Vertigo Games, the developer of Arizona Sunshine and the upcoming After The Fall, has been acquired by Austria-based Koch Media.
The team, itself based in Rotterdam, Netherlands, will join Koch’s stable of studios, which also includes publisher Deep Silver. Koch Media itself is a subsidiary of Embracer Group, which owns THQ Nordic and Saber Interactive too. Koch acquires all aspects of Vertigo’s business, including internal development, VR publishing and its VR arcades business.
Vertigo Games Acquired
In a press release, Vertigo confirmed there are “no changes to the existing management or team” in this move and that the team will continue to develop and publish games independently.
“In Koch Media we have found a partner that is just as eager to push the boundaries of gaming, which we will be pursuing even more than before through opportunities for cooperation between the companies,” Vertigo CEO Richard Stitselaar said in a prepared statement.
Vertigo first broke into VR by implementing headset support into its underwater adventure game, World of Diving. Then, in 2016, it released a first-person zombie shooter called Arizona Sunshine for the newly-released Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. The game was one of the rare titles to find success in VR’s nascent stages, making $1.4 million in sales in its first month. It’s since seen a number of DLC updates and expanded into arcades.
Those arcades are another important arm of Vertigo’s business, including its own suite of tools for others to use and a line-up of titles like The Corsair’s Curse and Ghost Patrol. Finally, Vertigo also publishes VR games from other studios, including last year’s excellent The Fisherman’s Tale and the upcoming Traffic Jams. The company says it has six releases planned in its remaining 2020/2021 line-up.
One of those games will be After The Fall, the new cooperative zombie shooter we debuted at last year’s E3 VR Showcase. The title has been missing in action this year, but we’re hoping to see more from it soon.
What do you make of Vertigo Games being acquired? Let us know in the comments below!
