Lord Of The Rings: Gollum Dev Acquired

French video game company Nacon–formerly Bigben Interactive–has acquired The Lord of the Rings: Gollum developer Daedalic Entertainment. The two companies were already in business together, as Nacon is the publisher of the upcoming Lord of the Rings game, but now the two companies have “decided to tighten their collaboration,” Nacon said in a news release.

Daedalic’s existing management, including founder and CEO Carsten Fichtelmann and COO Stephan Harms, will continue to run the studio “with a high degree of autonomy in development and publishing.” Nacon will help with sales, publishing, and marketing efforts going forward.

Nacon is paying 32M€ in cash to buy Daedalic, while Daedalic can earn up to 53M€ if certain “performance” metrics are met by 2026. The deal is expected to close in 2022. Nacon’s board of directors has already approved the deal, which is Nacon’s biggest ever.