Firemint Acquires Puzzle Quest Developer Infinite Interactive
January 4, 2011
Seemingly out of nowhere, Firemint, the hugely successful developer of Flight Control and Real Racing, announced that it has acquired Puzzle Quest developer Infinite Interactive for an undisclosed amount.
Rob Murray, founder of Firemint, had this to say about the deal with fellow Australian Steve Fawkner, founder of Infinite Interactive:
“I’m incredibly pleased to welcome Steve and his team to Firemint. Steve is an outstanding game designer and our two studios evolved very similar philosophies of developing addictive, fun and polished original games. By bringing our studios’ talents together, we will be able to create even more awesome games – and more of them.”The two teams will be consolidated in one location, which happens to be Firemint's recently expanded offices. All games developed by the newly formed studio will be released under the Firemint name. The move shouldn't be too difficult for the Infinite Interactive team either, as their studio was also based in Melbourne, Australia. Apparently ever since Murray and Fawkner met in 2003 the two have been talking about collaborating. As the story goes, Fawkner showed Murray an early version of Puzzle Quest, which he had prototyped over the holidays, and it inspired Murray to create a game of his own over the holidays two years later. That game turned out to be Flight Control and the rest, as they say, is history. So, which do you think will come first? Puzzle Control, with a line-drawing mechanic to cast spells, or Flight Quest, with a gem matching mechanic to move and land your aircraft?
