Kunos Simulazioni Bought Out By Digital Bros

Paul Jeffrey

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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!
 
very bad news .....the worst , probably . of course I am very happy for Massimo and Marco , they deserved it , but for us ... is not good at all . Massimo and Marco they were not only the founders of Kunos they were the fathers of AC , and I am pretty sure they loved it as much as we do , even more . Every little change added to the game they did first as gamers and then for the money , I am not sure 5o5 will do the same , they bought Kunos only bcs of it's relevance in terms of revenues surely not bcs they are simracers . anyway , time will tell , and I hope to be wrong , i really do .
 
Nice to get some clarification from Marco on the situation. :thumbsup:

very bad news .....the worst , probably . of course I am very happy for Massimo and Marco , they deserved it , but for us ... is not good at all . Massimo and Marco they were not only the founders of Kunos they were the fathers of AC , and I am pretty sure they loved it as much as we do , even more . Every little change added to the game they did first as gamers and then for the money , I am not sure 5o5 will do the same , they bought Kunos only bcs of it's relevance in terms of revenues surely not bcs they are simracers . anyway , time will tell , and I hope to be wrong , i really do .

Read post #86, Marco has posted about it.
 
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
That's silly, play the game that has them, I am enjoying AC for the things it's got and noone else. I would much rather the sims all be different than all have the same features.
 
The only downside of the news is that the mods will stop working at some point and the price of the DLC's may increase. Maybe that's good news for Reiza. Apart from that, I only see good things coming: Rain&night, more tracks, more cars, a lot of features like radio, a decent carreer mode, some music in the menus, etc. Can't wait for this.
 
R

ronniej

  • ronniej

First of all, Congratulations Stefano and Marco!... Although I'm a little worried for the future of my most valuable game, I'm happy they got paid for it.

EDIT:
Oops...I didn't read Marco's facebook post before I posted:barefoot:..A little less worried.
 
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Dirk Steffen

Porsche Factory Jackass™
Good for Marco and Stefano.
That was one successful business operation in 2016 if those numbers are all there is to it (they rarely are).

Assetto Corsa has been to me the most interesting of all available racing simulations since its very early days of early access.
It has developed into the most accurate and yet exciting to race racing simulator and towards the end of 2016 has gotten an infusion of the most wonderful racing cars to drive.
I truly hope the product Assetto Corsa will develop on from here with the liquidity of a larger corporation hopefully helping to more content and a long life of the sim.

I truly hope that Stefano and Marco remain with the Assetto Corsa product - they were the brain and the heart of the sim.

People who call this a "sellout" should really try to get a perspective.
Here are a few young guys who worked their a…s off to build their dream and finally have the opportunity not only to score a big financial win in their young lives but to financially secure the company they built.

The plate is now clean and after a short deep breath everything new is possible again, be it the making of Assetto Corsa 2 or something entirely new - whatever it is, I am looking forward to it.

PS. the terms of payment mentioned in the google translate blurb do indeed suggest that Marco and Stefano do indeed have continued influence of the products sales (hence the binding of actual payment to continued sales success).
This also implies that the product will not likely be abandoned - we can sure hope for more content to see of some kind (after all the product is still very young on the console platform).

So maybe after all they just pulled a Bill Gates ;-)

Kudos to Stefano and Marco.
 
By today, Kunos Simulazioni is part of Digital Bros Family, and me and Stefano by today are shareholders of Digital Bros.
With around 1% of the outstanding shares of DB, they most likely aren't exactly the majority share holders here (150k shares of around 14M) or even close.
That’s it. We are still the founders of Kunos, we are still IN, also keeping our respective positions and responsabilities
They are the founders of the Kunos, which means nothing in legal terms, it is the ownerhsip that does, and are now employed by the DB and keep their positions and responsibilities so far the company management decides so. That's it.
the budget we’ll manage by now doesn’t come anymore from our personal profits, but from Digital Bros, our bigger AC fan.
And when the big company decides to close down the funding, there's nothing they can do. Besides, companies aren't fans of anything. Companies "like" a product as long as it produces expected profit. Purpose of every publically traded company is to make profit for its owners and it is written in the corporate laws of most countries. So DB is "fan" of AC exactly as long as the numbers below the line stay green.
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.
At least so far. Ultimately CEOs of DB, Mr. Abramo and Raffaele Galante make all the business decisions and business decisions do have an effect what companies do. That is CEO's job in the company.

