Nival Interactive acquires Russian developer

US company Nival Interactive has announced that it has purchased a controlling interest in Targem games, described as one of Russia's leading game developers.

Nival says the deal is part of expansion plans to establish a global development studio, producing games for next-generation consoles and wireless devices. The company also intends to maintain its stake in the PC games market.

"We are actively seeking acquisitions and partnerships with the best developers in order to share our resources, expertise and contacts to produce world-class software entertainment," said Nival president Sergey Orlovskiy.

"By combining Targem's talented team with ours, we can more aggressively pursue our goal of producing next generation console titles."

Targem's 40-strong team has already produced a number of titles for PC, Pocket PC and mobile phones. The studio's current projects include action RPG Hard Truck: Apocalyptic Wars, and an as yet untitled game being produced in partnership with Nival, which already has another development studio based in Russia.