Rovio, the creator of Angry Birds, said it has agreed to buy all shares in Turkish firm Ruby Games, the creator of Hunter Assassin, the sixth most downloaded game in the world in 2020.
Rovio will at first acquire 20% of Ruby’s shares for $10 million in cash this year, and the cost of the remaining 80% will depend on the performance of Ruby.
”With the acquisition of hyper-casual game studio Ruby Games, we are taking an important step forward in our growth strategy. By entering the rapidly growing hyper-casual market we are enriching our audience base, and offering our players a more diverse portfolio of titles” said Alex Pelletier-Normand, CEO of Rovio.
Ruby Games launched four games in 2020 and three new games so far in 2021. The recently launched Streamer Life was the most downloaded app/game in the United States in the end of July.
Ruby Games is currently developing the sequel to the highly successful Hunter Assassin, which is expected to launch at the end of 2021 or beginning of 2022. The sequel to Hunter Assassin will include a deeper meta-game and in-app purchases that builds towards higher long-term retention.
The 2018-founded Ruby Games employs 34 people in Izmir, Turkey. The studio focuses on developing hyper-casual games, aiming to expand to hybrid-casual games for long-term growth potential. Ruby Games has launched 13 games of which 8 have reached the US Top 10 daily download chart in iOS Games, and three the #1 position. The combined downloads of Ruby Games exceed 600 million.
