American-European developer and indie publisher tinyBuild Inc (LSE:TBLD) has acquired the intellectual property of Bossa Studios, including gaming franchises like Surgeon Simulator, I Am Fish and I Am Bread, in a deal that includes "an upfront payment of US$3mln," according to the publisher.
For US$5.4mln, tinyBuild has also acquired Russian studio Konfa Games, which developed Despotism 3k and the upcoming title Despot's Game.
The deal with Bossa comes in the wake of the studios deciding to pivot to making co-op PvE (player versus environment) instead of sim games.
"Since early 2022, Bossa has been focused exclusively in the genre of co-op PvE. We have been prototyping a lot, and now find ourselves in full production of titles we are pouring our hearts and souls into," said Bossa co-founder Henrique Olifiers.
"This brought us to the question of how best to take care of our legacy, our existing games, and how to ensure they have a future of their own."
Through tinyBuild, Bossa is able to focus on its new projects while ensuring legacy games have a new home, added Olifiers.
Approximately US$6mln in revenue was generated by a Bossa franchise in 2021, according to a statement.
In its first financial report post-IPO, tinyBuild reported US$52.2mln revenue for 2021, a 39% increase.
"We continue investing into expanding our portfolio of own IP and today's deals are a unique opportunity to bring both Konfa's talented team of developers in-house and to add the amazing Bossa intellectual property to the tinyBuild portfolio," said Alex Nichiporchik, chief executive of tinyBuild.