Silverbirch Acquires Red Mile Entertainment

Toronto-based developer Silverbirch Studios has announced that it has acquired Red Mile Entertainment, which previously published Heroes Of The Pacific and has secured the licensing rights to publish a game based on the Sin City property. Toronto-based developer Silverbirch Studios has announced that it has acquired developer and publisher Red Mile Entertainment. Headquartered in San Anselmo, California, Red Mile’s catalog of titles include the Heroes flight combat franchise and an upcoming game based on Sin City. Red Mile revealed in March 2008 that it would be undergoing a "significant reorganization," appointing former International Development Group consultant Simon Price as its new president, replacing former EA Canada president Glenn Wong. As part of its restructuring plan, the publisher also announced that CFO Ben Zadik would be resigning. Red Mile added that it is changing its product distribution strategy, restructuring operations with the aim of reducing operating costs and improving its distribution model. Heroes of the Pacific, one of Red Mile's titles released for Xbox, PC, PlayStation 2, sold over 600,000 units worldwide. The company is currently working to release its sequel, Heroes Over Europe in early 2009. The studio is also seeking a co-publisher for “another highly anticipated licensed title,” presumably for its Sin City game. In April 2008, Silverbirch acquired Dutch publisher Lighthouse Interactive, which has offices in Toronto, Montreal, London, and Haarlem in The Netherlands. The company specializes in PC role-playing, strategy, action and simulation products, including titles such as Overclocked, Sword of the Stars and Ship Sim. Silverbirch described the acquisition as as a first step in its strategy of building an integrated video game company. Silverbirch’s current projects include the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable editions of Metanet platformer N+. The studio is also working with publisher G4box and developer Ymir Entertainment to bring free-to-play PC fantasy MMORPG Metin 2 to North America. As part of the acquisition terms, SilverBirch has advanced a bridge loan of $750,000 CAD (approximately $735,000 USD) to Red Mile. Red Mile is expected to contribute $7 million in revenue, with $2 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, starting in 2009. Said Red Mile CEO Chester Aldridge: “SilverBirch's strategy to grow through strategic acquisitions is a vision that Red Mile shares and one that we can contribute to in a meaningful way to position the combined entity as a leading integrated video game publisher.”