Animoca Brands extends motorsport gaming reach via acquisition of Grease Monkey Games
Animoca Brands has acquired Grease Monkey Games, the developer behind motorsport games such as Torque Burnout and Torque Drift.
Blockchain game developer Animoca Brands has consolidated its growing presence in the gaming sector after completing the full acquisition of indie game developer Grease Monkey Games – the studio behind the hugely popular motorsport game titles Torque Burnout and Torque Drift.
The deal represents another step towards Animoca Brands’ overarching goal of actualising its vision for the future of gaming, courtesy of blockchain technology.
Established in 2013, the Melbourne-based studio is led by Arran Potter, the visual effects veteran who worked on various motion picture productions such as Wolf Creek 2 and Seven Swords.
“With our combined experience and licensed partners, we can build unique digital experiences for the REVV ecosystem. Blockchain technology will play a large part in the future of gaming and the web at large, and I can’t think of a better partner to work with than Animoca Brands,” Mr Potter said.
“We are incredibly excited to be joining the Animoca Brands family and its vision for the future of gaming,” he added.
Having begun its existence as a “contract-based company” serving global car manufacturers, Grease Monkey Games quickly moved into developing original IP games in 2014.
Currently, Grease Monkey Games wields an extensive portfolio of licensed partnerships with vehicle and aftermarket parts manufacturers such as Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Ford, BMW and Mishimoto.
With almost a decade of motorsport game development now under its belt, the studio’s games have amassed more than 45 million downloads across all platforms.
Grease Monkey rationale
According to Animoca Brands, the rationale behind its most-recent acquisition stems from Grease Monkey’s extensive experience in motorsports games development and “established industry partnerships across motorsports and automotive manufacturing”.
Importantly, the acquisition of Grease Monkey Games is expected to add significant game development capabilities and expertise to Animoca Brands with a key upcoming milestone already on the horizon: the launch of a “major cross-platform racing game built in Unreal Engine 5”, to be announced in the coming weeks.
Furthermore, despite the buyout, Grease Monkey’s current management will continue to operate the company post-acquisition and will work closely with the Animoca Brands team.
More specifically, the two parties have announced that they plan to align efforts relating to blockchain integration, fungible tokens, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), play-to-earn capabilities, synergy opportunities and product launches, particularly in connection to Animoca Brands’ REVV Motorsport ecosystem.
Commenting on the acquisition, Animoca Brands’ co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu explained that “Animoca Brands is incredibly thrilled to welcome Grease Monkey Games, a team that has experience in developing AAA gaming titles and shares our vision for the open metaverse and, more specifically, for our own REVV Motorsport”.
From a business integrity perspective, the acquisition means that Animoca Brands will not only appropriate Grease Monkey’s entire games catalogue but will also enhance its proprietary development capabilities as the company looks to add content to its growing gaming metaverse including The Sandbox – a blockchain-powered social hub allowing participants to build and trade collections of fantasy and role-playing adventures.