Focus Entertainment acquires Train Simulator studio Dovetail Games

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Publisher Focus Entertainment continues on its journey to grow as a company and as a brand within the market, announcing that it has acquired Railsimulator(dot)com, the parent company of train sim studio Dovetail Games.

The purchase sees Focus secure 100% of all Dovetail Games shares, as well as ownership of the British studio’s niche-but-popular IPs such as Rail Simulator, Train Simulator Classic, and Train Sim World. The studio itself will continue to run under its own steam (no pun intended) via the current leadership team. Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Focus spoke of its excitement in purchasing the genre-dedicated developer.

We are proud to announce the acquisition of Dovetail Games, and pleased to welcome these talented and passionate teams into the Focus Group! https://t.co/dd3horzERJ

— Focus Entertainment (@Focus_entmt) April 20, 2023

“We like their business model based on fully-owned IPs and creating recurrent revenues from regular content updates to a passionate and committed community of fans,” explains Focus Entertainment CEO Sean Brennan. “Dovetail is perfectly aligned with our strategy and is led by a very talented senior management team who are excited about growing the business further.”

“[Dovetail management] will keep their distinct culture and way of managing the business for sure, a policy that we have followed with all our past studio acquisitions. We hope we can add value in a number of areas though in order to bring their fantastic games to a wider audience.”

Dovetail Games joins Focus’ modest but burgeoning portfolio, which also includes Lords of the Fallen developer Deck13, Space Hulk: Deathwing‘s Streum On Studio, Metal Slug Tactics‘ Leiker Studio, French studio Douze Dixiemas, and finally the hugely successful, retro-driven outfit Dotemu. Focus also has a close relationship with acclaimed studios such as A Plague Tale‘s Asobo Studio and Atomic Heart‘s Mundfish.