24 Bit Games' seven-year journey to joining Annapurna Interactive

06.03.2024 - 10:25 / gamesindustry.biz / Annapurna Interactive / Interactive

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After seven years in business, Annapurna Interactive made its very first acquisition last year: South African studio 24 Bit Games. While seeing Annapurna jump onto the M&A bandwagon might seem surprising, this specific acquisition makes a lot of sense considering the very close relationship between the two companies.

"Annapurna and 24 Bit have been working together since 2016," says 24 Bit COO Pieter Koornhof. "We initially started doing a bit of light porting work for some of their clients – Fulbright Interactive would have been the first one, with Gone Home. And then, when you work with a studio that has a publishing unit, you invariably work with the publisher. And we saw a good cultural fit from the start. We started [porting] a lot of their more popular games, and just over time, the relationship grew. Then there were hints dropped about forging a stronger commercial relationship, and we played coy.

"The industry is precarious; in Africa, it's even more precarious, because we're constantly having to punch above our weight. Most people just don't know us. We didn't want to do anything that it didn't make sense to do. [We] danced around it for two, three years, and then finally, at the end of 2022, they said, 'Look, this is something we would like to do, let's start having actual conversations about what this could look like'."

This led to further talks about culture fit, various negotiations, and studio visits, until an offer was made and the deal sealed at the end of October 2023.

24 Bit Games has been around for 11 years, founded by president Luke Lamothe, spanning out of his earlier companies that did original content creation, like Luma Arcade.

It specialises in porting and co-development and has had its hands in many pies over the years, most recently porting indie hit Cocoon, for instance. And for now, the Annapurna acquisition is not changing anything on that front.

"For the time being, it's business as usual," Koornhof says. "We talked to all of our clients before the announcement was formally made, just to ask if they were comfortable carrying on with the relationship. We made sure that there weren't any legal blockers to the acquisition. The general feedback from our clients has been positive.

"The mandate we've been given is, 'Just carry on doing what you're doing.' They like us. They want to carry on forging that relationship. And as far as they're concerned, we are our own company, still. Management hasn't changed, just the shareholders. And we have to keep on doing what we do."

Developing its own IP is somewhat on the horizon for 24 Bit, but the studio enjoys the niche it carved for itself.

"The nice thing about porting and