Sony Takes 5% Stake In Devolver, Which Has Gone Public

Devolver Digital, the "boutique" games publisher behind Hotline Miami and Enter the Gungeon and the host of E3's most outrageous showcase, has gone public, and Sony is a minority investor alongside NetEase.

GI.biz reports that Devolver Digital is now trading publicly on the London Stock Exchange's sub-market, AIM. With the offering, Devolver is valued at around $1 billion, the report said.

The site reported that Sony Interactive Entertainment is making a 5% investment in Devolver. Additionally, Devolver is getting $50 million as part of the offering that will be used to help the company expand. Existing management and investors will get a "cash placing" of $211 million.

"An IPO is the right choice for us to ensure our continued growth and support even more wonderful games," CEO Douglas Morin told GI.biz. "Most importantly, it will allow us to retain our culture. Being a public company gives liquidity to our amazing team, all of whom are shareholders. It also gives us access to capital markets to continue investing in our growth strategy and talent."

In a statement, Devolver said it understands people might be skeptical about the company choosing to go public as fans might worry about if it can retail its culture and identity.

"Today we've become a publicly traded company. At first blush that can certainly sound like a departure from a group of friends starting a boutique game label, but really it's a kind of validation for our team and our partners. We're insanely proud of what we've accomplished over the last decade, and we genuinely believe this will make us even better," it said.

"The employees of Devolver Digital are still the majority owners in the company - from those of us at that first picnic table meeting to those that joined this year, everyone at Devolver Digital owns a stake in the company, its future, and its future's future."

With the IPO, Devolver is getting more cash to invest in games it otherwise wouldn't be able to, the company said. It also allows Devolver to potentially acquire more studios.

"Over the past year or so we've brought our longtime partners and friends Croteam (Serious Sam, The Talos Principle), Dodge Roll (Enter the Gungeon), Nerial (Reigns, Card Shark), and FireFly Studios (Stronghold series) into the strong but gentle arms of Devolver Digital," the company said. "Those developers and our team looked ahead and saw that we’d be working together forever so we lovingly acquired them, mostly so they would hang out with us more. The games and experiences that these four studios have planned are incredible and each maintain their full creative autonomy afforded to them throughout our relationship. No specific plans for Enter the Gungeon 2 but rest assured we’ve asked them more than once."

The hits keep coming for Devolver, which published the recently released and celebrated game Inscryption.