HomeMain MenuPress ReleasesKoch Media acquires Vertigo Games and enters VR gaming market

Koch Media acquires Vertigo Games and enters VR gaming market

Koch Media acquires Vertigo Games and enters VR gaming market

Company behind Arizona Sunshine and After the Fall opening new business opportunities for the global publishing group

Sydney, Australia – September 16th, 2020 –  Koch Media GmbH – a wholly-owned subsidiary of Embracer Group AB – today entered into an agreement acquiring 100 percent of the shares of Dutch-based Vertigo Games Holding B.V. (“Vertigo Games”).

With today’s acquisition Koch Media enters a new market segment for the group’s business worldwide, expanding its global network and line up even further.

Founded in 2008, Vertigo Games is a multiplatform VR entertainment company group with offices in Rotterdam and Los Angeles. Vertigo Games focuses on development (Vertigo Studios) and publishing, both for home entertainment (Vertigo Publishing) as well as location-based-entertainment (Vertigo Arcades). Vertigo Games is officially partnered with all major VR platform providers and acts as cross platform publisher and developer in the VR market. The acquisition includes all segments of Vertigo Games’ business, as well as all intellectual property rights. With no changes to the existing management or team, Vertigo Games will act as an independent content provider and publishing label for Koch Media’s global games business.

“Vertigo Games has gone through rapid growth over the past years, which has seen our team branch out from VR development into publishing, out of home entertainment and distribution, establishing multiple VR brands. I’m proud to see the company enter the next phase as part of the Embracer Group,” said Richard Stitselaar, CEO of Vertigo Games. “In Koch Media we have found a partner that is just as eager to push the boundaries of VR gaming, which we will be pursuing even more than before through opportunities for cooperation between the companies.”

Dr. Klemens Kundratitz, Koch Media’s CEO said: “We have been monitoring the VR market over the past years very closely. We feel that now is the right time to extend our groups activities into this amazing and fast growing sector. I am sure that we are only at the beginning of the technological development of VR and what it offers players around the globe. We are delighted that with the acquisition of Vertigo Games, leading VR team are joining our group. Together, we will push the boundaries of VR gaming even further, combining our strong global development and publishing network with their specialized VR games expertise.”

Having exclusively focused on the VR gaming market since 2013, Vertigo Games launched its own VR brand Arizona Sunshine in 2016 and branched out with publishing and  location-based-entertainment (LBE), business for third-party VR games in 2017/2018.

Combining years of experience in all sectors of VR entertainment, Vertigo Games offers a novel, powerful and fully-featured gaming experience. Current titles include Vertigo Studios’ evergreen VR brand Arizona Sunshine, the critically acclaimed third-party VR title A Fisherman’s Tale, as well as LBE-exclusive VR experiences such as Ghost Patrol VR. The company’s 2020/2021 line-up includes six releases among which is Vertigo Studios’ upcoming VR action shooter game After the Fall

About Vertigo Games

Vertigo Games is a multi-platform VR entertainment company with offices in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Los Angeles, California. With teams in the areas of development, publishing and LBE (location-based entertainment) distribution, the company offers a growing portfolio of quality VR games that provide novel, powerful and full-featured gaming experiences both in- and outside of the home. Current games include Vertigo Studios’ evergreen brand Arizona Sunshine®, critically acclaimed VR titles such as A Fisherman’s Tale, and LBE-exclusive VR experiences like Ghost Patrol® VR. Among six upcoming releases for 2020/2021 is Vertigo Studios’ next VR action FPS game After the Fall®. www.vertigo-games.com

About Koch Media

Koch Media is a global developer, publisher and distributor of computer and videogames, gaming hardware and merchandise.

The company’s publishing activities, marketing and distribution extend throughout Europe, America and Australia. Koch Media has more than 25 years of experience in the digital media business and has risen to become a leading games publishing partner. Koch Media runs a multi-label strategy with fully owned content providers, including the labels Deep Silver, Milestone and Ravenscourt which publish games for consoles and PC across all physical and digital channels. Koch Media has formed long-term multi-national publishing collaborations with numerous game publishers including Bethesda, Capcom, Codemasters, Konami, Koei Tecmo, NC Soft, Sega, Square Enix, Warner and many others. With its parent company in Höfen, Austria and the Publishing HQ in Munich, Germany, Koch Media owns local publishing companies in Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Australia, the United States as well as Japan and Hong Kong.

The Koch Media group owns six game development studios: Deep Silver Volition (Champaign, IL / USA), Deep Silver Dambuster Studios (Nottingham / UK), Deep Silver Fishlabs (Hamburg / Germany), Warhorse Studios (Prague / Czech Republic), Milestone (Milan / Italy), Voxler (Paris / France) and Vertigo Games B.V. (Rotterdam /The Netherlands). Additionally Koch Media collaborates with numerous independent development studios around the world.  Koch Media also owns Gaya Entertainment, a leading games merchandise company in Langenfeld, Germany and the Quality Assurance Facility in Olomuc, Czech Republic. Furthermore, with Koch Films the Koch Media Group runs an established film business. Koch Films is a European independent film distributor with business primarily in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy as a cinema, TV, online and Home Entertainment distributor. www.kochmedia.com

Koch Media is an Embracer Group company. 

About Embracer Group

Embracer Group is the parent company of businesses developing and publishing PC, console and mobile games for the global games market. The Group has an extensive catalogue of over 190 owned franchises, such as Saints Row, Goat Simulator, Dead Island, Darksiders, Metro, MX vs ATV, Kingdoms of Amalur, TimeSplitters, Satisfactory, Wreckfest, Insurgency and World War Z amongst many others.

With its head office based in Karlstad, Sweden, Embracer Group has a global presence through its six operative groups: THQ Nordic GmbH, Koch Media GmbH/Deep Silver, Coffee Stain AB, Amplifier Game Invest, Saber Interactive and DECA Games. The Group has 43 internal game development studios and is engaging more than 4,000 employees and contracted employees in more than 40 countries.

For more information, please visit: http://www.embracer.com