Oberon purchases 2 new studios

Casual games giant Oberon Media has added two more studios to its Eastern European stable by acquiring St Petersburg, Russia-based Kenjitsu from Nikitova and Kiev, Ukraine-based Friends Games.

As part of the move, Nikitova Games CEO Olya Nikitova will become vice president of online for Eastern Europe for Oberon, while retaining all responsibilities in her existing role.

Oberon intends to use the move not only to further increase its roster of casual games developers, but will hope to improve its ability to support developers in the region with access to production and marketing services.

The company already has a presence in Kiev, as well as another studio in Bucharest, Romania, and the company's senior vice president for publishing believes the region holds a great deal of potential.

"Eastern Europe is full of highly skilled casual game developers who have been contributing to the casual games space since its inception."

"By building a robust presence in this territory, Oberon will be able to provide its developer partners with market information to make better informed decisions about product design as well as secure the broadest possible distribution across multiple platforms."

"Oberon's new Eastern European team is dedicated to bringing new opportunities to top local talent, so they can achieve their full potential as world-class developers."

Meanwhile Nikitova Games will use the move to focus further on producing new titles for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii and DS platforms.

Financial terms for the acquisitions were not disclosed.