On January 23rd, 2025, Virtuos, a leading video game development company, announced a significant expansion into Europe and North America through the acquisitions of Abstraction in the Netherlands, Pipeworks Studios (Pipeworks) in the US, and a majority stake in Umanaïa Interactive (Umanaïa) in Canada.
Following this major expansion, we followed up with all the parties and asked them what this acquisition meant for them and what the future holds.
Questions to Virtuos – Answered by Gilles Langourieux, CEO of Virtuos
What does the addition of these three studios signify for Virtuos’ ambition to become the top external game developer in the industry?
At Virtuos, our goal of being the top external game developer centers on excelling across all dimensions of game development—handling complex projects swiftly and cost-effectively while driving innovation.
In short, it is a new model of flexible game development. Adding three premier studios enhances our comprehensive service offerings and broadens our global presence with top-tier local talent. That ultimately enables us to help produce games that are both engaging for players and profitable for our clients, generating more sustainability in the industry.
How does Virtuos plan to support these studios in expanding their capabilities while maintaining their individual identities and strengths?
The studios continue to be led by their founders, who know their teams and operations best. This continuity helps preserve the unique cultures and strengths of each studio, while driving a seamless integration within the Virtuos network.
Leveraging 21 years of experience and know-how, all Virtuos studios are equipped with the platforms and processes to effectively collaborate together.
Questions to Pipeworks – Answered by Lindsay Gupton, CEO of Pipeworks
Pipeworks has developed a wide array of games across different genres and platforms. How does the studio approach such diversity in game development, and what challenges does it present?
It’s a very hard thing to master, but in many ways our diversity has been the secret to our success and longevity.
I would say it’s a combination of having a team-centric approach, a very long tenure of our people, and production practices that are always being refined. Each of our teams is unique in their particular sets of expertise, and we prioritize retaining great people and mentoring new talent to gain expertise.
Being able to work on so many great franchises over the years also enables us to continuously improve our proprietary best practices in development so that we can do even better the next time.
What new opportunities does the Virtuos acquisition open up for Pipeworks?
Joining forces with Virtuos is very exciting for us because we share the same vision that, in this next critical era of game development, the best games will be built collaboratively, globally, and sustainably.
It enables us to accelerate our aspirations of being the best development partner based in North America with access to the best talent worldwide.
Questions to Abstraction – Answered by Ralph Egas, CEO of Abstraction
Abstraction has worked on over 200 projects across various platforms and genres. What do you consider the core principle or philosophy that has driven the studio’s success and adaptability over the years?
I think it has always been a mentality thing that we later captured into our company values with “Go Beyond Boundaries!” at the top.
Our mentality is to take a first-principles approach to problem-solving by not taking things at face value, by not simply applying best practices that are naturally also applied by our competition, but instead by looking for a deeper meaning and coming up with wildly different approaches as a result.
Simply put, the tougher the problem, the easier it is for us to win our client’s attention and endorsement because of our can-do attitude. That and, of course, always delivering, regardless of whatever unforeseen obstacles, never giving up and often even over-delivering.
This generates goodwill and helps build a solid reputation and level of trust. And if you do this long enough, and frankly, I can’t remember ever thinking any different, adaptability becomes routine as it gets embedded into culture.
What new opportunities does the Virtuos acquisition create for Abstraction to enhance its co-development and engineering expertise?
There are game development related fields that Abstraction doesn’t cover yet, like audio and motion capture services. In almost all departments but engineering, Abstraction has relatively small teams as it stands.
Whereas we would have needed to leverage an external studio for artwork in the past, for instance, we can now look within the Virtuos family.
Over time, the various Virtuos studios will learn to collaborate progressively better, which in turn will improve our offering immensely, as seen by the client, and the level of trust will increase with it.
Questions to Umanaïa – Answered by Yannis Mallat, President of Umanaïa
As a newly established studio with seasoned industry leaders, what unique vision or approach does Umanaïa Interactive bring to the development of modern and innovative live games?
At Umanaïa, our creative and tech breakthrough approach is genre-agnostic, driving innovation and pushing the medium forward in new and meaningful ways.
With our deep expertise in open-world and action-adventure games, we prioritize delivering denser, more immersive experiences that renew themselves through smart engagement mechanics.
While we have a knack for crafting experiences that thrive in the long term, this approach allows us to explore fresh ways to engage and inspire players.
We also recognize that younger audiences seek more opportunities for self-expression, and we embrace this by creating experiences that foster strong, vibrant communities.
How does Virtuos’ investment support Umanaïa Interactive’s mission to create innovative live games, and what synergies do you anticipate from this partnership?
We see our partnership with Virtuos as a perfect match—combining our vision for innovative live games with Virtuos’ global developer platform and deep, diverse talent pool.
Virtuos’ investment directly supports our mission by giving us access to world-class development resources, allowing us to focus on pushing boundaries while ensuring scalability and efficiency.
This collaboration creates strong synergies in both directions: Umanaïa contributes to curating and shaping Virtuos Originals, while Virtuos provides expertise and support to bring our vision to life.
Together, we are building a foundation for groundbreaking live experiences that evolve and engage players over time.
