NetEase Games has acquired Canadian studio Halo and Minecraft co-developer SkyBox

NetEase Games paid an undisclosed sum to acquire Canadian studio SkyBox Labs, which also created Halo and the video game Minecraft.

SkyBox, founded in 2011 and based in Burnaby and Victoria, has released two original titles, TASTEE: Lethal Tactics in 2016 and Stela in 2019. It is also a co-developer on a number of high-profile games from publishers such as Xbox Game Studios and Electronic Arts (EA Sports UFC).

Currently, the studio is working on Halo Infinite, Minecraft games, and Fallout 76. It has previously worked on other Halo and Minecraft titles, as well as multiple entries in Microsoft's Age of Empires series and Project Spark.

SkyBox, according to the announcement on Friday, will operate independently within NetEase Games, led by its three co-founders Shyang Kong, Derek MacNeil, and Steven Silvester.

It will continue to collaborate closely with its current partners to co-develop games for PC and consoles and will add new ones in the future.

"By joining NetEase Games, we will also be able to accelerate our plans to pursue new creative opportunities, as well as enjoy access to world-class operational resources and the full breadth and depth of NetEase's services so we can scale faster in Canada," said SkyBox founder Kong.

SkyBox is the latest in a long line of studio acquisitions by Chinese tech and gaming behemoth NetEase, including No More Heroes Developer Grasshopper Manufacture and Quantic Dream, the Paris-based studio behind Heavy Rain, Detroit: Become Human, and Beyond: Two Souls.

Toshihiro Nagoshi, the creator of Yakuza, joined the company last year to establish Nagoshi Studio, a "wholly-owned subsidiary" of NetEase Games focused on "high-end titles" primarily for consoles.