The Hamburg-based game development studio 49Games spun off from the VCC entertainment company in 2004 and has developed 18 multi-platform sports titles since. These titles were published for the X360, Wii, PS3, PS2 and PC. The studio’s team is composed of 45 full-time developers who have developed the beloved games: Winter Stars, Winter Sports 2011: Go for Gold, Summer Challenge 2010, RTL Wintersports 2010 and many other top titles.

The current projects under development in 49Games will be completed by the production team. Aside from the production team, all rights to their multiplatform technology, assets, licenses etc. remain the property of 49Games GmbH.

Bigpoint will concentrate solely on the development of online and mobile games in the future. The veteran expertise of the recently taken-over developers will be put to use on upcoming Unity 3D projects.

“The team at 49Games is one of the best development teams in the console sports-games industry. We’re very excited to add them to the Bigpoint team for our online games,” explains Heiko Hubertz, CEO and founder of Bigpoint. “Together with our development team, we’re going to continue our mission to deliver our users top-quality gaming fun.”

“I’m very pleased with Bigpoint’s acquisition of our development team and I’m confident that the team will deliver fantastic 3D MMOs for the quickly growing international online company,” claims Jan-Hendrik Ohl, CEO of 49Games GmbH.

After the takeover and merger of Radon Labs and Elofd in Berlin last year and the purchase of Planet Moon Studios at the start of 2011, this is the fourth takeover for the world’s largest browser-based online game provider Bigpoint.

“We plan on expanding,” states so Heiko Hubertz, “and so we’re still on the lookout for other excellent studios like 49 Games. In the future, we’re definitely going to make more international acquisitions.”