Thunderful Games to acquire Somerville developer Jumpship

Thunderful Games has entered into an agreement to acquire Somerville developer Jumpship, the company announced. The acquisition, which is expected to close today, is Thunderful Games’ first acquisition since Anders Maiqvist began as acting CEO, and its 10th studio acquisition overall.

Under Thunderful Games, Jumpship will retain creative autonomy and continue to develop “top-class story-driven narrative games.”

Jumpship was founded in 2017 by Chris Olsen alongside Playdead ex-CEO and co-founder Dino Patti. Following the acquisition, Patti will remain at Jumpship, as well as take on a new role of strategic advisor for Thunderful Games.

“The level of intrigue that Jumpship has managed to generate for its debut title shows you that this is a team with a deep artistic vision,” said Thunderful Games chief gaming officer Agostino Simonetta in a press release. “Adding to our already diverse and accomplished roster of talent under the Thunderful Studios’ umbrella is an important part of our strategy to build strong internal IPs. We look forward to supporting the team at Jumpship to harness their skill for building impactful narrative driven experiences as they continue to create fantastic titles within the Thunderful family.”

Jumpship studio director Claire Boissiere added, “Thunderful is pushing the boundaries by forming a family of game studios who will work under an umbrella of services that supports autonomy and creative vision. Our team sets its own course and it’s great to find a partner that not only understands that but can truly support us. Thunderful’s established relationships with key platform holders and expertise in putting games into the hands of players gives us an infrastructure where we can focus on what we do best: crafting games that challenge our audience both emotionally and intellectually.”

Jumpship co-founder and executive producer Dino Patti said, “I feel really good about the partnership with Thunderful and what it will do for Jumpship. I have known Agostino for a very long time and we have built a strong relationship of trust. We’ve been talking about this possibility for around a year and, over that time, I have only become more convinced that this is a great opportunity for Jumpship and Thunderful alike.”

Somerville launched for Xbox Series, Xbox One, and PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and Microsoft Store today. It is also available via Xbox Game Pass.