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Nacon today announced they have acquired Neopica, developer of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship title. It’s worth noting that Neopica used the Kylotonn racing engine for their simulation, and that Kylotton are also owned by Nacon.
Here is the full text from the Nacon Web site:
ACQUISITION OF NEOPICA
NACON COMPLETES ITS VIDEO GAME DEVELOPMENT UNITNacon announces the signing of an agreement to acquire Neopica, a Belgian video game development studio specialising in sports and life simulation games.
Following the acquisition of 5 studios over the last 2 years, this new operation enables Nacon to consolidate its position as a developer-publisher by strengthening its expertise in the production of games in promising genres.
Created in 2007 by Peter Vermeulen and Filip Hautekeete, among others, Neopica is a renowned Belgian studio that has developed around sixty games, including a number of casual games designed to appeal to the widest possible audience, particularly children, before moving on to more complex simulation games.
Neopica and Nacon have enjoyed a fruitful collaboration for several years. In thisrespect, Neopica produced the Hunting Simulator 1 & 2hunting games and the FIA Euro Truck Racing Championship game. For the latter game, Neopica used the KT Engine, developed by Kylotonn Racing.
Based in Ghent, Belgium, the studio employs around 30 developers and is now developing its expertise on NextGen consoles (PlayStation®5and XboxSeries X TM).
In addition to the acquisition of know-how accumulated over the course of numerous productions by experienced developers, Nacon is thus consolidating its editorial positioning with the integration of simulation and racing games, a strategic expertise for the construction of its portfolio.
A new acquisition in line with the NACON 2023 plan
This new external growth is perfectly in line with the NACON 2023 plan, which aims to make Nacon one of the reference leaders in ‘AA’ video games.
Nacon’s “Games” unitwill thus have 9 development sites (6 in France, 1 in Belgium, 1 in Italy and 1 in Canada) totalling nearly 400 developers and supported by a publishing team of more than 50 people.
By joining the Nacon Group, the Neopica studio will benefit from first-rate synergies, notably the commercial, editorial and marketing contributions of the Nacon teams. Mr Peter Vermeulen and Mr Filip Hautekeete, the studio’s current directors and co-founders, will continue to run Neopica with a high degree of autonomy so thatthey can concentrate on the creative side of its productions.
Terms of the transaction
The acquisition of 100% of Neopica’s share capital, paid in full in cash, was completed today after Nacon’sBoard of Directors had previously approved the completion of the transaction.
Additional consideration (earn-outs) based on the quality and commercial potential of the next two game developments may be paid to the sellerswithin 12 months of the release of these games.
“We are delighted to welcome the talents of Neopica, whichwill strengthen our development division and participate in new, even more ambitious projects”, said Alain Falc, Chairman and CEO of Nacon.
“We are delighted to be joining the Nacon group, which will enable us to accelerate our development alongside other top-quality studios, by integrating an environment that is conducive to the creation of increasingly high-quality games,”said Peter Vemeulen, CEO and co-founder of Neopica.
