OCT. 28, 2010 • Fresh off of receiving a $150 million round of investment from Providence Equity Partners, ZeniMax Media is back on the acquisition hunt. Shinji Mikami’s Japanese studio Tango Gameworks was snapped up for an undisclosed amount. Mikani is best known as one of the creators of the Resident Evil franchise. Within a week the company had also acquired Swedish developer Machinegames, which was promptly renamed to ZeniMax Sweden.
Impact: ZeniMax’s acquisition strategy is enticing. Most publishers go after a franchise that they can market, and bring along the original studio for a while in the process. ZeniMax, however, is pursuing talent and technology first. The proof is always in sales of completed games, but we like this concentration on creative skills. The risk will lie in effective herding of all the newly acquired cats toward a profitable goal. Yet if ZeniMax is successful, then the publisher will might have a better chance of pulling off what the likes of EA and Activision have a hard time accomplishing – germinating quality new IP that sells.
