Hit music games Beatstar and Country Star are now being run by just six staff after Duolingo swooped in to acquire 22 NextBeat staffers.
NextBeat’s plans to raise funding and expand its roster of games are also on ice after the Duolingo deal, says outgoing boss Simon Hade.
The language app said last week that it had acquired the NextBeat team, but it wasn’t quite clear what would be happening to the London studio’s games, Beatstar and Country Star.
Neither game was part of the Duolingo deal, meaning that as 22 NextBeat staff transition over to the language (and now music) learning app, six staff will remain at NextBeat to continue operating Beatstar and Country Star, outgoing NextBeat boss Simon Hade told us.
“Duolingo hasn’t bought NextBeat or the games,” he explained. “The entities remain entirely separate, and Duolingo doesn’t own any of the game assets or the publishing rights. This was a team acquisition, not an asset acquisition.”
“Beatstar and Country Star are still published under Space Ape’s account and operated by NextBeat. That work is led by the six-person team who didn’t join Duolingo, so nothing has changed there operationally.”
The remaining NextBeat team will “share future plans when they’re ready”, Hade added. The ambitious plans NextBeat announced in January, having spun out of Space Ape, are now paused.
“Back in January, our roadmap was to launch new genre-specific versions of Beatstar and grow our brand in games as a stepping stone to something much bigger,” Hade explained. “Our north star was to expand into broader consumer apps – particularly learning, because Beatstar had already proven it could teach rhythm implicitly.”
“Those standalone plans for NextBeat, including seeking investment and slate expansion, are now on ice. Our new mission is to help Duolingo deliver the best education in the world and make it universally available – starting with languages, but now also math, chess, and music, which is where we come in.”
As for how the Duolingo deal came about, Hade says his and Space Ape’s relationship with Duolingo goes back to 2022, when Duolingo first spun up a music section in its app.
“We connected to share notes on working with the music industry,” says Hade. “[NextBeat cofounder] Olly [Barnes] even helped them with licensing after leaving Space Ape. So when we started fundraising, we reached out hoping they’d join the round and formalise that connection.”
“As the round progressed, discussions deepened,” Hade added. “Duo visited us in London, and we made trips to Pittsburgh and New York to learn how they worked. I was initially unsure – moving from a multi-game studio to a single app felt like it might be limiting. But once we saw their approach to product, and their broader vision, it clicked.”
