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!
 
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?
The question is not whether I will use everything or not, the point is that we have something current that has the core more incomplete than something created 10 years ago. It does not help to have good physics, well done content, audio and everything else if the CORE is incomplete and does not provide the possibilities of what can happen in a race, without these aspects AC becomes a HOT LAP simulator
 
well... i mean... hopefully this means that AC2 will be much more complete. I doubt they'll switch it to a simcade though, as most of the people who bought the game bought it for the sim factor and a move like that would turn away most of the playerbase.

i'm personally waiting for a sim with a good damage model!!!!!!! considering what i consider to be the best damage model in a sim (Live for speed, 2003) i think we need developers to focus on it a little more than they have been xd
 
vm328zJ.png

This is the famous Let's play game designer thread: http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/lets-play-game-designer.31615/

The poll was closed on Apr 9, 2016, and many of the voted features are added, or are confirmed that they are being worked on, such as time based races, and engine stall (demonstrated in Stefano's stream, and if you really try to stall the car, the behavior of the car when you go a really low RPM is vastly different from EA period now).

I can't find the famous Associator's list of things that are wrong with AC that he listed when AC went out of EA. But the last time I checked it, many of the issues he put in that list have already been addressed.

Seriously. When I check the progress of Kunos, I often felt ashamed about the progress of my own projects at work. As a programmer I often get frustrated by things that I think should work but don't, and by my supervisor who changes idea all the time asking for different new things. Slow in progress? Brutal fall in both core and content in 2016? I mean do you guys check the front page of RD news at all?
 
Last edited:
Marco Massarutto
9 mins ·
Ok, let's clarify this before it becomes the bigger flame of the year.

By today, Kunos Simulazioni is part of Digital Bros Family, and me and Stefano by today are shareholders of Digital Bros. That's it. We are still the founders of Kunos, we are still IN, also keeping our respective positions and responsabilities, with just few exceptions: the budget we'll manage by now doesn't come anymore from our personal profits, but from Digital Bros, our bigger AC fan. Keeping the same policy, strategies, DNA, development team, goals. So, if this news would not been made public, you couldn't realize that something is changed, because - by a gamer/simracer point of view - nothing is going to change.

The reason why this news comes like a bombshell is because Digital Bros is a listed company, therefore this kind of operation must a) kept confidential until the negotiation is over, b) go public when is done. That's it.

For whom are afraid that today a piece of their simracing world has gone, let me remind them that Digital Bros has published - under its label 505Games - the console version of Assetto Corsa, and it doesn't seem to me that AC on PS4/XB1 is an arcade game: definetely it isn't. Therefore, before to scream in any direction that "Kunos has been bought, The World is Over", please sit down, breath and think. Because the only news you should be interested is that by today, we have more resources, time and power to do our job, even better than before.

So: think easier, live better, stay strong. The Future is Bright.

Have a nice weekend
 
Interesting turn of events. It maybe that Kunos has taken the project as far as they could within the current structure and this is needed to take it up to the next level. Perhaps they will take the current game, expand upon every part of it and release it as a Triple AAA Race sim with an awesome pedigree (AC 2).
 
Euro 1,591,500 by issuing new ordinary shares 150,000 Digital Bros at a unit price of 10.61 Euros equal to the arithmetic average of quotation prices of Digital Bros shares over the past six months.

This statement is why I'm not immediately too concern.
I suspect both guys will be staying on to protect their investment.
 
vm328zJ.png

This is the famous Let's play game designer thread: http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/lets-play-game-designer.31615/

The poll was closed on Apr 9, 2016, and many of the voted features are added, or are confirmed that they are being worked on, such as time based races, and engine stall (demonstrated in Stefano's stream, and if you really try to stall the car, the behavior of the car when you go a really low RPM is vastly different from EA period now).

I can't find the famous Associator's list of things that are wrong with AC that he listed when AC went out of EA. But the last time I checked it, many of the issues he put in that list have already been addressed.

Seriously. When I check the progress of Kunos, I often felt ashamed about the progress of my own projects at work. As a programmer I often get frustrated by things that I think should work but don't, and by my supervisor who changes idea all the time asking for different new things. Slow in progress? Brutal fall in both core and content in 2016? I mean do you guys check the front page of RD news at all?
Again don't get me wrong but many of these things should already be present since the launch, simple things with the exception of VR, after all it takes 3-4 years to add these simple things is too long as well as the missing ones that I mentioned
 
Euro 1,591,500 by issuing new ordinary shares 150,000 Digital Bros at a unit price of 10.61 Euros equal to the arithmetic average of quotation prices of Digital Bros shares over the past six months.

This statement is why I'm not immediately too concern.
I suspect both guys will be staying on to protect their investment.

So what you're saying we should have all bought Digital Bros S.p.A. stock before this announcement happened. :roflmao::roflmao:

Digital Bros S.p.A. was around 3-4$ / share before AC on console released.

And now its $13.60 / share .
 
So what you're saying we should have all bought Digital Bros S.p.A. stock before this announcement happened. :roflmao::roflmao:

Digital Bros S.p.A. was around 3-4$ / share before AC on console released.

And now its $13.60 / share .

Actually... what I was pointing out, was the fact that part of the payment is in shares of stock.
How best would you protect your investment? ...by keeping the value high through delivery of a very good product which sells many, many copies.
Wish I'd own some stock in KS.
That would have been a great investment.
 
Actually... what I was pointing out, was the fact that part of the payment is in shares of stock.
How best would you protect your investment? ...by keeping the value high through delivery of a very good product which sells many, many copies.
Wish I'd own some stock in KS.
That would have been a great investment.

I was just kidding, with 150,000 shares worth 1.6$ million they're probably motivated to grow it even further.

Marco should have thrown us a bone so we could all buy some shares in Digital Bros S.p.A. :laugh:
 
...i'm personally waiting for a sim with a good damage model!!!!!!!...
I just drove this latest rally track for AC and was thinking the same. What a sad damage model this game have. Sorry but have to say it. I love AC but damage is almost non existent.
Another thing... only game from my top 3 simulation's game list that has proper night/rain cycle is good old rFactor2. Other two are AC and AMS of course. Actually, speaking of rain rF2 is only one which has not "proper" but any rain conditions at all. Other two don't have it at all. As you, I'm sure, already know.
Unless you count PCars under those serious games ofc. But PC is fun.
From time to time. :)
 
D

Deleted member 130869

  • Deleted member 130869

I wonder if there's a clause on keeping/selling the stock, and what kind of shares they might be. Anyway, hoping the game continues to be developed for the foreseeable future like the little copyright text in the launcher says, "2014-2020." Additional artists to push out historic Spa and improve Silverstone, maybe? (A dream :inlove:)
 

How much money have you spend on your current simracing hardware

  • €0-150

    Votes: 86 19.3%
  • €151-500

    Votes: 121 27.1%
  • €501-1000

    Votes: 73 16.4%
  • €1001-1500

    Votes: 39 8.7%
  • €1501-3000

    Votes: 45 10.1%
  • €3001-5000

    Votes: 23 5.2%
  • €5001-10000

    Votes: 28 6.3%
  • I stopped counting a long time ago

    Votes: 31 7.0%
Top