IndieGames.com and Gamasutra parent the UBM Tech Game Network has transferred its 50% share in the Indie Royale game bundle to UK games investment firm Tenshi Ventures. Desura remain the co-owners of the other 50%.
Indie Royale, which was set up in October 2011, brings together high-quality independent games approximately every two weeks, and makes them collectively available for a heavily discounted price for PC and/or Mac and Linux, while allowing buyers to support emerging indie creators. It has collectively sold over 500,000 bundles and more than 2.5 million games over more than 25 separate bundle deals.
Tenshi Ventures, which is run by veteran British developers Ian Baverstock and Jonathan Newth, has more than 30 years experience in the game industry. It intends to leverage its contacts and the existing roster of previously bundled Indie Royale creators to expand and diversify offerings to eager gameplayers worldwide.
Ian Baverstock, who has also been Chairman of UK developer association Tiga, said "We're currently seeing a golden age of indie development; we've been developing games for over 20 years and are passionate about helping indie developers reach a bigger audience and get better recognition & reward for their games. Getting involved with Indie Royale is a great way to do that."
Scott Reismanis, Desura's founder, said “It's great to have the team from Tenshi Ventures on board. Their experience and contacts in the industry will be invaluable in helping us grow the bundle for all the indie partners we work with”.
Odd. Hard to know if UBM made a good ROI from the deal, or just wanted to get rid of it. Of course, I never know what's going on with UBM. The Game Programming Gems books seem to change publisher labels every few books. Of course, for all I know maybe there has never been a connection been UBM and whatever Charles River is known as now.
Mike, I don't think we have anything to do with Game Programming Gems :P We did publish some books about 10 years ago, but not those. Re: Indie Royale, we really love the brand, since we made it, and it's doing well, but we're just too busy on GDC, Gamasutra etc to devote the time to it that it deserves. Ian and the folks at Tenshi can totally do that. So - yay!
