Nazara Buys UK-Based Gaming Studio Fusebox Games For INR 235 Cr

Listed media and gaming firm Nazara Technologies said that its wholly owned subsidiary Nazara UK has acquired London-based gaming studio Fusebox Games for £21.18 Mn (around INR 234.55 Cr).

Earlier this month, Nazara Technologies and Nazara UK entered into an agreement with existing shareholders and founders of Fusebox for the acquisition.

Back then, Nazara founder and chief executive Nitish Mittersain said that the company sees a “large opportunity” in building IP-based games and benefiting from its core user base in India where it can support global studios with user acquisition strategies, data analytics, live operations and AI solutions.

With Nazara UK now holding 100% issued share capital of Fusebox, the latter has become  a wholly owned subsidiary of Nazara UK and a stepdown subsidiary of Nazara Technologies, as per an exchange filing.

Fusebox operates IP driven interactive story-based games that can be monetised through in-app purchases. The games primarily target audiences in developed markets including US, UK, Australia and Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, New Zealand, among others.

The studio is the maker of ‘Love Island’, an interactive story game based on a popular British TV show of the same name and it claims to be developing new games based on popular global TV IPs.

In the calendar year 2023 (CY23), Fusebox clocked a revenue of INR 87.5 Cr with an EBITDA of INR 11.7 Cr. For the January-July 2024 period, the studio reported a revenue of INR 116.6 Cr with an EBITDA of around INR 33.3 Cr.

The development comes at a time when Nazara is looking to expand its gaming portfolio and strengthen its global presence through strategic acquisitions. In recent months, Nazara has bought stakes in several gaming and esports firms.

Recently, it was reported that Nazara’s unit Absolute Sports has entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire intellectual property rights of US-based gaming and esports content platform Deltia’s Gaming for $900,000 (around INR 7.57 Cr) in an all-cash deal.

In May, Nazara acquired the remaining 28.12% stake in Nextwave Multimedia Private Limited, the developers of the mobile cricket game franchise World Cricket Championship, for INR 21.6 Cr. This acquisition increased Nazara’s stake in Nextwave to 100%.

Prior to that in April, Nazara picked up an 8.5% stake in Web3 gaming platform Circle of Games (COG) for about INR 4.17 Cr. The company has also been expanding its presence in the esports sector, with its subsidiary NODWIN Gaming acquiring a 100% stake in Comic Con India for INR 55 Cr earlier this year.

Nazara posted a 98% decline in its consolidated net profit at INR 18 Lakh in the March quarter (Q4) of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) from INR 9.4 Cr in the year-ago quarter.

The company has also been expanding its global footprint.Recently, Nazara incorporated a new wholly-owned subsidiary, Nazara Technologies UK Ltd, in the United Kingdom with an authorised share capital of GBP 100 (around INR 10,683).