The publisher has also acquired four studios, and several of Devolver’s shareholders may be familiar names.

Devolver Digital announced on its website that they acquired Gungeon series Dodge Roll, Reigns series and Card Shark developer Nerial, Serious Sam series developer Croteam, and Stronghold series developer Firefly Studios. “Those developers and our team looked ahead and saw that we’d be working together forever, so we lovingly acquired them, mostly so they would hang out with us more.

The games and experiences that these four studios have planned are incredible, and each maintains the full creative autonomy afforded to them throughout our relationship. No specific plans for Enter the Gungeon 2, but rest assured we’ve asked [Dodge Roll] more than once,” Devolver Digital wrote in their unique, somewhat self-deprecating style that makes them stand out from the rest of the more prominent publishers (such as Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, or Activision Blizzard, to name a few).

At the same time, the publisher has become a publicly-traded company. The biggest investor so far is one of the Chinese tech giants, namely NetEase (7.97% of shares, 35,236,880 shares), followed by Graeme Struthers (6.8%, 30,059,890), Nigel Lowrie (6.21%, 27,464,675). Then, we see Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe Limited (5.03%, 22,241,917 shares). So Sony is there, and they even tweeted about it…

Then, we also see Slater Investments (4.56%, 20,154,489), Eric (Rick) D. Stults (3.81%, 16,841,685), Roman Ribaric and Davor Hunski (3.5%, 15,485,855 shares each), and Chelverton Asset Management (3.01%, 13,535,031). Three Devolver Digital directors also have shares in the company. They are Harry A. Miller IV (22.17%, 98,058,520 shares), Joanne (Jo) Goodson (0.02%, 93,798), and Kate Marsh (0.01%, 23,279).

So NetEase already has its foot in Devolver Digital’s door. We wonder when we hear about them suddenly acquiring the publisher, as the Chinese expansion is at a high rate.

Source: Gematsu