Focus Home Interactive has been working with a variety of game studios these last couple of years. Often taking to the publishing role, the company has also been building a sizable portfolio of subsidiaries. And in 2020, things are getting more interesting. Focus Home Interactive has announced the acquisition of Deck13.
Deck13 are behind The Surge and Lords of the Fallen. According to their statement, Deck13 has been working with Focus Home Interactive in a partnership going back nearly 20 years. So seeing them come together as one unit seems very natural. The deal costs an estimated €7.1 million (approximately $7.9 million USD); there’s also a “long-term incentive plan” in place for studio managers.
This will give Focus Home Interactive direct control of future projects and new IPs from the studio. This will also give the publisher access to the intellectual property belonging to Deck13. This includes the rights for their franchises like The Surge and Lords of the Fallen. And yes, there’s some more games coming for these properties.
The last game from the developer is The Surge 2. The game got its last update in February 2020, publishing new content and bug fixes to the game. The studio is also working on a new game. Thing is, there’s been no real details about this new game, so we’re still in the dark on it. And another interesting thing is that the studio is working on a new JRPG as a publisher as well.
The retro-influenced JRPG, Chained Echoes, is due out for the PC sometime in 2021. The publishing duties for this title will now shift over to Focus Home Interactive. Deck 13 is also working on Lords of the Fallen 2.
