Blowfish Studios, or simply “Blowfish,” is an award-winning independent Sydney-based developer and publisher of high-quality multi-platform games, including Qbism, Siegecraft, Morphite, Projection: First Light, and Storm Boy. Blowfish was founded in 2010 by Benjamin Lee, a veteran of the computer software and 3D graphics industry, and Aaron Grove, an award-winning visual effects supervisor.
With extensive experience in developing, porting, and publishing games for PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, iOS, and Android, as well as expertise in Virtual Reality (VR), Blowfish adds significant game development capabilities and expertise to Animoca Brands. Blowfish has a portfolio of 33 games, including both self-developed and published titles, that have been played by over 2.5 million people. Its pipeline includes a number of major upcoming projects to be announced shortly.
The current management of Blowfish will continue to operate the company after the acquisition, working closely with Animoca Brands to align efforts relating to blockchain integration, fungible tokens, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), play-to-earn capabilities, synergy opportunities, and product launches.
Yat Siu, co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands, commented: “Animoca Brands is incredibly thrilled to welcome Blowfish, a team that significantly expands our capacity in the cross-platform games space and that has a strong interest in and understanding of blockchain. The combination of unique capabilities in AAA gaming and blockchain is a rare and valuable blend and we are already hard at work on a number of very exciting projects to be announced soon.”
Benjamin Lee, co-founder and managing director of Blowfish, said: “Joining the Animoca Brands family was a unique opportunity to grow the game development and publishing businesses of Blowfish, and to leapfrog to the forefront of blockchain gaming. We are incredibly excited about our major upcoming releases developed with Animoca Brands, which will change the perception of blockchain gaming for midcore and hardcore gamers everywhere.”
Animoca Brands has acquired Blowfish Studios for an upfront consideration of A$9 million (approximately US$ 6.6 million) plus payments of up to A$26 million (approximately US$ 19.2 million) conditional on certain employment and performance targets (see details below). Blowfish is the developer of Siegecraftand the publisher of the upcoming Winter Ember, among others.
Animoca Brands Limited has acquired 100% of the issued capital of Fugu Raw Pty Ltd (“Blowfish Studios”) for an upfront consideration of A$9 million, consisting of A$4 million in cash and A$5 million in fully paid ordinary shares of Animoca Brands. Additionally, conditional on the continued employment at Blowfish of Messrs Benjamin Lee and Aaron Grove for two years following the acquisition, up to A$1 million in cash and A$5 million in shares will be paid. Finally, the acquisition includes performance-based earnout payments of up to A$20 million based on the achievement of certain profitability targets in 2022 and 2023.
For all purposes related to this acquisition, shares of Animoca Brands are priced at A$1.10 each.