It appears that BattleTech was enough of a success to prompt Paradox Interactive to attempt acquiring the studio behind the game, Harebrained Schemes. Harebrained Schemes welcomed this offer and the acquisition is soon to be completed.
Paradox Interactive has entered an agreement with Harebrained Schemes to acquire 100 per cent of the shares in Harebrained Holdings Inc, which was previously the sole owner of Harebrained Schemes LLC. The acquisition will set Paradox back $7,5 million at the time of acquisition plus an additional 25 per cent of Harebrained's business earnings before publishing costs for the next five years. Both sides are expecting the deal to go through on Thursday, 07 June 2018.
Harebrained Schemes was originally founded in 2011 by Jordan Weisman and Mitch Gitelman. Previous to BattleTech, the developer company was best known for their Shadowrun series.
Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive, stated that Harebrained Schemes have proven themselves as "a world-class studio with a very talented team within a genre where Paradox wants to be present" confirming that the publisher will look for more entries in the turn based tactics field.
He also added that they really like the studio as the work between Paradox and Harebrained Schemes on BattleTech proved to be "fantastic collaboration" even though the companies didn't interact before. Wester concluded the statement by saying that his true excitement lies in the future potential the two companies have by being under the same roof.
Jordan Weisman commented that Harebrained Schemes has a team of passionate developers who needed more financial stability and marketing expertise. Paradox Interactive turned out to be a perfect match for them as the publisher seems to be intent on letting Harebrained Schemes do what they love doing.
Harebrained
According to the official statement, Harebrained Schemes will continue to operate with its own internal management and creative teams. This means they will continue designing and developing games that have earned the studio recognition, such as Shadowrun and BattleTech series. On top of it, they have also announced that the fans "can continue to count on the community involvement and visibility that the studio has always provided" meaning that we are in for more years of development .
