PRESS RELEASE: Nacon increases to 53% its stake in the capital of Lunar Great Wall Studios, a video game developer- known under the "Raceward" label.

                                                                                                                                                             Press release

                                                                                                                                                       Lesquin, 22 October 2020, 18:00

Nacon increases to 53% its stake in the capital of Lunar Great Wall Studios, a video game developer- known under the "Raceward" label.

Nacon announces that it now owns 53% of the capital of Lunar Great Wall Studios Srl, better known under its 'RaceWard Studio' commercial label. The studio is in charge of the development of the game RiMS Racing for the Nacon Group, a realistic and ambitious motorbike racing simulation, introducing many new game mechanics for the genre.

After acquiring a 43.15% stake in the studio's capital in July 2019, Nacon acquired a further 10.00% on 19 October 2020 from Marco Ponte, the studio's founding CEO. Marco Ponte, together with 2 other shareholders, holds the remaining 46.85 % of the capital.

This operation reflects Nacon's desire to move upstream in the video game production chain to position itself as a developer-publisher. This increase in the capital of RaceWard Studio enables the Group to secure the high quality of its future car and motorbike racing games, as part of its strategy to become a leader in AA games, while RaceWard ensures the long-term viability of its activity.

Created in 2016, the studio has 40 developers in Milan, all of whom are seniors in the video game industry and have specialized in motor sports simulations for many years. RaceWard uses and contributes to improving the KT Engine technology, created by KT Racing for the development of its multi-platform creations (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series XS, PC and SWITCH).

We are happy and proud of this partnership with Nacon as it demonstrates our high level of expertise and allows us to strengthen our collaboration with a publisher who shares the same vision and passion as us, says Marco Ponte, Founding CEO of RaceWard Studio.

By acquiring a further stake in RaceWard capital, we are strengthening the technical synergies between our studios thanks to the collaboration of the teams on the KT Engine and we are securing a strategic know-how that will ensure the high quality of our games as well as the pace of their releases. The expertise of RaceWard' developers in car and motorbike simulations reinforces Nacon's position in an essential segment of our portfolio, says Alain Falc, Chairman and CEO of Nacon.

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