, making it one of many games companies, much like Dreamhaven’s layoffs, to let go of staff.
This strategic approach to purchases clearly intends to position Aonic Group securely amid a fluctuating landscape.
However, if they are unable to avoid making large portions of its workforce redundant then it’s going to struggle to keep the greater conglomerate in operation, even with a strong foothold in the industry.
Aonic Games in Development
Various companies under Aonic have projects in the works.
BKOM Studios continues to work on entries in its Pathfinder series, with Gallowspire releasing last year and Abomination Vaults (a co-op hack and slash) currently in development for consoles and PC.
Milky Tea plans to release their tactics game Grit and Valour for consoles in addition to PC and nDreams Elevation’s next game is an immersive VR title called Reach, which is headed to Metaquest, PlayStation VR and Steam.
In addition to these are various mobile studios working on titles, giving Aonic a wide range of genres and approaches to work with.
