NGD Studios eyes AAA development with Red Katana acquisition
Argentinian studios merge to tackle global market from base in Latin America
The Argentinian developers NGD Studios and Red Katana have merged operations, moving it to the forefront of core game development in Latin America.
NGD Studios, which developed the recent reboot of Master of Orion, acquired Red Katana in a deal that will unite both teams and their executives. Andres Chilkowski, who co-founded NGD in 2005, will use the merger as an opportunity to step down as the company's CEO and assume the role of chief creative officer. Chilkowski will remain chairman of the NGD board of directors.
NGD Studios' new CEO will be Martin Cao, who held the same position at Red Katana, the company he founded in 2010. Cesar Guarinoni and Javier Otaegui will remain COO and CTO respectively.
"Martin has a great deal of experience in management, business and marketing, while I have always been more focused in the creative and technical side of making games," Chilkowski said, explaining his decision to hand over CEO duties in a statement.
"Making videogames has become more competitive and challenging than ever, and the only way to succeed is by being the best in every area," Cao added. "By combining the strengths of both our companies, we are better prepared than ever to face the challenge."
NGD's most recent project, Master of Orion, was the first game published under Wargaming's WG Labs initiative, making it one of the most high profile core games from a Latin American developer in recent years. "I saw that game, Master of Orion, and I was like, 'Wow, we can make a big deal of it,'" said Wargaming's Maxim Matveyko in an interview with GI.biz in April. The WG Labs label was created with Master of Orion specifically in mind.
By joining forces, NGD's intention is to become to the biggest core developer in the region, and better situate itself to compete in the global market for core games. With Red Katana's team now on board, NGD has targeted console development as an objective.
Yesterday, we published an interview with another of the region's most successful studios: Aquiris, which became a leading light in the Brazilian development scene with its hit mobile racing game, Horizon Chase.