Kunos Simulazioni Bought Out By Digital Bros

Paul Jeffrey

Premium
Assetto Corsa Digital Bros Takeover.jpg

Early reports suggest Digital Bros Group, an Italian company with offices located around the globe, have purchased Kunos Simulazioni, the development studio responsible for racing simulation Assetto Corsa on both console and PC.

Very little information is known about what the new takeover by Digital Bros Group means for Assetto Corsa going forward, or even if current founders Marco Massarutto and Stefano Casillio will remain with the group following their financial windfall.

Digital Bros Group already have ties with the studio via their ownership of 505 Games, distributors of the console version of Assetto Corsa. In a statement released by the Digital Bros Group, it appears that full ownership of Kunos Simulations has been agreed, transferring ownership of Assetto Corsa and Kunos away from the current founder members Stefano Casillo and Marco Massarutto. With the news only just becoming public knowledge, further plans around how the new structure will look, who remains involved in the title and what the future will hold are short on the ground.

You can read the statement below (apologies for google translate). Stay tuned for more breaking news as it becomes available.

The statement (using Google Translate):

"Digital Bros will purchase the100% Kunos Simulations

The Board of Directors of Digital Bros, listed on the Star segment of the Italian Stock Exchange and active in the field of digital entertainment, which met today, approved the signing of an investment agreement concerning the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of the Kunos Italian developr of Simulations , Assetto Corsa S.r.l..In the same session were also beneficiaries of options discovered "2016-2026" stock option plan (the "plan"), recently approved by the shareholders, the quantities of options granted, and the unit price of subscription.

Acquisition of 100% KunosSimulationsS.r.l.
KunosSimulationsS.r.l.is an Italian company based in Formello (RM) who has many years of experience at the forefront of implementation of the main Italian carmakers simulators. Following this experience he developed and launched during the 2014 Assetto Corsa , a video game which was a great success with critics and audiences in versions 4,Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox One, PCSteam,with more than1.4million copies sold worldwide to date. 505Games, the Division o fDigital Bros group that deals with international publishing of video games, has signed an agreement during the 2015 Edition of the console versions .Assetto Corsa offers to players 150 cars, reproducedin every aspect, from the automotive world leading brands such as Alfa Romeo, Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Porsche and many more. Thanks to the use of Laser Scan technology, every single detail of the most famous tracks in the world has been reproduced with the utmost level of accuracy, making the game a real sporty driving simulation. With this acquisition the Digital Bros Group intends to grow more and more as a Publisher and developer of games can be successful in the world and be always ready to meet the needs of an increasingly demanding public. The acquisition allows fullcontrol of intellectual property and the opportunity for the group to invest on future developments of new versions of Assetto Corsa benefiting from a brand extremely well located in the global market for video games. The fact that the group already holds the rights of publication of Assetto Corsa fort he console version also synergiesin terms of brand positioning and optimization of advertising at a time when the rights are to be held entirely by the group. The operation involves the acquisitionof100% of DigitalBrosS.p.A. companyKunosSimulationsS.r.l., held by two founders Stefano Casillo and Marco Magandein viajointfor a nominal pricetotalling Euro 4,341,500 euro that will be paid as follows:

Euro cash throughout the date of execution1 ,375,000;
Euro1,375,000 entirely in cashwithin one year from thedate of execution;
Euro1,591,500 by issuing newordinary shares150,000 Digital Brosat a unit price of 10.61Eurosequal to the arithmetic average ofquotation prices ofDigital Brossharesover the past six months.The issueis subjectto approval by theshareholders ' meetingto be convenedfor nextMarch13.
In the absence offinancial data of theKunosSimulationsS.r.l.at December 31, 2016, pricing was made assuming net worth at the same date amounted to 10,000Euros ,any variations from this value will increase or decrease of the second instalment of cash payment. KunosSimulationsS.r.l.has accomplished over the year to December 31, 2015, latest financial statements available, revenues of 3.3million and a net profit of 1.7million euros. Shareholders equity at December 31, 2015 was $3.1million. No particular form of financing has been provided for the operation that will be financed through existing credit lines and whose execution date is expected before the end ofApril 30, 2017. The agreement is binding on the parties and subject to condition precedent to effect any significant relief that will emerge from the due diligence process that will be put in place as soon as the financials to December 31, 2016 will be available and positivere solution of the shareholders of Digital Bros. The shares that will be issued in favour of two associates salespeople will be fully available at the time the Board of Directors of Digital Bros has completed the formalities"

Who are Digital Bros?

