Focus Home Interactive buying Space Hulk: Deathwing devs Streum On
Plus, here's a new Necromunda trailer
As the video games industry continues trying to cram itself into as few companies as possible, French publisher Focus Home Interactive have announced they've bought a majority stake in Streum On Studio. They're the French studio behind the delightfully ambitious E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy as well as two Warhammer 40K shooters published by Focus Home, Space Hulk: Deathwing and the upcoming Necromunda: Hired Gun. Honestly, they seem a fair fit. And hey, they've made a new Necromunda trailer too.
I've a soft spot for Streum On. They started as a Half-Life mod team (making Syndicate Black Ops) and it showed. E.Y.E. was such a bold debut, a sprawling dystopian FPS-RPG with a great many moving parts. It's janky, no doubt, but it fizzes with ideas enough that I still smile remembering it. That's a Eurojank energy I want in video games. And, well, Focus Home are no strangers to over-ambitious games.
Focus Home say in the announcement that they're paying in cash and company shares, though don't name the price. Focus president Christophe Nobileau said that they wish to support Streum On "to develop production capacities in terms of quality and quantity".
Streum On president Pierrick Le Nestour added, "Our ambition is to offer players ever more ambitious and spectacular titles, and we know that Focus is the ideal partner to achieve our ambitions and for our games to be commercially successful."
Necromunda: Hired Gun launches June 1st. Here's the new trailer, showing more of the sights and folks in the underbelly of a hive city:
Two years ago, our Graham wrote "stop worrying about timed exclusives and worry more about games industry consolidation". Since then, it's only accelerated, from smaller acquisitions like this to Microsoft buying ZeniMax and Embracer Group buying Coffee Stain and Flying Wild Hog and 4A Games and Gearbox and every other studio they happen to see. It's all fun and games when the sun is shining but could leave studios at the mercy of a larger company's whims and needs. It's hard not to remember all the studios Microsoft bought then closed before this latest spending spree.