Virtuos continues its global game development expansion with the acquisition of Glass Egg Digital Media, a 2D and 3D art production studio with 400 employees based in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam. This brings Virtuos’ presence in Vietnam close to 1,000 game specialists alongside HCMC-based Sparx* with another studio opening June 2022. This comes in line with Virtuos’ goal of growing to 1,500 employees locally, and becoming the largest game development company in Vietnam.
“We’re excited to bring the Glass Egg team on board the Virtuos family. With its strong brand equity, coupled with its sizeable and long-term local operations, Glass Egg demonstrates excellent synergies with Virtuos, and we look forward to harnessing our combined expertise to strengthen our commitment to excellence.”
Gilles Langourieux, CEO at Virtuos
Glass Egg was co-founded in 1999 by Phil Tran, CEO, and Steve Reid, CFO. It has since acquired industry wide recognition for its excellence in 3D vehicles, contributing to notable AAA games including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Marvel Spider-Man, Jurassic World Evolution, Need for Speed Heat, Demon Souls, and Forza: Horizon 4. Following the acquisition, the company will be rebranded to “Glass Egg – a Virtuos Studio” and continues to operate independently with Tran and Reid staying on to helm the studio as CEO and CFO, respectively.
“We are honored to be a part of an industry stalwart, Virtuos. This means our staff will have the ability to expand skills and take on a wider array of projects, which will benefit our clients as well. With the support and resources of Virtuos, we are energized to meaningfully contribute to the industry in its next phase of growth.”
Phil Tran, CEO at Glass Egg – a Virtuos Studio
This is the latest of Virtuos’ acquisitions and integrations, from Volmi Games in January 2022, CounterPunch Studios in Los Angeles in 2020, Black Shamrock in Dublin in 2017, and Sparx* in Vietnam in 2011. Virtuos also secured a USD150 million investment from Baring Private Equity Asia in 2021, opening a studio in Lyon for continued global growth of the network of studios.
“Operational integration is our top priority post-acquisition. By using the same project management, communication tools and platforms, we can better facilitate interoperability with other Virtuos studios globally, and ensure we have more production options to offer to our clients than competitors.”
Steve Reid, CFO at Glass Egg – a Virtuos Studio