Frontier Developments acquires Canada-based Complex Games in £11.6m deal

Frontier Developments plc has made its first acquisition, buying Canadian game development studio Complex Games for £8.3million upfront and a conditional deferred cash consideration of up to £3.3m depending on milestones.

The deal means the Cambridge-based video game developer behind F1 Manager 2022 and Jurassic World Evolution has a hub in Canada which will support the development of future titles as Frontier looks to increase the number of games it releases.

The purchase first follows the successful collaboration between Complex and Frontier for the development and publication of the turn-based strategy game Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters, which was released by Frontier in May to a very positive reception. It is also a first for new CEO Jonny Watts, who took over the CEO mantle from industry icon and founder of the company, David Braben – now chairman – in August.

Under the terms of the original agreement, the two parties divided the game’s profits 50-50. With this acquisition, Frontier now keeps 100 per cent of the profits for £11.6m (£8.3m cash upfront plus £3.3m earn-outs).

The acquisition by the Cambridge Science Park-based company has been funded through the existing Frontier cash reserves of £53.1m.

Jonny Watts, Frontier’s CEO, said: “When we launched our third-party publishing strategy in 2019 we were excited by the potential to align our Frontier Foundry development partners more formally with Frontier through acquisition.

“Our experience with Complex Games on Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters has been terrific, and I am delighted to welcome Noah and the team to Frontier, with a view to growing and evolving our development team in Manitoba, Canada.

“This is Frontier’s first acquisition and we will continue to explore opportunities to grow Frontier’s resources to further develop and nurture our portfolio.”

Noah Decter-Jackson, Complex Games’ CEO, added: “Working with Frontier on Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters has been a great experience and I am excited about our growth plans for our Winnipeg studio.

“I am really proud of Complex Games’ achievements and I’d like to thank everyone who has been involved with that success over many years. I look forward to developing even more great games in the future as part of Frontier.”

Frontier’s share price went up 3 per cent following the announcement.