Skillz acquires minority stake in Hamburg’s Exit Games at $50 million

Mobile games platform and esports-for-everyone tournament host Skillz has acquired a minority stake in Hamburg-based Exit Games for $50 million. Exit Games is the powerhouse behind the Photon engine, an advanced synchronous multiplayer gaming technology used by over 60,000 games publishers and developers including Square Enix, EA, and Ubisoft in some 700,000 applications.

With the minority stake investment, Skillz now has permanent access to Exit’s technology to power its esports tournaments and platform exclusively. The move is slated to rapidly accelerate the company’s timeline to build out multiplayer synchronous content.

“Bringing the world’s best synchronous, multiplayer gaming technology to Skillz unlocks tremendous opportunity, greatly accelerating our entry into popular genres like fighting, first-person shooter, and racing,” said Skillz founder and CEO Andrew Paradise. “Expanding into these new areas will grow our total universe of players and allow us to capture an even greater share of their leisure time and spend, while also introducing the technology and infrastructure necessary to attract more of the hottest, most creative developers, publishers, brands and iconic franchises to our platform.”