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Gameforge buys majority stake in Frogster

MMO business news isn't normally as sexy as the latest press release from BioWare or as divisive as the newest F2P conversion announcement. That said, occasionally an industry-related story comes along that indicates something equally big is in the water. Today's announcement of Gameforge's bid to take control of noted free-to-play publisher Frogster seems destined to turn a few industry heads, including ours.

Gameforge, which heretofore has specialized in smallish F2P games like Cabal, has just acquired a 60 percent majority holding in Frogster, the German publisher known primarily for distributing Runes of Magic. The purchase deal went through at $33 US a share, which places Frogster's overall value in the neighborhood of $85 million US. Frogster, and now Gameforge, is looking to grow its portfolio not only with Runes of Magic but also by publishing the forthcoming Mythos dungeon crawler as well as by securing the European publishing rights to the highly anticipated TERA action MMO from Bluehole Studio.

The Gameforge folks have been busy little bees this summer, as they earlier announced an agreement with CBS to publish several browser-based games centered around the Star Trek intellectual property.