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After its acquisition of development studio Cyanide last year, French publisher Bigben Interactive has now also acquired the publishing rights for Tour de France and Pro Cycling Manager. Up until now, publishing had been managed by rival French publisher, Focus Interactive.
Last year’s acquisition was a hard blow for Focus, as the firm had been publishing nearly every Cyanide title for the past 17 years. It had also been Cyanide’s historical partner on its Tour de France titles, and it was rumoured that Focus, too, had been trying to buy Cyanide in the lead up to the takeover but didn’t get the go-ahead from its supervisory board – a decision that subsequently led to the resignation of Focus CEO Cédric Lagarrigue.
"Tour de France and Pro Cycling Manager are long-established franchises from our studio and are eagerly anticipated by a growing number of fans every year. We are therefore delighted that we will benefit from Bigben’s sports sim expertise in 2019," said Patrick Pligersdorffer, CEO of Cyanide.
"Sports games have always been an important part of Bigben’s catalogue. We are therefore extremely happy to be publishing these top cycling games, which will strengthen our publishing foothold," added Benoît Clerc, Head of Publishing at Bigben Interactive.
Bigben bought 100 per cent of the shares and voting rights of the Cyanide for €20m (£17.6m), in order to strengthen its presence in development, having also increased its share in racing studio Kylotonn. It will also expand Bigben’s "offer to major gaming genres not yet present in its current portfolio or complementary to its catalogue, thus strengthening its publishing strategy". The transaction was finalised in June 2018.
