Beloved indie outlet Annapurna have made their first-ever acquisition in the video game space, snapping up the studio responsible for co-developing a number of their biggest hits.
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South Africa-based 24 Bit Games boast credits across much of Annapurna’s catalogue, ranging from credits on Gone Home – helping to patch the beloved narrative game on PC, as well as upgrade it to a newer game engine and fix various bugs – and the PC release of time-looping drama Twelve Minutes to this year’s speedrunning FPS Neon White and puzzle masterpiece Cocoon, both of which they ported over to consoles.
Outside of the Annapurna stable, 24 Bit worked on Fullbright’s Gone Home follow-up Tacoma, eco anti-city-builder Terra Nil and chaotic toybox Totally Accurate Battle Simulator as co-developers, working with devs Landfull on aspects including online multiplayer and other gameplay features.
In other words, they’re a studio with a lot of fingers in a lot of particularly tasty pies, even if they’re perhaps less known for their own original recipes. That metaphor tortured enough for ya? Moving on.
24 Bit marked their 10th anniversary last year, expanding in that time from working on ports of games to producing tools for developers to use in their games, both indie and triple-A. Other familiar names that 24 Bit have worked with include the likes of Devolver, Disney and Unity.
Under Annapurna, 24 Bit will apparently look to grow their headcount (welcome news in this year of endless games industry layoffs) and develop new tech for use in projects. Otherwise, Annapurna promise – in classic acquisition fashion – that it’ll otherwise be business as usual. (Thanks, Forbes.)
While picking up 24 Bit isn’t perhaps as notable as buying one of the lead studios behind any of their indie mega-hits, it still marks a notable new era for Annapurna in looking to acquire companies rather than simply partner with them on releases.
We’re unlikely to see Annapurna become the next Embracer anytime soon, but it will be interesting to see if this marks the first in a series of expansion efforts from the well-regarded publishers behind Thirsty Suitors, Kentucky Route Zero and more – much like fellow indie darlings Devolver, which have made their own moves to buy up partnered studios in recent years.
