Video game producer Nexon has paid $96.4m on Monday to increase its stake in Sweden-based game developer Embark Studios from 33.3% to 66.1%.
Founded in 2018, Embark is developing an as yet untitled cooperative, free-to-play action game that is set in the future. Itis also building a platform that will enable users without game development experience to create their own interactive games and animation.
Nexon purchased its existing shares in November 2018, for a price reported by Swedish media as $41m.
Embark founder and chief executive Patrick Söderlund owned 54% of the company pre-acquisition but it has not been disclosed whether he sold shares in the latest deal. The company will become a consolidated subsidiary of Nexon post-acquisition.
Söderlund said in a blog post: “Our companies share the same world view. We both know that game development needs an overhaul, and we are both convinced that new technology, methodologies and perspectives will completely reshape what games can become.”
The deal comes less than two years after Nexon acquired a majority stake in cryptocurrency exchange Korbit in an $80m deal.