Acquisitions and exits
An email from a bigger company
Imagine it: a made-up company, Brightvale Games, emails us. "We love Garden Defense. Would you consider selling the studio?"
How a company's owners eventually turn their shares (their slices of ownership) into money, or decide not to, is called an exit strategy. There are a few paths:
- Stay independentKeep the studio, keep making games and pay owners from the profits.
- Get acquiredAnother company buys the whole studio. This is an acquisition.
- Sell a game's rightsSell just one game and its copyright, and keep the studio.
- IPO (rare)An initial public offering: selling shares to the public on a stock exchange. Only for big companies.
Quick check
Which exit path lets Kai and Remy keep owning the whole studio?
- Getting acquired by Brightvale Games
- Staying independent and paying owners from the profits
- Selling all the shares on a stock exchange
Show the answer
Staying independent and paying owners from the profits
Staying independent means nobody buys the company. The owners keep it and can be paid from its profits, which some studios do for decades.
Why big companies buy studios
A buyer is really buying some of these:
- The gamesGames that already earn money, and the rights to make sequels.
- The playersAn audience that already loves the games and comes back every day.
- The teamSkilled people who work well together. Buying a company mainly for its team is called an acqui-hire.
- The technologyTools, code and know-how, like our level editor and cloud saves.
Bolt says: A real example: in 2014, Microsoft bought Mojang, the studio behind Minecraft, for US$2.5 billion.
True story: Apple buys NeXT
After leaving Apple in 1985, Steve Jobs founded a new company, NeXT. By the mid-1990s NeXT made software, and Apple planned to build a new operating system for its Macs on NeXT's technology.
On 20 December 1996, Apple agreed to buy NeXT. The deal closed in February 1997 for US$427 million, mostly cash plus Apple shares and options. In August 1997, Jobs joined Apple's board, and in September he became interim (temporary) CEO.
Apple bought the technology and got the team with it, including a founder who came back to lead.
Source: Apple Form 10-Q, quarter ended 27 December 1996 (NeXT merger agreement), sec.gov
Due diligence: they check everything
Before buying, the buyer runs due diligence: a deep check of everything, often by lawyers and accountants. They look at:
- Code: who wrote it, and whether every library's licence allows commercial use.
- Copyright: proof the studio owns its art, music and code (Stage 5). Copyright rules for AI-made work are still being settled and differ by country.
- Contracts with stores, contractors and players.
- Finances: the profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow statements, and the bank records.
- Privacy: how we handle player data.
Due diligence
Who owns the Sprig character art? A contractor drew it, but we cannot find any written agreement giving the studio the copyright.
Why is this a serious problem for the deal?
- Without a written agreement, the contractor may still own the copyright, so the buyer may lower the price or walk away
- It is not a problem, because Sprig appears in our game
- It only matters if the contractor is famous
Show the answer
Without a written agreement, the contractor may still own the copyright, so the buyer may lower the price or walk away
Copyright starts with the creator, and a freelancer usually keeps it unless a written contract hands it over (an IP assignment). Without one, the studio may not own Sprig at all. That is why the Growing the team lesson in Stage 10 said to get a written agreement for any art someone else makes.
How the price is paid
The price in an acquisition is rarely one simple payment. It can be a mix of:
- Cash: money paid at closing, when the deal completes.
- Shares: shares in the buyer's company, whose value can go up or down.
- An earn-out: extra money paid later, only if the games hit agreed targets.
Part of the price is often held back for a year or more, called a holdback or escrow, in case problems turn up after the sale. So a headline like "sold for $2 million" can mean much less cash today.
Read the offer
1Price: up to $2,000,0002Cash: $1,000,000 at closing3Shares: $500,000 of Brightvale Games shares4Earn-out: $500,000 if Garden Defense earns5 $1,000,000 in the next 2 years
Garden Defense earns $600,000 in the next 2 years. What do the owners get in total?
- $2,000,000
- $1,500,000 in cash and shares
- $1,000,000 in cash only
Show the answer
$1,500,000 in cash and shares
The earn-out target is missed, so that $500,000 is never paid. The owners get $1,000,000 cash plus the shares, which were worth $500,000 when the deal was signed.
What happens to the team and the games
After the sale, the buyer is the owner and makes the decisions. Often the founders are asked to stay for one to three years, with extra pay that vests over that time. The studio might keep its name, or be merged into the buyer.
The games might grow, change direction or even be shut down. After Microsoft bought Mojang, Minecraft kept growing, while the founders left. Any promise that matters, like keeping Garden Defense's ads fair, has to be written into the contract to count.
Saying no is a valid choice
An offer is a question, not an order. Many great studios stay independent for decades, keep their culture and pay their owners from profits.
Good questions to ask: do we still love making these games? Would the buyer treat our players fairly? Is the price better than what we could earn by staying independent? Do Kai, Remy, the team and the parents who signed for us all agree?
"No, thank you" is a complete answer.
Look how far we came
When you joined, the studio was two vibe-coded games: one 5,000-line file, copies called game_FINAL_v3.js and saves that vanished.
Now look: modules and GitHub history, cloud saves, a company with a bank account, two launched games, a community, a cap table and financials an investor can read. A studio like that gets to choose its own future: stay, grow or sell.
Red chaos became blue order, and it all exists for the green part: fun for players.
Bolt says: It's been an honour building this studio with you. One last challenge: the final boss.
Fact-checked 11 October 2026
- Microsoft: Minecraft to join Microsoft (2014) news.microsoft.com
- US Copyright Office Circular 30: Works made for hire copyright.gov
- US Copyright Office: Copyright and artificial intelligence copyright.gov
- Apple Form 10-Q, quarter ended 27 December 1996 (NeXT merger agreement) sec.gov
- Apple Form 10-K for fiscal 1997 (NeXT purchase price, board changes) sec.gov