Sheffield-based games developer Sumo Group has acquired The Chinese Room, the Brighton-based independent behind games including Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, for £2.2m.
The Chinese Room, co-founded and co-owned by Dan Pinchbeck and Jessica Curry, will become Sumo’s fifth studio and fourth in the UK.
AIM-listed Sumo said it will invest in The Chinese Room and continue development of current projects by building its team and collaborating with other Sumo Digital studios.
The deal will see Sumo pay £1.6m in cash, with the remaining £0.6m paid through the issue of new shares in Sumo to the sellers on completion.
It will now have intellectual property rights over revenue-generating games Dear Esther and So Let Us Melt and accelerates the Group’s own IP pipeline with the addition of two original concepts, one of which, 13th Interior, is at prototype demo stage.
Pinchbeck will take the role of creative director of The Chinese Room, while Curry will leave the company and continue her career as a composer.
