Krome buys Melbourne House

Melbourne House acquisition pushes Krome Studios to almost 300 in-house staff; will continue to develop current and next-gen content.

SYDNEY--Things looked dire for Melbourne House, one of Australia's oldest development studios, earlier this year when then-owner Atari announced it intended to sell the company. But another major Australian studio has come to the rescue, with Krome Studios yesterday announcing it has acquired Melbourne House.

Melbourne House will be renamed Krome Studios Melbourne and will act as an extension to Krome's main operations in Brisbane, Queensland. Previously, Melbourne House acted as an in-house studio for Atari and was responsible for such games as Transformers: Armada, Test Drive: Le Mans, and Looney Tunes Space Race. The studio is currently working on PlayStation 2 and PSP ports of Test Drive Unlimited.

Privately owned Krome Studios is probably best known for its hit Ty the Tasmanian Tiger series, as well as the recently shipped Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. Krome is Australia's largest independent game studio and is now developing the upcoming Hellboy title for Konami Digital Entertainment.

Krome CEO and founder Robert Walsh said in a statement that the move will expand the company to almost 300 staffers.

"Acquiring the Melbourne House studio will allow us to continue to expand our company with additional seasoned talent, many who we also are great friends with, to help further grow our business and position ourselves as a leading developer working on both current and next-generation titles," he said.

The Melbourne House acquisition is Krome's second expansion down under this year. In March 2006, Krome opened a new studio in Adelaide, South Australia.

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