The folks working on AMC’s The Walking Dead official game, Next Games is strengthening its team size as today it announces it has acquired Helsinki Gameworks, a fairly new studio with no titles released yet, but boasts 130 years of experience in the gaming field.
No numbers were released but people-wise there’s a big shift to both companies – Helsinki GameWorks employs 12 people and Next Games employs 33, making the total headcount at Next Games now 45. The story goes that the collaboration began earlier in 2014 as Next Games contacted senior experts from Helsinki Gameworks to work on its ongoing productions.
As far as top positions go, after the acquisition Helsinki GameWorks’ CEO, Kalle Kaivola has been appointed as Head of Licensed Games. He will be overseeing the production of The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land, a game based on AMC’s The Walking Dead TV series. It should be familiar work to Kaivola – before founding Helsinki GameWorks, Kaivola held the position of SVP, Product and Publishing at Rovio. What this suggests is that Next Games is now somewhat freed up to continue working on their own IP.
“At Next Games we’ve focused on two key areas from the very beginning: building a robust portfolio and rock solid roadmap of games as well as ensuring we have an experienced team working on it. Joining forces is a logical move, as our first games will launch very soon and the next productions are being ramped up,” says Teemu Huuhtanen, CEO of Next Games in a statement.
