Five portfolio studios of GEM Capital have merged into a holding company called Nova Assembly

The developers of Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era have decided to join forces with four other game studios. Together, they have formed a holding company named Nova Assembly, aiming to challenge the crisis in the industry.

Nova Assembly includes the following members:

• Unfrozen — the developers of Iratus: Lord of the Dead, who are currently working on a new installment of Heroes of Might & Magic;
• Sad Cat Studios — creators of the pixel cyberpunk platformer REPLACED, which is set to release in just five days;
• Weappy — a studio best known for the This Is the Police series. They are now working on an ambitious platformer, The Eternal Life of Goldman.
• VEA Games — a studio of veterans from Allods Team, noted for the game Nikoderiko: The Magical World;
• Game Garden — a mobile studio with a portfolio including titles such as Florescence, Farmdale, Soul SPA, and many others.

The creators of Nova Assembly have written an open letter where they elaborated a bit on the operation format of the holding and the reasons for its creation. The developers admitted their dissatisfaction with the current situation in the gaming industry: in the past couple of years, there have been more and more reports of game cancellations, mass layoffs, and studio closures, often triggered by misguided decisions by “effective managers.” Nova Assembly believes that instead of waiting for conditions to worsen, indie studios need to unite and collectively “build a new order.”

All the studios within Nova Assembly will become co-owners of the holding, allowing them to make key business decisions. However, the new structure will be officially headed by Denis Fedorov, the founder of Unfrozen, as CEO.

Each studio will continue to develop its projects but will now have the opportunity to seek support from their peers in other teams when needed. As the developers assert, they will share “absolutely everything that can be shared” — expertise, technology, and even funding.

Later, Nova Assembly plans to open a publishing division to establish direct contact with players and reduce dependence on third-party partners.

Notably, all five studios in Nova Assembly are part of the investment portfolio of GEM Capital — which had previously invested several million dollars into them. Whether the creation of the holding indicates that GEM Capital intends to exit and sell its shares remains unknown.