Ninja sale highlights gaming sector value
Computer game wizard Chris Harris has plans to get more involved in climate change action now that the company he co-founded has sold to a big overseas buyer.
Harris and his brother Stephen are co-founders of Ninja Kiwi, which created the globally popular computer game Bloons. On Thursday the company was sold to Swedish game company MTG for $203 million.
Over its 15-year history, Ninja Kiwi has grown to about 40 staff in Auckland, and another 30 in Dundee, Scotland.
The announcement had to be a secret because of MTG’S disclosure requirements as a listed company, so the brothers were doing everything they could to keep their staff from feeling too shell-shocked.
While suitors have shown up along the way, the Harrises were adamant that they were not going to sell to anyone who did not love their company like they did.
‘‘What prompted us to do it now was we’re really passionately devoted to our staff so any deal that was going to happen had to basically guarantee their livelihoods and things wouldn’t change for them.
‘‘We’ve built a pretty strong brand in Bloons and we’ve got a lot of very loyal fans as well. You don’t want to sell to someone who’s not going to treasure that.’’
It will be business as usual for the staff, as Harris said the $2 billion MTG had no plans to move offices offshore or get involved in the day-to-day running.
As for himself, other than the ‘‘huge pride’’ he and his brother felt about getting a certain milestone, life would not change greatly. ‘‘I mean, howmuch money does a person really need?’’
However, he would spend more time campaigning for action on climate change. ‘‘I sit on the Auckland chapter of the Citizens Climate Lobby and I’ve made a couple of investments in climate start-ups already. I do think we’ve got about 20 years to really make a significant difference otherwise it’s going to be too late. That significant change has to come with extreme action. We can’t have moderate action on this.’’
The New Zealand gaming sector is tipped to be a billion-dollar sector by 2025 and others in the industry hoped the Ninja Kiwi sale would encourage more local investors to get on board.
Chairwoman of the New Zealand Game Developer Association Chelsea Rapp said loyalty and interest in computer games had only increased over the Covid-19 pandemic, and it would be better to attract Kiwi investors, ‘‘just so we can keep more of those revenues here in New Zealand’’. ‘‘But I think it will take some time for people to be introduced to the game industry and see its real potential.
‘‘Obviously people on the outside see it, given all of the foreign interest in games, and I think that they’re just a little bit further ahead in their understanding of the industry and its return on investment.
‘‘We’re hoping to encourage New Zealand investors and angels and investment groups to take a look at games as a real opportunity. More people are playing games now than ever before.’’
Rapp said Ninja Kiwi made $50m in revenue last year ‘‘so they’re certainly not hurting for cash but being able to team up with another studio can provide you resources outside of just money like skills and networking’’.
But the industry is concerned about the pipeline of emerging game startups which it claims lack the support other areas of the tech industry have access to. On Thursday the gaming industry gave $25,000, its annual fundraising effort for a promising start up, to Whistlingwizard, a two-man Christchurch start-up.
‘‘The first generation of studios are now exiting and they’re all 12 years old on average and we don’t see the next generation of games studios emerging,’’ Stephen Knightly, a spokesman for another successful Kiwi gaming company Rocketwerkz, said.
Government support to create prototypes or develop ideas was on offer in every other creative industry, but not gaming.
‘‘We’ve got about 20 years to really make a significant difference [on climate change].’’
Chris Harris Co-founder of Ninja Kiwi