Apple acquires RAC7, the Canadian team behind Sneaky Sasquatch

Apple has acquired Vancouver-based RAC7, the developer behind the acclaimed 2019 adventure game Sneaky Sasquatch.

As first reported by Digital Trends, this makes the two-person Canadian team Apple’s first-ever game development studio purchase. In addition to Sneaky Sasquatch, RAC7 has also made Dark Echo and Splitter Critters, the latter of which won an Apple Design Award in 2017.

However, Digital Trends notes that this acquisition is a unique situation, with Apple telling the site that it wants to leverage RAC7’s mobile experience to help grow Apple Arcade. Sneaky Sasquatch was a launch title for Apple Arcade in 2019 and has consistently placed high on the game subscription platform’s charts ever since.

Given that, it doesn’t seem likely that Apple will acquire other game development studios anytime soon. In general, the company’s approach to gaming has been much more measured than that of other tech giants. While we’ve seen the likes of Netflix, Amazon and Google acquire and even found development studios to pursue AAA games, Apple has largely just focused on mobile. In the past couple of years, the company has also leveraged beefier tech to begin to offer true console-quality experiences across iPhone, iPad and Mac.

It remains to be seen, then, what will come out of Apple’s gaming efforts, especially now that it owns RAC7.

Image credit: RAC7

Source: Digital Trends