Christophe De bont 
21/10/2020Earlier this week, French gaming outfit Nacon announced the acquisition of our proud member Neopica. Moving forward, the Ghent based studio which employs around 30 developers will work on next-gen technology as part of Nacon’s video game development unit.
Created in 2007 by Peter Vermeulen and Filip Hautekeete, among others, Neopica is a veteran Belgian studio that has developed around sixty games, including a number of casual games designed to appeal to the widest possible audience, particularly children, before moving on to more complex simulation games.
This acquisition doesn’t come out of the blue as the two companies have enjoyed a fruitful collaboration in recent years. This started with the development of Hunting Simulator in 2017, followed by FIA Euro Truck Racing Championship in 2019 and Hunting Simulator 2 earlier this year.
Neopica joins an international network of studios, featuring names like Cyanide and Spiders, who are supported by a publishing team of over 50 experienced professionals. The current management team will keep running the studio with a high degree of autonomy, but there’s no doubt they will be able to benefit from synergies created within the Nacon Group.
Backed by an international group, the team will be able to uniquely focus on the creative side of things, which should ultimately result in better games. After the acquisition of Graphine by Unity last year, this could be another big boost for our #BelgianGamesIndustry.
