Acquisition Signals Tilting Point’s Commitment to Invest in the Korean Developer Ecosystem And bolsters its 4x Genre Expertise and Publishing Capabilities within Key Asian Markets
NEW YORK-- February 08, 2022 -- Leading free-to-play games publisher Tilting Point has acquired a majority stake in Korea based game developer AN Games, following their successful partnership to scale the massively multiplayer real-time strategy Sci-Fi mobile game ASTROKINGS. AN Games will continue to operate independently, leveraging their expertise within the strategy genre to develop new games based on AAA IP. The acquisition will bring Tilting Point’s publishing and amplification expertise across AN Games’ entire portfolio. AN Games immediately elevates Tilting Point’s presence in Korea and also enables Tilting Point to benefit from AN Games’ publishing experience in key Asian markets including Korea and Japan.
The acquisition is Tilting Point’s first since its July 2021 raise of $235M, which was done to accelerate the publisher’s progressive publishing model: signing more developers in live publishing, co-developing games with premium IP, acquiring top studios through its platform, and expanding its growing global presence.
AN Games has over twenty years of experience mastering Sci-Fi strategy games that appeal to both Eastern and Western players. Its existing live game portfolio includes worldwide hits AstroNest: The Beginning and ASTROKINGS, as well as Astro & Girls, which was only released in Japan and Taiwan. The developer entered into a Live Publishing partnership with Tilting Point to scale ASTROKINGS in January 2020, which has been an unqualified success. A highlight of the partnership, the integration of MGM’s Stargate franchise, resulted in the game increasing installs by over 4X during the campaigns.
“AN Games’ team has mastered the 4X strategy genre over the past twenty years, and built both an extremely talented team and an engine which is ideal for integrating IPs,” said Samir Agili, Co-CEO and president of Tilting Point. “The acquisition of AN Games is proof of our Progressive Publishing model, where we successfully grew ASTROKINGS, then merged operations so that we can pursue co-development opportunities and further enhance our publishing across Asia to reach new players.”
The acquisition of AN Games is a prime example of the opportunity created for developers through Tilting Point’s Progressive Publishing model. The Tilting Point platform progresses relationships with established partners through its developer network to further accelerate and amplify developer success. This acquisition will provide AN Games with even more opportunity for its entire portfolio: user acquisition scaling, live operations improvement, IP integrations and platform expansion.
Tilting Point will benefit from AN Games’ publishing capabilities across Asia to bring more games from its portfolio to the region. The acquisition deepens Tilting Point’s existing roots in Korea, where the company has an office in Seoul and proven success expanding Eastern games into Western markets with developers such as Clegames for Reign of Empires, Joycity for Gunship Battle and Storytaco.inc for Dangerous Fellows, among others.
“Arriving at a co-development stage has been a natural progression of our relationship,” said Hwan-gi Kim, CEO of AN Games. “We admire and trust the Tilting Point expertise and look forward to being able to grow our studio’s impact even further.”
Tilting Point has consistently accelerated success for mobile game developers, scaling their games through UA funding and management, app store optimization (ASO), ad monetization, platform deployment and more, then teaming up with existing partners to deepen relationships through co-development and M&A. Tilting Point’s other recent acquisitions have included mobile games and assets from gambling technology software leader Playtech plc., including the San Diego-based FTX Games, hit titles Star Trek: Timelines and TerraGenesis, as well as LTV Tech Platform Gondola.