Funcom announced today the acquisition of a majority stake in Swedish indie studio The Outsiders, originally founded six years ago by former Battlefield developers.
The studios are already working together on Metal: Hellsinger, which is where the idea of an acquisition came from.
Funcom CEO Rui Casais said in a press release:
I first sat down with David over breakfast at GDC a few years ago, and by the time we got up he had sold me on this crazy rhythm-based shooter where you blast your way through Hell to the sound of metal music.
The amount of talent, creativity, and originality The Outsiders bring to the industry is incredible, and we’re very excited to be part of their journey going forward. This partnership will also allow Funcom to tap into the immense talent pool in Sweden. Their main focus will still be Metal: Hellsinger, but the new arrangement will make it easier for our teams to support each other’s projects.
The Outsiders’ Creative Director and co-founder David Goldfarb added:
We’ve had a really remarkable partnership with Funcom since that fateful GDC meeting. It’s definitely rare in the game industry to work with partners who are as level-headed, honest, and open as they have been with us throughout the development of Metal: Hellsinger. We feel really lucky to be able to join Funcom and deepen this already great connection while continuing to grow The Outsiders in new and exciting directions.
That’s not all Funcom announced today. CEO Rui Casais also revealed the opening of a new studio in Bucharest, Romania, which will become the headquarters for the company’s Quality Assurance department. Casais stated:
The Romanian gaming scene is flourishing, and Bucharest in particular is home to many talented people in the tech and gaming industry. With our continued growth and increased level of ambition, assuring that we have top-quality QA is of the utmost importance. We are therefore very excited to be able to expand to this region with one of the most crucial parts of the development process and we are even planning on adding more functions to this studio over time.
Funcom, which was fully acquired by Tencent not long ago, is working on a new Dune multiplayer game as well as continued updates to Conan Exiles, such as the recent Isle of Siptah expansion.
