Trion Worlds acquires Gazillion Entertainment assets

Trion Worlds wants to expand its MMO publishing portfolio, and it's looking to expand what it can offer third-party developers to do it. According to a VentureBeat report, the publisher has acquired all assets of Marvel Heroes developer Gazillion Entertainment.

Gazillion Entertainment shut down last November after Disney ended its partnership with the studio to develop Marvel games. Without Marvel Heroes, Gazillion closed near-instantly, with mass layoffs and server shutdown occurring the week after the announcement was made.

Trion's acquisition includes all of Gazillion's licenses, trademarks, patents, domains, and its game library. Though Trion couldn't continue Marvel Heroes as it was without Disney's cooperation, the assets acquired will be used as a part of Trion's plan to work with outside teams and develop more games, especially MMOs.

Gazillion's assets will be incorporated into the Trion Platform, Trion's server technology that the company uses both for its own games and for games developered by third parties. Trion says that the improved technology will reduce development times, a perk that the company hopes will be attractive to new outside partners wanting to avoid the pressure to crunch.

"We want ourselves and other developers to be able to make games and succeed and have sustainable life cycles," said Trion Worlds CEO Scott Hartsman. "Crunch and burn and lay off is unhealthy. We have tried to do things about it and we want to be a good member of the gaming ecology. We keep trying to do things to help other developers."