Coatsink acquired by Thunderful Group – home of SteamWorld, Fe and Rising Star

Sunderland-based Coatsink Games has been acquired by the Thunderful Group for £23m.

Coatsink is best known for its own VR titles, such as Esper, Shadow Point and the upcoming Jurassic World: Aftermath. But it’s also worked on and published a range of colourful indie fare such as Cake Bash and Phogs. Add upcoming strategy title Transformers: Battlegrounds and you can see it’s a highly flexible developer and publisher.

Swedish-based Thunderful Group was born out of Image and Form, Zoink and Bergsala. Image and Form are best-known for the SteamWorld series (Dig, Heist, Dig 2 and Quest). Zoink recently created Fe, part of EA’s Originals lineup and is working on the upcoming Lost in Random.

The diversified group also includes Bergsala, Nintendo’s exclusive distributor in Sweden, and it also includes Rising Star Games, a specialist in bringing Japanese games to western audiences, based in Hertfordshire.

The deal will consists of £11.5m upfront and the other half in Thunderful shares. Although this could rise to a maximum of £65.5m if Coatsink exceeds its targets over 2021 and 2022.

”We have established a good relationship with the founders and key personnel of Coatsink and believe that their strong work ethics and corporate culture will be a very valuable strong complement to Thunderful’s existing businesses. Although it’s just a first step, this is a good example of how we intend to leverage the Group’s powerful cash flow going forward”, says Thunderful Group’s CEO, Brjann Sigurgeirsson.

In related news, Thunderful opened a new development studio in Malmo in June, and acquired the Swedish Guru Games as well this year.