Earlier this year Ngmoco founders Neil Young, Bob Stevenson, and Alan Yu pivoted their mobile online video service N3TWORK to game development, with eyes toward the big prize of creating a massive, Puzzle & Dragons-style mega-success for the West.
Now, the company has made its first acquisition: Swedish studio Nio Games, led by Paul Wilkinson -- a game industry veteran whose resume stretches back to the days of the NES and who more recently was Director of Mobile Development at King's Stockholm studio.
Gamasutra has learned that it's not just an acqui-hire: "Nio was working on a product that they were close to completing. We acquired that title and the team and it forms the basis of a new product that we’re building together," N3TWORK co-founder Neil Young told Gamasutra.
Some staff (who have experience from studios like Zynga, Playfirst, and EA, among others) will remain in Sweden, while others relocate to San Francisco, Young told Gamasutra. Terms of the buyout are not being disclosed. There's a bit more detail in Young's blog post on the buy.
For more on N3TWORK, read Gamasutra's February interview with Young about his vision for mobile success.