6waves Lolapps is buying Dallas-based Escalation Studios for an undisclosed sum. 6waves claims to be the world’s second largest publisher of games on Facebook (behind Zynga), and with this acquisition will be able to expand its distribution model into the mobile space.
“Mobile is at the forefront of what we want to do,” 6waves chief product officer Arjun Sethi told RCR Wireless News. The company’s popular social games like “Mystery Manor,” “Ravenswood Fair” and “Spartacus” are primarily accessed on personal computers, while Escalation Studios publishes exclusively for mobile platforms. “Splode” and “Dr. Awesome” are among Escalation’s best-known titles.
6waves Lolapps was formed last year by the merger of 6waves, a game publisher, and Lolapps, which develops games. Last summer the company secured a $35 million round of funding led by Insight Venture Partners, followed by a strategic investment from publisher Nexon of an undisclosed amount. 6waves now has more than 40 million users on Facebook, and employs roughly 230 people in Hong Kong, Japan, Beijing, San Francisco, London and Dallas.
The company’s Dallas office was the site of its first collaboration with Escalation Studios. Together the two companies developed a puzzle game called Yeti Town for Apple’s iOS platform.
“Building this type of quality experience into mobile is what’s exciting,” says Arjun.
Escalation Studios was started five years ago by game industry veterans Shawn Green, Tom Mustaine and Marc Tardif. Tardif says the company has come a long way since its first game, a dance game for Nintendo’s Wii that involved “shaking the Wii remotes like maracas.” Tardif says that once Escalation decided to make the shift to mobile, “the number of opportunities that were in front of us were pretty mind blowing.” He says the transition to mobile has been “rejuvenating” for his employees. Tardif says developers enjoy the “shorter turnaround time, instant gratification, and the ability to update games constantly and incorporate user feedback.”
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