The Success of Graveyard Keeper 2 in the Context of Post-Crisis tinyBuild: From Unsuccessful M&A Expansion to Optimization of the Publishing Portfolio

On September 22, Graveyard Keeper 2 was released, marking a new hit in tinyBuild's publishing catalog. This is a great opportunity to analyze the company's current business strategy and recall the decisions that helped it climb out of a deep financial hole.

Topics covered in the article:

• tinyBuild's expansion history through deals: what the timeline of its investment activities reveals;
• the systemic reasons for the company's financial crisis and the forced divestment of accumulated assets;
• the launch of Graveyard Keeper 2, including pre-release indicators such as wishlists and revenue;
• Graveyard Keeper 2 compared to other tinyBuild hits over the past year and a half: how many hits the company has released;
• the main principles of tinyBuild's current publishing strategy and its prospects.

tinyBuild's Financial Crisis Through the Lens of a Flawed M&A Strategy

To understand what went wrong with tinyBuild's original business strategy, one can look at the history of its M&A deals. Since 2020, the company has made 15 acquisitions, 11 of which were so-called "acquihires." In simple terms, it aimed to acquire not studios as business assets, but their IP and staff, either integrating them into its structures or converting them to contract work.

It's most interesting to examine the distribution of these 15 deals over the years.