Thunderful acquires fledgling studio To The Sky – looks to invest $5m in its first title

Thunderful Games today announced that it was acquiring fledgling developer To The Sky. The fellow Swedish outfit is based in Gothenburg and Thunderful will be funding the studio’s first title to the tune of $5m. 

The studio is led by former EA Ghost Games development director Jugo Mirkovic, though beyond that little is known about it, although Mirkovic said in a statement “We have an experienced and proven team, and with Thunderful we can concentrate on the task at hand.”

There are no details on the unannounced title that To The Sky is creating, except that Brjann Sigurgeirsson, CEO of Thunderful Group enthused:  “When Jugo shared his vision for the studio and their first project, we were immediately interested in partnering up. It will be very exciting to follow To The Sky in the future.” 

Thunderful has acquired 91 per cent of the shares of the developer for “a symbolic fee” with the remaining shares under option “based on the profitability of the studio’s first title.” 

The group, which was formed out of both development talent and a distribution business,  appears to have big plans for the future. We recently spoke to its chief strategy & investment officer Agostino Simonetta.

“I don’t know at what point that limit is,” Simonetta said when talking about the size of its potential investments. “But it’s a very ambitious company with big, big goals. And that’s what we want developers and partners out there to know. We’re here with deep enough pockets, we want to invest, we want to help people. And talk to us, if you fall into pretty much all those different buckets.”

The company simultaneously announced the acquisition of Tussilago, a Gothenburg-based film production company. “Tussilago is an important part of our ongoing growth strategy. Robert [Danielsson, founder and CEO of Tussilago] and his team will help us create even better games and will pave the way for our IPs also outside the gaming industry,” said Brjann Sigurgeirsson, CEO of Thunderful Group. The company’s work to date includes award winning documentaries, but also leans heavily towards animation in a variety of forms.