Thunderful acquires Jumpship as studio launches debut title Somerville
Jumpship will retain creative autonomy, co-founder Dino Patti to serve as strategic advisor for Thunderful
Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox
Swedish games publisher Thunderful has acquired UK indie Jumpship for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition is expected to close today, which also happens to mark the launch of Somerville, the studio's debut title.
Based in Guildford, Jumpship was founded in 2017 to build up Somerville as an IP, which was conceived by co-founder Chris Olsen and developed in collaboration with Dino Patti, who was previously CEO and co-founder of Limbo developer Playdead.
Patti will retain his role as co-founder and executive producer at Jumpship, but also take on a new role as strategic advisor for Thunderful Games.
Like Thunderful's other studios, Jumpship will still have creative autonomy on the projects it develops.
Jumpship is the publisher's tenth acquisition to date, and the first since Anders Maiqvist took over as CEO earlier this year. His appointment followed the group's original CEO Brjann Sigurgeirsson stepping down to take on a new role elsewhere in the company.
Other studios Thunderful has acquired in the past couple of years include Bridge Constructor publisher Headup, Shadow Point developer Coatsink Software, and games consultancy firm Robot Teddy.
“The level of intrigue that Jumpship has managed to generate for its debut title shows you that this is a team with a deep artistic vision,” said Agostino Simonetta, chief gaming officer at Thunderful Games.
“Adding to our already diverse and accomplished roster of talent under the Thunderful Studios’ umbrella is an important part of our strategy to build strong internal IPs. We look forward to supporting the team at Jumpship to harness their skill for building impactful narrative-driven experiences as they continue to create fantastic titles within the Thunderful family.”
Pictured at top: (From right to left) Co-founder Chris Olsen, studio director Claire Boissiere, co-founder and executive producer Dino Patti, and art director Georgi Simonov.