Ubisoft, the French video game giant, said today it has purchased the Nadeo video game development studio in Paris. The studio is the creator of TrackMania, a multiplayer online car racing game on the web.
TrackMania has more than 700,000 unique players a month, and it has signed up more than 10 million players to date. The users can create their own cars and tracks and race against others. Since 2008, more than 15 million tracks have been created. TrackMania has 10 employees.
Ubisoft is strong in console games with franchises such as Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, but the acquisition of Nadeo is yet another step in Ubisoft’s expansion in the online game sector, said Yves Guillemot, chief executive of Ubisoft. In July, Ubisoft launched its first online game on Facebook.
All year long, we’ve witnessed a number of similar deals where established game companies are teaming up with online game startups as the industry transitions from packaged goods to online games. Earlier this year, Ubisoft bought Canadian game developer Action Pants.