Fox has announced that it has acquired Aftershock, the mobile gaming offshoot of Kabam responsible for a large number of the studio’s movie tie-in games. The Aftershock team, numbering around 80, will be joining Fox’s in-house gaming and VR development studio, FoxNext, which currently numbers about 40. Aftershock became its own entity in February, after parent company Kabam was bought up by NetMarble. Before the split, Aftershock was responsible for movie tie-in mobile games like Star Wars Uprising. FoxNext was split off only a month before that, with the intent to give the creatives behind Fox’s gaming, virtual reality, and augmented reality exploits a bit more room to run things the way they want, as far as business goes. The exact monetary amount involved in the acquisition was not disclosed, but is reportedly in the tens of millions.
Coincidentally, the studio is currently tangled up with Fox, working on a mobile game based on the 2009 James Cameron film Avatar. The fantasy film’s age can be attested to by the fact that it came as a bonus pack-in with T-Mobile US’ first version of the Samsung Galaxy S, the Vibrant, but the movie’s wider fandom seems set for a revival amid Disney adding Avatar attractions to its Animal Kingdom park. Fox is also reportedly working on a number of new films set in the Avatar universe. The film managed to net $2.7 billion in the box office on release.
As far as future plans, Fox will reportedly begin working with Aftershock staff on a wide range of mobile games to get its properties on more screens all year round, rather than only having fans exposed to its shows when the shows are airing. Fox has not stated at this time whether Aftershock will continue any works not related to Fox properties. Mobile games based on Fox properties had previously been licensed to outside game studios, such as the case with Family Guy Freakin Mobile Game being made by Jam City, Inc. That practice will reportedly be vastly reduced, with the job of making mobile games from Fox properties falling mostly or even possibly fully under the company’s control thanks to the acquisition of Aftershock.