Kunos people now work for DB, they are their employees. By owning around 1% of the outstanding stocks doesn't exactly make former owners of Kunos a shareholder who has that much to say how things are run. Stefano or Marco aren't even in the board of directors (I think they would've announced it if so and with 1% it would be highly unlikely to get a position in BoD), so their saying beyond the shareholders meeting is next to zero.

Finally:
Therefore, before to scream in any direction that “Kunos has been bought, The World is Over”, please sit down, breath and think.
True. This is just a videogame after all.
 
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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?
Do we already have sparks?
 
i Read only two pages if this thread...
all crying bout AC is dead and sky is falling and all things like that...
if really Digital Bros will "kill" Kunos and AC (and thia is a thing we will see in the next years and not right now) pls remember nobody will take you away Your AC copy and that the game will be in Steam for years...
we can still buy GTL/GTR from Simbin and there is still modders working on the game...

So my AC copy will live on forever on my PC and mods will be out for usare from now...
I wish the best to Kunos and AC but if AC2 will be a dissapointment i still have AC1 and all the hundred of Amazing mods on RD...

AC is dead? LONG LIVE ASSETTO CORSA!
 

Dirk Steffen

Porsche Factory Jackass™
What Stefano and Marco did is absolutely fantastic!
It is good for them for having their financials secured.
It is good for the sim racing community as a higher budget will be available with less financial risk to the founders in doing business decisions that may not end with financial gain (which is after all the reason to start a business, be it creating a commercial racing simulation software or selling cup cakes).

The future of AC surely lies now much less in the hands of the founders who surely were always thinking in the true racing passion the community lives for but much more in the bottom line.

Up to now the profit of the operation too reigned decisions, don't fool yourself that Stefano and Marco built AC purely with socialist thoughts of providing us a game to play. The initially much debated decision to create a console version of AC was just that - a much needed step in a direction that would - if successful - infuse much needed liquidity into AC development to provide us those (VERY costly) high quality content we all are crying for so vehemently on the internet forums.

It does cost money to license cars, tracks and then actually create them to the highest standards we demand with Assetto Corsa.

The new company situation will take a big financial risk out of this equation and will potentially allow for more content to come to AC then just through (slower and smaller) reinvestment through cash flow of a smaller operation, not to speak of the risk of sudden death with a smaller operations when running out of liquidity if a decision fails (AND risking own property in the process).

I read the news now after confirming by Marco exclusively positive.
I like what they did and wish them (and us) a wonderful and successful future with AC and beyond.

I do understand some of the comments to be a bit selfish, outlandish and certainly unrealistic. You cannot expect to have the most advanced sim racing software running on your computer all produced and delivered at lowest cost and provided by a company that is able to act against the laws of economy. Marco and Stefano have earned more than just our respect for what we now are able to enjoy because of their (and their employees) hard dedicated work and passion.

When I bought an Assetto Corsa license and every single DLC that was offered I happily paid for the content. I also am very happy now knowing that some of that money went back to the guys who did the job.

Well done fellas
 

How much money have you spend on your current simracing hardware

  • €0-150

    Votes: 93 19.1%
  • €151-500

    Votes: 128 26.2%
  • €501-1000

    Votes: 85 17.4%
  • €1001-1500

    Votes: 43 8.8%
  • €1501-3000

    Votes: 49 10.0%
  • €3001-5000

    Votes: 24 4.9%
  • €5001-10000

    Votes: 31 6.4%
  • I stopped counting a long time ago

    Votes: 35 7.2%
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