"The addition of Vicious Cycle to D3PA marks our first acquisition of an internal developer and further strengthens our capabilities in delivering top quality games to the North American market. Vicious Cycle's creative spirit and technical leadership are second to none and we're thrilled to have them join D3PA," said Yoji Takenaka, executive vice president and chief operations officer, D3PA.

D3Publisher of America and Vicious Cycle already have a long-standing relationship, as the studio has developed or co-developed a number of games for the publisher including Dead Head Fred(TM), a highly-anticipated action-adventure title debuting original IP on the PSP later this year, Flushed Away based on the film from DreamWorks Animation and Aardman (developed under the Monkey Bar Games banner) and the PSP SKU of the runaway hit Puzzle Quest (co-developed by Infinite Interactive Pty. Ltd.).

"Having worked with D3PA for the past few years, we know the company shares our passion for creative excellence and our commitment to quality," said Eric Peterson, president, Vicious Cycle Software. "We're thrilled to become a part of D3PA and we look forward to contributing our creative talents to D3PA's portfolio of innovative games."

In the new ownership structure, Eric Peterson will remain president and Wayne Harvey will remain vice president of Vicious Cycle Software. The company's 50-person development team will remain in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.