Stillfront Group, a leading free-to-play powerhouse of gaming studios, has announced its acquisition of an independent game studio, Game Labs. It has been stated that 100% of the acquisition equals 32.5 million dollars for all shares of Game Labs. The fact that Game Labs attracted Stillfront’s attention with its strong track record of developing strategy and action games for PC, made this acquisition possible.
Details of Stillfront Group’s acquisition
With this acquisition, Game Labs is expected to generate proforma IFRS net revenue of approximately SEK 70-80 million and an adjusted proforma IFRS EBIT margin of approximately 50-55 percent for the full year 2021. The financial assumptions in 2021 are based on forecasts for the acquisition and the expected growth is fueled by a planned early access release in the last quarter of 2021. The transaction will result in an attractive earnings multiple for Stillfront in line with previous acquisitions.
Jörgen Larsson, CEO & Founder of Stillfront Group states:
“With the acquisition of Game Labs we strengthen our position in the converging games market adding valuable niche genre competence in the strategy and action genre. Game Labs is an experienced and knowledgeable studio with a proven ability to launch high quality games. The studio has promising games in early access phase with large scaling potential, as well as a strong pipeline of unannounced titles. We see excellent potential for scaling Game Labs’ games cross-platform as part of Stillfront, leveraging Stillfront’s extensive experience in free-to-play combined with Game Labs’ expertise in PC client.”
Maxim Zasov, CEO of Game Labs says:
“Joining Stillfront opens up a new chapter for Game Labs, allowing us to bring even more excitement and emotions for our beloved players by improving current games and by introducing new worlds for players to escape to. Stillfront’s expertise in mobile and cross-platform, paired with its wider knowledge of the market, creates new opportunities that we would never even have imagined possible.”
About Game Labs
Game Labs has a team of approximately 30 people located in Ukraine, Russia, Greece, Dubai, Italy, and Estonia. Game Labs has a solid track record of developing highly immersive and critically acclaimed real-time premium strategy and action games for PC and has so far released three launched games; Ultimate General: Gettysburg, Naval Action, and Ultimate General: Civil War. In addition, two games are currently available in early access, one in pre-sales, and two games are under development. As a part of the Stillfront Group, the studio will continue expanding and improving its portfolio of premium games, but also expand into GaaS (games as a service) and free-to-play, with a clear focus on historical strategy and battle themes. The acquisition of Game Labs further strengthens Stillfront’s existing portfolio of mid-hardcore games in the strategy and action genre, addressing primarily the attractive 30+ male audience.
For further history of Stillfront’s acquisitions, you can check out our article about Stillfront Group’s acquisition of Storm 8 in 2020 as well.
