Animoca Brands acquires Sydney-based games developer Blowfish

Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based company that brings property rights to gamers via NFTs, announced that it acquired Blowfish Studios, an independent Sydney-based developer and publisher of multi-platform games.

According to the announcement, Animoca Brands paid A$9 million (about $6.6 million) in upfront cash plus payments of up to $19.3 million, conditional on certain employment and performance targets, to acquire 100% of Blowfish Studios.

The acquisition also includes performance-based earnout payments of up to A$20 million based on the achievement of certain profitability targets in 2022 and 2023.

The current management of Blowfish will continue to operate the company after the acquisition, working closely with Animoca Brands to align efforts relating to blockchain integration, fungible tokens, NFTs, play-to-earn capabitlies, synergy opportunities, and product launches.

Founded in 2010 by Benjamin Lee and Aaron Grove, Blowfish Studios is the developer and publisher of multi-platform games such as Qbism, Siegecraft, Morphite, Projection: First Light, and Storm Boy.

Blowfish has a portfolio of 33 games, including both self-developed and published titles, that have been played by over 2.5 million people. Its pipeline includes several major upcoming projects to be announced shortly.

“Joining the Animoca Brands family was a unique opportunity to grow the game development and publishing businesses of Blowfish, and to leapfrog to the forefront of blockchain gaming,” Lee said. 

“We are incredibly excited about our major upcoming releases developed with Animoca Brands, which will change the perception of blockchain gaming for midcore and hardcore gamers everywhere.” 

Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman Yat Siu said his company is incredibly thrilled to welcome Blowfish, a team that significantly expands our capacity in the cross-platform games space and that has a strong interest in and understanding of blockchain. 

“The combination of unique capabilities in AAA gaming and blockchain is a rare and valuable blend and we are already hard at work on a number of very exciting projects to be announced soon,” Siu added.

Animoca Brands, ranked in the Financial Times list of High Growth Companies Asia-Pacific 2021, is a leader in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification. 

Animoca Brands develops and publishes a broad portfolio of products including the REVV token and SAND token; original games including The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes; and products utilizing popular intellectual properties including Formula 1®, Marvel, WWE, Power Rangers, MotoGP™, and Doraemon.