A LEADING mobile games development studio, based in Cirencester, has announced it has been acquired by Hatchette, the second largest publishing group in the UK.

Neon Play, founded by co-owners Oli Christie and Mark Allen in 2010, has created over 30 games and attracted over 60 million downloads and won 20 business awards, including the Queen’s Award for Innovation, while Oli was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the UK Chamber of Commerce Awards in 2011.

The business will continue from its Cirencester base, run by Oli, Mark and their team, though will operate under the publishing giant’s umbrella, as it continues to create, develop and market new mobile games.

Oli said: “Mark and I have huge ambitions for the growth of Neon Play and I’m delighted that, in Hachette, we’ve found an owner who is as enthusiastic about our business as we are. In fact, we think it’s the perfect meeting of minds.

“Neon Play has committed its future to remain in Cirencester to continue to build and grow into one of the UK’s best mobile game studios. We have a fantastically skilled team here in Cirencester and we look forward to launching more globally-successful games.

"We’re also very proud to prove that you can build a tech company in the rocking Cotswolds.

“We have used Tim Ward at BPE for legal advice and Nick Latimer from Crowe Clark Whitehill for accountancy advice and both companies have been invaluable in structuring and completing the deal. Using two excellent local professional service companies has been both practical and logical and we’ve been hugely impressed by both BPE and Crowe Clark Whitehill.”

Tim Hely Hutchinson, CEO of Hachette UK said: “For some time Hachette has been developing a plan to diversify into the games market. This is both to provide opportunities for our authors to be published in a new dimension, and also to pursue more generally our aim to generate rapid growth on a variety of digital platforms.

"We have been looking for a bold, creative, well managed and highly successful games studio and we have found it in Neon Play.

“I am delighted that Oli and Mark, who are brimming with exciting ideas, see Hachette as the right partner for their future.”