Firewatch Developer, Campo Santo, has been acquired by Valve

The developer behind 2016’s Firewatch and the upcoming In The Valley of Gods, Campo Santo, has been acquired by Valve. The announcement was made today by Campo Santo on their blog.

The acquisition is a big one, with Valve historically acquiring smaller studios and doing very big things with those acquisitions. The team behind indie release Narbacular Drop were acquired by Valve after the game released in 2005 which then lead to Portal as we know it today. Turtle Rock Studios were also acquired by Valve which lead to the creation of the Left 4 Dead series before Turtle Rock split off once again to make Evolve.

Campo Santo revealed that the acquisition wouldn’t halter their upcoming project, In The Valley of Gods, and that the two studios are a good match.

“In Valve we found a group of folks who, to their core, feel the same way about the work that they do… In us, they found a group with unique experience and valuable, diverse perspectives. It quickly became an obvious match.”

“Yes, we’re still making In the Valley of Gods (as a Valve game!); yes, we’ll still support Firewatch; and yes, we’ll still produce The Quarterly Review and our regular blog content. “

Valve has historically been criticised for being slow to make video games and that they focus too heavily on multiplayer titles in recent years. So their interest in the singleplayer and narrative heavy veterans at Campo Santo seems to be a positive outlook for Valve’s future. What the two teams can create together is yet to be seen. Although I’m personally very excited to see how In The Valley of Gods will turn out.