DLA Piper represented Smilegate Entertainment in its recent US$100 million dollar strategic investment in That’s No Moon Entertainment, a new independent game development studio.
A global game development and publishing company headquartered in South Korea, Smilegate Entertainment has regional offices in the United States, China and Europe. Smilegate Entertainment’s flagship franchise, “CrossFire,” is one of the largest and most successful franchises in gaming history, with more than 670 million registered users to date and over 8 million concurrent players globally. Its latest project, “Lost Ark,” was released to wide acclaim and is expected to launch in North America and Europe in 2021.
Founded in 2021, That’s No Moon is a groundbreaking game development studio led by veterans from some of the most successful game studios that is focused on industry-defining narrative-driven entertainment that will push the limits of both gameplay and story.
“We were pleased to bring together our extensive capabilities in the interactive and video gaming sector to assist Smilegate Entertainment with this investment as it expands into the Western gaming market and supports That’s No Moon in its efforts to bring cutting-edge games to the market,” said Tom Ara, co-chair of DLA Piper’s Entertainment Transactions and Finance practices and leader of the deal team for Smilegate Entertainment on the transaction.
In addition to Ara (Los Angeles), the DLA Piper team advising Smilegate also included partners Patrick Anding (Los Angeles), Justin Park (Washington, DC) and Ben Gipson (Los Angeles), and associate Rahul Sajnani (Los Angeles).
DLA Piper’s market-leading global team of media, sport and entertainment lawyers located throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa and the Middle East advises on a multitude of financing, M&A and transactional matters in the interactive and video game sector, as part of the firm’s larger media, sport and entertainment transactions and disputes disciplines. The firm represents both developers of interactive content and video games, as well as publishers and financiers.
