Disney's gaming division looks to expand with its third in-house studio.BUENA VISTA GAMES TO ACQUIRE AWARD-WINNING CLIMAX RACING
Addition of UK Studio Furthers Buena Vista Games’ Commitment to Quality and Creativity
BURBANK, Calif. and LONDON — (September 28, 2006) — Buena Vista Games, Inc. (BVG), the interactive entertainment affiliate of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), today announced the acquisition of the award-winning Climax Racing from Climax Group Ltd. The studio is of both strategic and geographic importance to BVG as it becomes the third internal studio, and the first in Europe, that BVG has added to its development capacity. BVG currently operates development studios in Vancouver, British Columbia (Propaganda Games), and Salt Lake City, Utah (Avalanche Software). The addition of Climax Racing allows BVG to create triple-A racing titles that meet the highest standards for creativity and quality. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed. The deal is expected to close in early October.
“The acquisition of Climax Racing aligns perfectly with our strategic and geographic goals by allowing us to both reach into new genres and new markets for creative talent," said Graham Hopper, senior vice president and general manager, Buena Vista Games. “Adding Climax Racing to our creative family will provide an additional catalyst for our continued growth in the video games market."
“As a premier, award-winning studio that has created some of the best racing titles of all time, Climax Racing is an ideal component of BVG’s expanding portfolio of development talent," said Karl Jeffery, founder and chief executive officer of Climax.
Climax Racing is known as a leading developer of racing games, including its critically-acclaimed work on the best-selling franchises “MotoGP" and “ATV Offroad(R) Fury." The studio and its products have won or been nominated for dozens of awards, including winning four IGN “Best of Show" awards at E3 2006.
Tony Beckwith, co-founder of the studio, has been named vice president and general manager of Climax Racing as it continues its creative direction under BVG. Climax Racing is based in Brighton, England, and employs more than 100 talented video game artists, programmers and designers.
“The Walt Disney Company holds one of the largest and most exciting portfolios of intellectual property in the world, and through BVG, we look forward to having access to the company’s deep resources in the video games space to continue creating remarkable interactive entertainment," said Beckwith. “This promises to be a mutually beneficial relationship and we believe that together we will make outstanding games for the next generation and beyond."
Being a Nintendo site, we thought it would interesting to note that the last game Climax Racing developed for the GameCube was Speed Kings, a typical multi-platform racing game published by Acclaim (remember them?) in May 2003. But hey, Buena Vista could put them to work on a Wii game down the road. You never know.
Topic: Buena Vista Gets Climax Racing (Read 2183 times)
