Yesterday’s surprise news that MMO company Trion Worlds had been sold to Gamigo was then all but confirmed by Trion’s Linda “Brasse” Carlson, who announced her departure on the RIFT forums, and by Scott Hartsman himself, who asked Twitter for help placing victims of the Trion layoffs in other companies. While the anonymous claim that as many as 85% of the studio’s 200+ employees had been abruptly laid off hasn’t been officially verified – and Trion itself has yet to respond to requests for comment – Gamigo has moved ahead with a formal press release talking up the acquisition and clarifying that it’s effectively an asset buy-up.
“Hamburg, October 23, 2018 – The gamigo AG („gamigo Bond“ WKN: A2NBH2 / ISIN: SE0011614445) has acquired major assets from Trion Worlds Inc., a leading US gaming company with offices in Redwood City (California) and Austin (Texas) and has as publisher and developer of online and console MMO-games, well-known games such as Rift, Defiance, Trove and ArcheAge in its portfolio. Trion was acquired via an ‘Assignment for the Benefit of the Creditors’ process, in which the buyer only buys those assets, with which he wishes to continue the business. In this process, gamigo group acquired the majority of the assets, including the platform, takes over employees to operate the business and gets the full publishing rights of the games. The IP’s of the Trion Worlds games have been acquired by gamigo’s sister company Padmapani GmbH and are made available for gamigo group, worldwide and exclusive.
“‘The successful acquisition and subsequent integration of Trion into our portfolio substantially strengthen gamigo’s position in the European and American gaming market. On the one hand, we add similar and successful brands and games to the already broad gamigo portfolio, on the other hand, we are looking to unlock substantial synergies with the group’s existing business to further benefit from the remarkable growth potential that the gaming market offers.’, comments gamigo’s CEO Remco Westermann.
Through the acquisition of Trion, gamigo’s management expects additional revenues of over USD 18 million and an additional EBITDA of USD 1 to 4 million for 2019. This estimate depends on the success of the restructuring and integration of Trion and is mainly based on potential economies of scale and synergies. The exploitation of economies of scale and synergies is an elementary part of the gamigo strategy and has been proven several times in acquisitions in the past.”
Trion ran multiple MMOs: RIFT, ArcheAge, Trove, Defiance, Atlas Reactor, and Defiance 2050. Studio reps have given conflicting accounts of their prospects, given the skeleton crew remaining at the company, though we assume Gamigo didn’t buy them to close them down.
