Paradox Interactive has entered into a $7.5 million deal that will ultimately see the company acquire Harebrained Schemes parent company Harebrained Holdings.
The deal is set to close for good on June 7, netting Paradox Interactive 100 percent of the shares in Harebrained Holdings. Following that, the development studio itself is free to continue operating as it has been, but under Paradox’s wing.
In a press release, Paradox Interactive notes that it has no plans to take over the studio’s internal management or creative teams. Instead, the larger company will be supporting Harebrained Schemes with business and distribution expertise, financial support, and Paradox’s network of “strategy enthusiasts”. The duo had previously worked together in the past, with Paradox having published Harebrained Schemes’ latest game, Battletech.
Though the purchase comes with the day-one price of $7.5 million, Paradox will also pay an additional sum equal to 25 percent of Harebrained Holdings’ earnings (before publishing costs) over the next five years.
“Mitch and I started Harebrained to create the kind of story-rich tactical games we loved,” said Harebrained Schemes CEO Jordan Weisman in a statement. “And for the last seven years, our studio has been fueled by our team’s passion and by the generous support of our fans. As the scale of our games has grown and the marketplace has gotten extremely noisy we felt that [Harebrained Schemes] needed to team up with a company that could provide us the financial stability and marketing expertise that would allow us focus on what we love doing – making great games and stories.”