LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FoxNext President Salil Mehta today announced that FoxNext has acquired Aftershock, a leading creator of mobile games with studios in Los Angeles and San Francisco. This marks FoxNext’s first acquisition since it was formed in January.
Aftershock has a number of projects in development that will showcase the studio’s strength in creating interactive experiences for the biggest entertainment brands, including the work they are currently doing creating a massively multiplayer mobile strategy game for James Cameron’s AVATAR franchise, in partnership with Lightstorm Entertainment.
Aftershock will be led by Aaron Loeb, who joins FoxNext as President of Studios for FoxNext Games, reporting to Mehta. Loeb will spearhead Fox’s first-party game development and will bring with him a seasoned studio leadership team including COO Yoko Nakao, Vice President and General Manager Amir Rahimi and Head of Marketing Jordan Edelstein.
“Aftershock brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and in Aaron Loeb and his team, a remarkably talented and passionate group of game developers that will immediately position FoxNext for success within the video gaming industry,” said Salil Mehta, President of FoxNext. “The studio has an exceptional pipeline of high-quality games in development, and we look forward to bringing a new level of entertainment to players around the world.”
Aftershock earlier this year was spun off from Kabam, one of the fastest growing game developers in the world, when Kabam was acquired by South Korean gaming company NetMarble. When it was part of Kabam, Aftershock supported the growth of several franchises that grossed more than $100 million each, including Marvel Contest of Champions, The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth, and the Kingdoms of Camelot and Dragons of Atlantis franchise games. In addition, Aftershock helped launch five games that each earned the App Store Editors’ Choice awards and fostered a portfolio of titles that garnered hundreds of millions of game installs from players around the world.
“Fox provides a fantastic home for our group of talented storytellers,” said Kent Wakeford, who has served as COO of Aftershock and Kabam. “Aaron and his team are excited to support FoxNext on delivering best-in-class interactive experiences on mobile devices and to extend Fox’s storytelling platforms to reach consumers in new, meaningful ways.”
About FoxNext
FoxNext is driving immersive, next generation entertainment experiences in the areas of virtual and augmented reality, mobile, console/pc games and location-based entertainment across Twentieth Century Fox Film and Fox Networks Group. The division consists of FoxNext Games, FoxNext Destinations and FoxNext VR Studio. Fox has a successful track record identifying exceptional games and publishing partners across the mobile and console/PC space, such as Animation Throwdown: The Quest for Cards, The Simpsons Tapped Out, Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff, Futurama: Game of Drones, Ice Age Adventures, Sugar Smash: Book of Life and Alien: Isolation. FoxNext VR Studio will oversee VR experiences, such as the already announced ALIEN and PLANET OF THE APES productions, and work to commercialize Fox’s overarching VR strategy. FoxNext Destinations will oversee the company’s location-based entertainment business including the development of the 20th Century Fox World theme park in Malaysia.
