Ubisoft buys TrackMania maker Nadeo
Brilliant puzzle-driving series acquired.
Ubisoft has bought Parisian developer Nadeo, known best for the car-jumping and route-planning TrackMania series of games.
Nadeo has only 10 employees, but TrackMania has around 700,000 unique users each month online, if Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot is to be believed.
In total, the car-jumping series has registered over 10 million players - and they've made a combined 15m tracks to upload and share.
First out of this acquisition will be TrackMania 2, presumably, which was announced in September and aims for release next year. Like most previous instalments, TrackMania 2 will be PC-bound, although Ubisoft may have other ideas.
To plot a course through TrackMania's distinguished past, start with TrackMania Sunrise (PC, 2005), then hop to TrackMania United (PC, 2007), TrackMania Nations Forever (PC, 2008) and finally TrackMania DS (DS, 2008).
Ubisoft hasn't disclosed the sum spent on Nadeo.