Paradox Interactive set to acquire Harebrained Schemes, the developer of award-winning games for Linux, Mac and Windows. Since both parties have now entered into an agreement. Paradox acquiring Harebrained Schemes, LLC.
So Harebrained Schemes will now act as an internal studio. And a division within the Paradox organization. Which will be led by its own internal management and creative teams. Allowing them to design and develop the games that earn them such an outstanding reputation.
Harebrained Schemes was founded in 2011 by industry veterans Jordan Weisman and Mitch Gitelman. Weisman is also the creator of many acclaimed game universes. These include Shadowrun, Crimson Skies, and BattleTech/MechWarrior. He has also founded several previous entertainment companies. These include FASA Corp, Virtual World Entertainment, FASA Interactive, 42 Entertainment, and Wizkids.
At Harebrained Schemes, the partners-in-crime assembled a scrappy team of talented people. While shipping eight games in seven years including the award-winning Shadowrun Returns series of CRPG’s. And of course the recently released turn-based strategy title BATTLETECH, published by Paradox.
So maybe this acquisition will help speed up the Linux release of BATTLETECH?
Paradox Interactive statement:
“Harebrained Schemes have proven themselves as a world-class studio with a team of talent. All within a genre where Paradox wants to be present,” said Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive. “In addition, we really like the studio, the people who run it, and their games; these are all absolute hard criteria for us in any acquisition. Our recent successful launch of BATTLETECH, our first project together, has been a fantastic collaboration, but the possibilities of what we can do together in the long term now that we’ve joined forces — that’s what has us truly excited.”
Harebrained Schemes a creator of Linux, Mac and Windows games:
“Mitch and I started Harebrained to create the kind of story-rich tactical games we loved,” said Jordan Weisman, CEO of Harebrained Schemes, “and for the last seven years. Our studio is fueled by our team’s passion and by the generous support of our fans. As the scale of our games has grown and the marketplace has gotten extremely noisy we felt that HBS needed to team up with a company that could provide us the financial stability and marketing expertise that would allow us focus on what we love doing – making great games and stories.”
Mitch Gitelman, Harebrained Schemes’ President, added, “Our experience working with Paradox on BATTLETECH was the best of our careers and proved to us that this was a company we would be proud to be a part of. What’s more, we get to experience the incredible audience that Paradox has firsthand. The fans who we meet at PDXCON after launching our game were so full of enthusiasm and appreciation. We share a deep respect for our audiences, for healthy and collaborative teams, and for the creative process itself — the fit just works.”
So Paradox to acquire Harebrained Schemes means?
As a token to welcome all fans of Harebrained Schemes to the Paradox family. Paradox will give a complimentary copy of Stellaris. The sci-fi grand strategy game for Linux, Mac and Windows from Paradox Development Studio. This will also be coming to every player who backed BATTLETECH on Kickstarter. So Paradox will acquire Harebrained, but the players get a bonus. Not to bad, don’t you think?
For further details on this new arrangement. Wester and Weisman will appear on a live-streamed presentation and Q&A session in the near future on the Paradox Interactive Twitch channel.