1C Company Acquires 'Sea Dog' Studio

Officials from Russian publisher 1C Company have announced that the firm has acquired Akella’s “Sea Dog” in-house development studio, responsible for various pirate themed games such as Sea Dogs, Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales and Pirates of the Caribbean. The team is currently working on Age of Pirates: Captain Blood for release on PC and Xbox 360. As 1C Company acknowledge, the team has become of the few Russian studios to successfully develop games for the Xbox and Xbox 360, as opposed purely to the PC. Once Age of Pirates: Captain Blood is complete, the studio will begin work on “a wide range of innovative titles for multiple game platforms”. Akella’s series of pirate games will then be continued by another of the company’s studios, with a new announcement promised soon. As part of the acquisition deal, Akella has acquired the worldwide publishing rights to PT Boats: Knights of the Sea. Akella was previously developing the title, with 1C Company as co-publisher and investor. The game will become the first Russian title to be released for both DirectX 9 and DirectX 10. 1C Company has continued to expand over recent months, with a new distribution deal with Atari, Inc. announced in North America earlier in the year and the purchase of Czech developer Cenega Publishing – now rebranded 1C Publishing EU. The company also has offices in both the UK and China.