Valve Acquires Developer Of Indie Hit Firewatch Campo Santo To Fuel New Game Titles

When one of the industry's biggest game publishers acquires a little indie developer, there's probably going to be a bit of a gasp from that developer's fanbase. All too often, we've seen truly great developers be swallowed by a huge beast (EA we're looking at you), and before long, those same developers disappear into the void. With Valve's latest acquisition, though, hopefully we can have more confidence that the team will be left in tact to continue its success, only now with more resources.

Campo Santo, makers of a brilliant game called Firewatch, has just been snapped up by Valve, though the details of the deal currently under wraps, as Valve operates as a private company. All 12 of Campo Santo's current development team members are officially moving into Valve's offices, with the company planning to move its entire office to Seattle in the near-future.

Campo Santo's Firewatch

In a blog post, Campo Santo says basically what we'd expect from an acquisition like this. The company's found a great match with Valve, and as easy as that is to say, it's harder to achieve than you'd think. "In Valve we found a group of folks who, to their core, feel the same way about the work that they do (this, you may be surprised to learn, doesn’t happen every day). In us, they found a group with unique experience and valuable, diverse perspectives. It quickly became an obvious match.", notes the company in the post.

This move doesn't affect support of Firewatch at all, although that game has little need for support at this point since the content has been locked-in for a while (though it did just receive a Japanese language update). This "walking simulator" is a first-person title that follows the story of a fire lookout named Henry. That game looks simple (yet still runs only at 30 FPS on console, so PC is best), but for those who enjoy a good story that sticks with you, Firewatch is well worth a play.

In the Valley of Gods

Campo's next game is called In the Valley of Gods, and it's officially going to be a Valve game at its release. The company says that with this acquisition, nothing changes with regards to it issuing its quarterly review, or regular blog content. Ultimately, this acquisition is about letting Campo Santo continue doing what it does best with much less stress about keeping things afloat. More focus can go into the game, which should ultimately make for a better end product -- a win-win for the rest of us.