"Operating on a global level, Digital Bros Group, strives for a product portfolio to reflect the markets in which it operates and is head-quartered in Milan, with offices in United States, Greater China, United Kingdom, France, Spain and Germany.

On 30th June 2016, the Group registered gross revenues for € 110,2 million and a growth in Net Profit, to 12,5 million from 9.1 million at 30th June 2015.

Founded in 1989 in Milan, Italy by Rami and Raffaele Galante and listed on the STAR segment of the Italian Stock Exchange since 2000, today Digital Bros is a global company combining technological evolutions with consumer habits and tastes.

Creative excellence, innovation, efficiency and coverage of any distribution channel are the key characteristics of Digital Bros’ activity. Today the majority of the revenues are derived from the International Activity 82% and for 49% from the digital business.

Today the Group operates worldwide in the video games world with the brands 505 Games and Halifax."

Assetto Corsa is a racing simulation originally released on PC and now available on both Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The game comes complete with many cars and tracks, however further vehicles and circuits can be purchased as additional DLC from the respective game stores.

If you like Assetto Corsa and wish to know more about the sim, keep up to date on the latest news or just hang around with your fellow AC fans then head over to the Assetto Corsa sub forum here at RaceDepartment. As well as publishing the latest happenings with the sim we hold a substantial modding archive containing some of the biggest and best mods available for AC. We support modding at RaceDepartment, its one of the things that make sim racing so wonderful. To help you create the best mods you can, and share in some of the limelight we have provided our Modding Discussion forum, a location where you can share your work in progress creations or ask questions of fellow knowledgeable individuals. Join in and let us know what you are working on at the moment!

What do you think about this potential takeover by Digital Bros? Is this good news for the game? Would you like to see a new direction from the new owners? Let us know in the comments section below!
 
damn. They had such a good thing going. Such an opportunity to capitalize on a solid base and turn it into something special for years to come. Instead....forza-ish garbage aimed at consoles is what i forsee.
 
Bad news, I hope to be wrong but it seems a clear move to meet the largest sales volume on the consoles, and as most companies aim for profit, I see AC becoming something like Pcars, GT and Forza. Too bad, I hope I'm wrong.
 
Early to cry, cryers. I think Simulation is growing as a niche, and corporative money making logic shouldn't ruin the title, especially after simulation aspect is core selling point of the title. And the very essense. I think AC is safe (Well if Kunos team will be the ones who takes most of the control).

before talking more, we should wait for statements from Kunos.
 
This could be good news actually. In worst case scenario, if they develop AC2 as a simcade, there will always be AC1 as a final product which could live for the next 5 years easily, modd the **** out of it...But anyways I believe it would be a financial disaster if the new owners go for an arcadish drive, because AC1 as a title was bought by customers who mainly wanted a true sim. There are also a plenty of those simcades and arcades, so it would be even pointless to make another one in the crowd. Kunos established themselves as full sim developers and AC profited from this, it would be foolish to deviate now when they got full attention in this segment. The market for a hardcore sim IS profitable. I expect more track development, dx12, day/night transition, rain...
 

Vincent.C

Another WEC driver !
Some very bizarre speculation in this thread. Would you buy Kunos if Marco and Sefano were going to leave?

Anyone else notice the sales figures? 1.4 million copies of AC sold to date. SteamSpy indicates around 400,000 copies sold on Steam which means 1 million copies on console. This won't trouble Polyphony but more than trebling your user base is hardly the sales disaster some suggested.
Probably wrong value on SteamSpy.

In my mind AC sold on steam >> AC sold on console.
 
I don't get the "This can't be good News" above, when ISI has did the same with rFactor 2, yet it's all baaad for AC, no one knows what's happening, Kunos should do the right thing and release a statement because they have a massive fan base, and not telling their customers what's happening isn't good communication, at least ISI released some sort of news to inform their customers.

PS
Stefano and Gjon should team up and make the Ultimate racing sim title.

Because RF2 was neglected and a buy out couldnt go worse.
AC is doing excellent and it can only do.... same or worse i guess :)

In a more positive note, i hope they use the money for an engine upgrade / swap so we can have those night races and rain :D
 
After doing some research, this may not be as bad as I initially thought. According to Digital Bros' website, they have an enormous presence in the Chinese video game markets (http://www.digitalbros.com/?page_id=1054&lang=en). If the Chinese market takes up sim racing, there could be a huge influx of cash injected into the game. Not saying the new company will use the money for that, but the potential exists.

