H1Z1 dev Daybreak Games acquires Cold Iron Studios

Cold Iron Studios has changed hands once again, this time in a deal that sees it being acquired by H1Z1 developer and publisher Daybreak Games, though neither party has shared the terms of the deal.

Daybreak broke the news this morning in a press release, saying that co-founder Craig Zinkievich will continue to lead the studio following the acquisition and that Cold Iron will continue to develop its mysterious game in the Alien universe as a part of Daybreak.

The timing on the deal is particularly interesting since the last few years haven't been great for Daybreak Games. The company underwent multiple rounds of layoffs, one of which cut 70 jobs.

2020, however, started with news that Daybreak Games had restructured internally to better streamline its development process and seemingly boost individual studio autonomy, so this acquisition potentially means those efforts have gone well so far. 

"We're incredibly proud and excited to be part of the Daybreak family," reads a statement from Cold Iron co-founder Zinkievich. "Daybreak and Cold Iron share the same passion and long history for delivering action-packed multiplayer games for audiences worldwide. In combining our decades of experience developing and launching globally successful multiplayer titles, we're destined to make great games together."

Cold Iron itself was only founded back in 2015, but the last few years have seen the studio change ownership several times. It was first acquired by FoxNext Games back in 2018 right as Disney was negotiating the purchase of many Fox properties (including FoxNext Games).

Soon after the dust settled on both those deals, rumors circulated that Disney was looking to sell off FoxNext (and, by extension, Cold Iron). Earlier this year those rumors came to fruition as mobile developer and publisher Scopely penned a deal to acquire all of FoxNext. Now, just over half a year later, Scopely-owned FoxNext has sold off Cold Iron to Daybreak Games.