Chinese poultry firm acquires Splash Damage

UK developer Splash Damage has been sold to Leyou Technologies Holdings Limited – a Chinese firm that specialises in poultry.

The studio will now belong to Leyou subsidiary Radius Maxima after a deal with CEO Paul Wedgwood, GamesIndustry reports. A figure for the acquisition has not been disclosed, but is not expected to exceed $150m.

The deal also includes Wedgwood’s other firms: Fireteam, the back-end tech provider built from Splash Damage’s multiplayer technology, and online multiplayer publisher Warchest.

Leyou’s acquisition of Splash Damage follows the 97 per cent stake it has taken in Digital Extremes, the studio behind Warframe, since July 2015. The firm says these deals will help it “diversify its business and mitigate the volatile and cyclical nature of the poultry business”.

Radius Maxima will also “provide funding of up to a maximum of US$10 million to the Targets for an unannounced video game development project designed by Splash Damage”.

Founded in 2001, Splash Damage is best known for its work on Brink, Dirty Bomb and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. It is currently working on the multiplayer for Gears of War 4.

This is not the only surprise purchase of a UK developer to happen this year. Back in March, Chinese mining firm Shandong Honda acquired RuneScape developer Jagex.