Also, Digital Bros does already own some developers: DR Studios, Pipeworks, and Ovosonico. DR Studios focus on mobile games, Pipeworks ports games to different platforms, and Ovosonico recently released "Murasaki Baby" on PS4 to a lot of praise.

Personally, I still don't see this being a smart move, but I have slight hope.
 
Probably wrong value on SteamSpy.

In my mind AC sold on steam >> AC sold on console.

I agree with you.

Are you kidding me 1 million copies of PS4/Xbox One versions sold.

According to video game chartz, AC sold 70,000 copies for PS4 globally and 20,000 for Xbox One. AC console presence on social networks youtube, twitch for console is nothing, barely noticeable.

If they sold 1 million copies for consoles in 4 months than they were in wrong business all along, considering it took 4 years to sell 400,000 copies on steam.
 
I really like the AC but let's face it, from its early acces release on Steam in late 2013 until early 2017 it has evolved very little in its CORE. 2014 had a significant evolution still in early access, in 2015 the pace of evolution of CORE decreased, but the number of content increased through the Dream Packs 1-3, we arrived in 2016 and we had a brutal fall in both aspects, content and CORE. DLC with track was only one Red Pack, in counterpart without track there were 3 of the Porsche, besides the Japanese and the Triple. Don't get me wrong the content is welcome but without improving the CORE AC will die soon. I would be happy even without weather change and dynamic time-of-day if the same reached the tools and options that are present in rF1. If the part that matters most is incomplete, there are no decent penaltys like drive throught, stop 'n go, disqualification, flag system, rolling starts, possibility of engaging the gear at the start and holding the car using the brake and clutch, Leaderboard that presents me in real time the change of position and gap , Quick menu system for PITSTOP in the style of rf1, rf2, raceroom, iracing and so on goes even in pcars. As I said earlier I really like the AC but your CORE needs a lot of work on it yet.
 
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Because RF2 was neglected and a buy out couldnt go worse.
AC is doing excellent and it can only do.... same or worse i guess :)
Nah, the point is that rF2 was sold to a passionate simracers group and the main guy even races in the biggest online league, easy to know where it is going. While Digital Bros look more like a investment company that will look to increase profit, we all know what happens when this happens mixed with car games
 
I really like the AC but let's face it, from its early acces release on Steam in late 2013 until early 2017 it has evolved very little in its CORE. 2014 had a significant evolution still in early access, in 2015 the pace of evolution of CORE decreased, but the number of content increased through the Dream Packs 1-3, we arrived in 2016 and we had a brutal fall in both aspects, content and CORE. DLC with track was only one Red Pack, in counterpart without track there were 3 of the Porsche, besides the Japanese and the Triple. Don't get me wrong the content is welcome but without improving the CORE AC will die soon. I would be happy even without weather change and dynamic time-of-day if the same reached the tools and options that are present in rF1. If the part that matters most is incomplete, there are no decent penaltys like drive throught, stop 'n go, disqualification, flag system, moving starts, possibility of engaging the gear at the start and holding the car using the brake and clutch, Leaderboard that presents me in real time the change of position and gap , Quick menu system for PITSTOP in the style of rf1, rf2, raceroom, iracing and so on goes even in pcars. As I said earlier I really like the AC but your CORE needs a lot of work on it yet.
You want so many things, you think you will use so many things.. but at the end of the day you didn't know that you can engage first gear before lights are out (in the last 3sec I believe, might be a safety measure) since midway 2016. How much do you race in AC currently? Do you think you'll race 10x more when or if all that feature list gets implemented?
 
I hope it does not turn into something like Forza or gran Turismo. Hopefully in the future it still is more oriented and built for PC then console. But from a money stand point more arcade racers sell better than hardcore sims. Consoles are the ultimate cash cow.
 

How much money have you spend on your current simracing hardware

  • €0-150

    Votes: 90 19.2%
  • €151-500

    Votes: 123 26.2%
  • €501-1000

    Votes: 80 17.1%
  • €1001-1500

    Votes: 42 9.0%
  • €1501-3000

    Votes: 47 10.0%
  • €3001-5000

    Votes: 23 4.9%
  • €5001-10000

    Votes: 30 6.4%
  • I stopped counting a long time ago

    Votes: 34 7.2%
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