Following recent reports that the founder and former CEO of the now defunct UK developer Argonaut, Jez San, had purchased both Just Add Monsters (JAM) and Morpheme, it has been revealed that a new Cambridge, UK-based company, Ninja Theory Ltd, has been formed by the original Just Add Monsters founders.
According to the official press release, this new entity comes with no debts, fresh capital, and Jez San's financial support - San has joined the board as Non-executive Director.
Ninja Theory Ltd. has acquired all the former Just Add Monster technologies, including the next-generation Heavenly Sword intellectual property, and the entire 23-person development team, allowing it to continue the work it was doing under Argonaut's financial and organizational aegis.
Tameem Antoniades, Chief Design 'Ninja' at Ninja Theory, also took the opportunity to focus on the still-in-development Heavenly Sword, the company's chief project: "We made a strategic decision to start very early and craft a gaming experience worthy of the next-gen moniker." Heavenly Sword has been in development since early 2003, and is presumably intended to debut on one or more next-generation consoles close to their launch.
Just Add Monsters, Ninja Theory's predecessor, was founded in March 2000, and was acquired by Argonaut PLC in October 2000. Under Argonaut's ownership, it was responsible for developing Xbox party game, Kung Fu Chaos, with the JAM founders previously involved in Sony Cambridge's MediEvil series.
