Supercell-backed studio Metacore has acquired Piñata, an animation studio also based in Finland.
Metacore has acquired 100% of Piñata’s shares, though it did not publicly share the fee. Piñata has operated for 15 years providing illustration and animation services to gaming, advertising and entertainment clients.
The two companies have worked closely together since the launch of Merge Mansion in 2020. Metacore said as part of the announcement that it is now “increasingly a game studio creating entertainment with great stories.”
Metacore CEO Mika Tammenkoski said of the deal: “Our mission is to create entertainment with our games but also with our marketing and community building. Piñata brings us not only animation skills and capabilities, but creative storytelling both for our games and marketing.”
“Piñata is our highly valued, long-term partner and is already an integral part of our marketing. Teaming up will benefit both parties.”
Piñata cofounder Sari Tani said that the firm has been involved in creating the story of Merge Mansion from the beginning, and now has “the opportunity to deepen the collaboration with future new games.”
“Together we will create a better future of mobile game storytelling,” Tani added.
Metacore said last week that Merge Mansion has now passed 50m lifetime downloads, and that it is opening up a new office in Berlin. Earlier this year, the firm also hired Pedro Pascal to be the face of flagship game Merge Mansion.
It also acquired town-builder Everdale from parent studio Supercell in January of this year, but has yet to announce when or if the game is returning.
