Focus Home Interactive acquires Dotemu, a world leader in retrogaming
Focus Home Interactive, a leading European publisher and developer of video games, announces the signing of a contract for the acquisition of 77.5% of the share capital of Dotemu, a world leader in retrogaming based in Paris. Dotemu is both a game developer and publisher, known for having released more than fifty retro games on Consoles, PC and Mobiles.
Composed of a talented and passionate team of about thirty people, Dotemu has already demonstrated its expertise in discovering and updating old cult licences in order to transform them into critical and commercial successes at a global level. Positioned in a very attractive market, Dotemu is a fast-growing company which achieved a turnover of €14.6 million, and has a very ambitious growth plan for the years ahead.
Dotemu has become an expert in this field and has already developed and re-released legendary franchises such as Final Fantasy, Another World, Double Dragon and, most recently Street of Rage, which has been played by over 2.5 million people worldwide. Dotemu also develops games in-house via its development team, with titles such as Ys Origin, Heroes of Might and Magic III HD and the highly anticipated Windjammers 2.
Christophe Nobileau, CEO of Focus Home Interactive, declared: “The arrival of Dotemu marks a key step in the acceleration of the Group's growth and in the diversification of its expertise. By enriching our editorial line, we are opening up a new revenue stream and new market shares to conquer in a fast-growing sector.
We are delighted to welcome to the Focus Group talents such as Cyrille Imbert and his teams, who have succeeded in making games attractive and giving them new life for millions of players around the world. Finally, this deal is just another step in our growth story. Following the integration of the Deck13 and Streum On studios, we are actively looking for other high-potential companies to accelerate our development and expand our offer.”
Cyrille Imbert, CEO of Dotemu, added: “Joining the Focus Home Interactive Group was an obvious choice for Dotemu. We share the same passion for video games, the same desire to improve, as well as the same values of respect and benevolence towards our partners and teams. While continuing its activities, this new collaboration will allow Dotemu to benefit from the incontestable expertise of Focus Home Interactive's teams for the production of AA titles and thus launch the production of future remakes or sequels on licenses of first-generation 3D consoles (the games of the early 2000s).
While retaining the editorial and strategic independence that has made it so successful, Dotemu will be able to give even greater ambition to its projects and give itself the means to broaden the range of services offered to studios, in order to guarantee the success of their productions on the retro label as well as on the publishing label The Arcade Crew. Therefore, Dotemu is ideally positioned to achieve its ambitious growth plan to triple its turnover in the medium term. My mission will also be to share Dotemu's expertise with Focus Home Interactive's teams, to select and convince talented teams to join the Group in order to build, together, a key player in the video game industry on a global scale.”
Focus Home Interactive is expanding its offering and editorial line through the acquisition of Dotemu, which will continue to publish and produce unique titles with strong commercial potential, driven by cult video game and pop culture licenses such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Metal Slug Tactics, as well as other quality titles to be announced in the coming months. Above all, Dotemu will benefit from Focus Home Interactive's expertise in the field of AA games, which will enable it to develop even more ambitious projects.
In addition, with this deal, Focus Home Interactive is building up its technical capabilities for the development of independent games. Dotemu's teams will thus be able to provide even more ambition to the young independent publishing label The Arcade Crew. After successful productions such as The Last Spell or Dark Devotion, The Arcade Crew is preparing many other ambitious productions such as Young Souls and other quality titles to be announced in the months ahead.
In 2008, when I was working for the good folks at Janimation in Dallas Tx, we were hired by Gearbox to create a vertical slice (an animated version of what the game will look like) for the game "Duke Nukem Begins", a Duke origin story.
I headed up this project, as the director at Janimation, and did a lot of the character development, including the design and modeling of Duke. We poured everything we had into making the most awesome cinematic Janimation had ever created. But unfortunately, we got word the game was canceled due to the legal issues with Duke Nukem at the time.
"Duke Nukem Begins" was never made.
It crushed us, as this was what we thought could help us compete with bigger players in the game trailer market at the time.
Because it is still a piece I am damn proud of, I am releasing it 13 years after its creation. The whole team that worked with me deserves to see this released into the wild.
I hope this somehow resurrects this version of the game by showing the world how awesome it would have been...
Noice. What little gameplay we see is as popamole as it gets, but the animation and set pieces are good (especially since it's 2008). I've seen worse fight scenes than that one in the club in AAA-films.
The problems come up once we get to the second half, where some serious SERIOUS Sam-vibes start kicking in.
Which made me realize - about the only thing that could save both the Duke Nukem- and Serious Sam-franchise would be... a team-up fragger. The 'partner'-mentality of Lethal Weapon, the hordes of monsters from Starship Troopers, sprinkle some Schwarzenegger-level one-liners, and lots and lots of big fucking guns.
What could possibly go wrong (besides Randy Pitchford)?
The issue is that Sam and Duke are diametrically opposed in how their games work. Serious Sam is about big open shooting arenas with not that much detail where you deal with a horde of enemies coming your way and you have to move fast and strategically thin the herd to come out on top. Duke Nukem has much smaller and more detailed environments where you are attacked by much smaller groups of enemies, each of whom can pose a significant threat if you let them be. You have to use the area in your favor and use the right weapon against the right opponent to get through the fight. In Duke the individual enemies are much more important and dangerous whereas in Sam an individual is next to meaningless. Combining the two will be very difficult
It doesn't look like my kind of game at all, but I do enjoy that the animator tacitly admits that Randy considers a vertical slice to be a fully animated trailer with no actual game engine behind it and no actual systems implemented (not that it's a surprise considering Randy's record).
An Update on PAX Aus 2021
It is with a heavy heart that today we announce the postponement of PAX Aus 2021.
At the start of the year, we were optimistic that we’d all be able to come together in person this October. We’ve been working hard with our partners and exhibitors to deliver the best possible version of PAX Aus 2021, but due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19 in Australia, the next edition of PAX Aus will now take place in 2022.
Our thoughts are with our PAX community and everyone who helps us to deliver this incredible event each year. The aim of PAX Aus has always been to provide a safe space for our community to gather, share our passion for games and create new memories with those who matter to us most. The fact we can’t do so in person at PAX Aus 2021 has left us all heartbroken, but it’s the right choice for our community, team, and partners to postpone this year’s show and look to the future.
Like last year, we’re still planning to bring our community together with PAX Aus Online. Stay tuned to our social media channels over the coming days as we announce more info on that soon.
For those of you who purchased tickets to PAX Aus 2021, we’d like to remind you that you’re entitled to a full refund. You will be receiving specific information about that within the next 7 days.
The entire PAX Aus Team would like to thank you for your ongoing support and understanding during this challenging time. While we can’t all come together in person this year, we urge you all to continue to stay in touch with us, your community, and each other.
Stay safe and be kind,
The PAX Aus Team