ANKAMA Group has announced today that it has acquired Wizcorp Inc., the Tokyo-based social and mobile game studio.
Founded in 2008, Wizcorp is specialized in social games development for mobile platforms (iOS, Android, etc). Alongside their game development operations, Wizcorp has also invested in the development of server-side technologies (such as MAGE, its well-known Node.js-based game engine), and is often called on to assist other game and application development companies with solving issues requiring a high level of engineering capability. Strong in the use of Web technologies (HTML5, JavaScript, WebGL, etc) and a committed contributor to open-source software, Wizcorp develops games and products using a variety of different platforms such as Unity.
“Wizcorp’s expertise in mobile gaming, and more specifically in the use of HTML5 for making such games, will help us increase our knowledge in this field quickly and efficiently,” said Camille Chafer, co-founder and Chief Technical Officer at Ankama. “Wizcorp will play a key role in supporting the development of our different engines and software, and they will of course help us increase our development capabilities. We are very excited to see Wizcorp become a new member of our family.”
“For the last ten years, Ankama has been a true pioneer in online gaming. We have many common values: delivering high quality games that balance originality, creativity and technology. We couldn’t have dreamed of a better partner.” says Guillaume Hansali, CEO at Wizcorp. “Within Ankama, Wizcorp will be able to put to good use the extensive experience it has acquired over the years on software, middleware and mobile games.”
Following the opening of a game studio in Montreal, the acquisition of Wizcorp shows Ankama’s commitment to expanding its development capacity through both internal and external growth. In addition, Wizcorp’s valuable knowledge of the Japanese market will help Ankama in its expansion in Japan.
