Coatsink, Veteran VR Studio of ‘Jurassic World Aftermath’ and Others, Acquired for up to $85 Million

Veteran VR studio Coatsink, currently in development of Jurassic World Aftermath,  has been acquired for $30 million by game publisher Thunderful.

Coatsink is a British game studio and publisher founded in 2009. Though the studio doesn’t deal exclusively in VR games, about half of Coatsink’s work has been either fully self-developed VR titles or acting as a publisher on VR titles, most of which had the backing of Oculus Studios:

• Esper (2015)
• Esper 2 (2015) – Oculus Studios
• Onward (2016)
• A Night Sky (2017) – Oculus Studios
• Augmented Empire (2017) – Oculus Studios
• They Suspect Nothing (2018) – Oculus Studios
• Shadow Point (2019) – Oculus Studios

The studio is currently in development of Jurassic World Aftermath which is set to launch this year on Quest, published once again by Oculus Studios.

This week game publisher Thunderful announced that it has acquired Coatsink for £23 million (~$30M) which will be paid half in cash and half in shares. According to the acquisition agreement, Coatsink stands to earn an additional £42.5 million (~$55M) in cash and shares if the studio hits financial targets in 2021 and 2022, making the ultimate acquisition price as high as £65.5 million (~$85 million).

“The acquisition is in line with Thunderful’s strategy to expand its Games segment by adding attractive platform partnerships and publishing deals. The acquisition will allow both companies to accelerate and strengthen ongoing and future development projects. Currently, Coatsink is working on five announced and unannounced in-house projects, including Jurassic World Aftermath and Transformers Battlegrounds, as well as several work-for-hire and publishing projects, which will strengthen Thunderful’s existing development pipeline in 2021 and 2022.”

1. It isn’t clear if Thunderful sees the acquisition specifically as an opportunity to capitalize on upcoming growth in the VR space, or if the move was seen more broadly an acquisition of a studio with strong potential.

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