Tilting Point has acquired all of Plamee Studios and the assets of FTX Games from gambling technology software firm Playtech in Estonia, adding to Tilting Point’s growing portfolio of mobile games.
The New York-based Tilting Point did not disclose the purchase price. The move is part of a series of acquisitions that Tilting Point has undertaken to become a big mobile game publisher and developer. Typically, this company takes games that are hits and tries to turn them into bigger hits using user acquisition spending and other marketing technology.
With the deal, Tilting Point will become the publisher of San Diego, California-based FTX’s Narcos: Cartel Wars, The Walking Dead: Free Casino Slots, and Criminal Minds: The Mobile Game. On top of that, Tilting Point will own Plamee Studios, the St. Petersburg, Russia-based developer of Narcos: Cartel Wars, which is based on a popular Netflix television show (it’s grossed $60 million in revenue since launch). Tilting Point will pick up four employees from FTX and 20 from Plamee Studios, said CEO Kevin Segalla in an interview with GamesBeat.
“For us, we’re looking for studios that we can work very well with and have an entrepreneurial nature,” Segalla said. “They have the potential to grow a lot. We’re looking for studios that have games that are working, and where we can make a difference in the performance of those games. We can extend the life of the game or increase the revenues of the game. What we’re looking for are development studios that are independent, that want to really stay operating independently. ”
Acquisition binge
So today’s deal marks Tilting Point’s third acquisition in the past eight months. Back in March, Tilting Point also acquired Star Trek: Timelines, a character-collection role-playing game (CCRPG). from Disruptor Beam. At that time, Tilting Point took on 19 Disruptor Beam employees and formed a new studio, Wicked Realm Games, in Boston. In October 2019, Tilting Point acquired mobile game monetization platform Gondola. It also committed $30 million to market Mino’s popular collection title, Cat Game. In 2018, Tilting Point opened a game studio in Barcelona.
Tilting Point has already taken over operations of all three of the FTX live games, and the production of another title in development. The acquisition of FTX Games assets and Plamee Studios from Playtech comes at a time when the gambling technology firm has decided to focus on its core business developing gaming and sports betting products and content.
Narcos: Idle Cartel, a second game based on the hit Gaumont series, was announced earlier this year as being in development by Tilting Point and Big Wolf Games, making Tilting Point the sole publisher of the only two Narcos mobile games on the market.
User acquisition
The newly acquired games will benefit from Tilting Point’s $132 million annual investment user-acquisition fund, Segalla said. Tilting Point has helped promote more than 80 games to date, and it is currently helping 28 games and partnering on four co-development projects. Segalla said Tilting Point has added to its credit facility to replenish the user-acquisition fund as needed.
In May, Tilting Point teamed up with India’s Nukebox Games to launch SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off, and Sagella said it did better than expected.
“We are really excited about it,” Segalla said. “So we’re putting a lot of resources into taking that to the next level. That was a great example of us taking a game developer and game through the entire progressive publishing model.”
Tilting Point now has about 156 employees, and Segalla said the company is more than doubling its revenues every year.