Japanese mobile developer Colopl has acquired entertainment company Mages for 1.61 billion yen ($14.9 million).

As reported by Gematsu, the deal sees Colopl acquiring all 260 shares of Mages from stakeholder Chiyomaru Studio. Mages will now become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Colopl from April 3rd, when the deal closes.

The deal will see Colopl bring Mages' existing IP into its fold, strengthening its place in the mobile market. It is also hoped that the developer's skill at creating new IPs will aid Colopl's growth.

Strong;Branding

Mages is perhaps best known in the West for creating visual novels with semicolons in their names such as Steins;Gate and Chaos;Child, and cult horror series Corpse Party. It was formerly owned by the Kadokawa Group, which it only split from eight months prior to this acquisition.

Colopl has mostly fallen off the map in the West, apart from a high-profile lawsuit filed against it by Nintendo back in 2018. Its flagship title White Cat Project saw revenues fall around the same time, but the game appears to still be actively running to this day.