Zeus is delighted to have acted as financial adviser to Devolver Digital on its acquisition of System Era for consideration of up to $40m.
Established in 2014, System Era is an award-winning, multi-platform video game developer based in Seattle, United States. The company has a strong track record of developing innovative content and IP, driven by a quality team with significant experience in the live-operations space.
System Era is the developer behind Astroneer, a highly successful, space-exploration themed, multiplayer sandbox adventure game, of which it owns 100 per cent of the intellectual property. To date Astroneer has generated over $87 million of gross revenues and been played by over 13 million people, with the game is currently available on Steam, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch. Astroneer is entering its eighth successive year, with 2022 being its most successful year in terms of both units sold and revenue generated since release.
The acquisition represents a strategic opportunity for Devolver to expand outside of its core strength of premium indie titles, leveraging System Era’s knowledge of Expandable Game style development, as well as its live operations technology and existing IP. Devolver is confident that the team will build on the success of Astroneer and provide meaningful future contribution to the Group.
Having acted as sole financial advisor to Devolver on its IPO in November 2021 and provided a continued role as NOMAD and broker to the Group, Zeus is pleased to have been able to support the Group on this first major acquisition on market. The acquisition represents a clear opportunity for the Group to realise synergistic benefits from the development of future Games as a Service-based game titles, alongside benefitting fully from any future titles System Era develops.
This transaction is latest in a series of completed M&A transactions in which Zeus have supported their existing client base in executing against their respective M&A strategies.