Flight Control maker buys Puzzle Quest studio

Two of Australia's most well-known niche video-gaming studios are set to merge their operations, with the acquisition of Infinite Interactive by fellow Aussie developer Firemint.

The pair have shot to global prominence over the past few years through several popular in-house-developed games. For Firemint it was Flight Control, a game initially for Apple's iPhone platform, while Infinite Interactive is best known for its Puzzle Quest series. However, both studios also have other notches on their belt.

In a statement, Firemint noted that Infinite Interactive founder Steve Fawkner and his team would join Firemint's studio in Melbourne, which currently has 60 staff, and continue to work on a game already under development. Firemint described Fawkner as "one of the games industry's pre-eminent innovators," having created more than 30 games in a career spanning more than 25 years.

Flight Control has been highly lucrative for Firemint. In January 2010, for example, the developer noted it had sold 2 million copies of its Flight Control app for Apple's iOS platform--which costs A$1.19 ($1.19). The game has appeared on a number of "top 100" paid apps lists around the world and has held the top spot in some countries, including Australia. Most of the sales at that stage (46 percent) had come from the US, with Australians contributing 8 percent of sales.

Infinite Interactive, too, has achieved critical success. For example, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords from 2007 has a metacritic.com score of 87/100--an aggregation of many reviews scores.