Vivendi Acquires High Moon Studios

Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) today announced that it has made a significant purchase in the form of leading independent development studio High Moon Studios. The new agreement will give Vivendi control over High Moon’s 100 employees and its intellectual properties. However, John Rowe, the president of High Moon will still be the primary manager and will continue to run the studio out of its offices in Carlsbad, CA. No financial details of the transaction have been disclosed thus far.

Bruce Hack, CEO of VU Games was naturally quite pleased with his company’s latest purchase. “VU Games and High Moon are already collaborating on a soon-to-be-announced project based on a major entertainment license. Our acquisition of the studio is another major step forward in building the company’s position as a leader in next generation console games.”

High Moon has earned several accolades for their development accomplishments in the past year. In December, High Moon was named among the “Top 50 Technology Innovators of 2005” by IT Week for applying the Agile Methodology technique to its development of next-generation games. The studio’s adoption of the innovative R&D method also earned it a “2005 Workplace Excellence Award” from the San Diego chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management.

High Moon’s first person shooter, Darkwatch, was a critically acclaimed release for the Xbox and PS2 last year in the summer, and was recognized with several art and animation awards, including five Davey Awards, two Aurora Awards and a Telly. High Moon’s staff has been noted as consisting off several experienced employees coming from high profile companies such as Midway, Oddworld Inhabitants, Rock Star San Diego, and Sony Computer Entertainment.

John Rowe, President and CEO of High Moon Studios made it quite clear that having Vivendi on board as their new backer can only aid in their development of next-generation software. “We are happy to be a part of Vivendi Universal Games, and we believe that the acquisition is a very positive step for the growth of our studio. High Moon has assembled an experienced team of development professionals who are passionate about creating compelling interactive entertainment for audiences around the world.”

Advanced Media will naturally continue to follow any further developments out of High Moon and Vivendi and will report any new details on the new agreement, especially any new game announcements in the future.