The South African game studio owned by one of the richest families in the world

24Bit Games, a South African game studio founded in 2012 by Luke Lamothe, is owned by the Ellison Family.

The Competition Commission recently drew attention to this link in a notice regarding the Ellison Family’s proposed acquisition of entertainment giant Paramount.

Oracle co-founder and family patriarch Larry Ellison is ranked as the world’s fifth-richest man, with an estimated net worth of $186 billion (R3.4 trillion).

The Ellisons acquired 24Bit Games in 2023 for an undisclosed sum through Annapurna Interactive, a division of Annapurna Pictures, which was founded in 2011 by Ellison’s daughter, Megan.

It was Annapurna’s first game studio acquisition.

24Bit Games specialises in porting and co-development, working on hit games from South Africa’s own Free Lives to titles published by Disney and Annapurna Interactive.

Since launching thirteen years ago, 24Bit Games has grown to the largest video game studio on the African continent, employing around 50 people.

Lamothe, who continues to lead the studio as President, is one of the old hands in South Africa’s game development scene.

In 1999, he co-founded South Africa’s first console game development studio, I-Imagine, where he was a programmer and technical director.

I-Imagine developed the games Chase: Hollywood Stunt Driver, and Final Armada.

After I-Imagine ran into financial difficulties, Lamothe joined Luma Arcade as a co-founder in 2006. He served as Technical Director, then Studio Director before launching 24Bit Games.

In January 2012, he stepped down as Luma’s studio director to become a self-styled “Senior Pixel Wrangler”.

He helped Luma with mobile GPU optimisation and advanced shader manipulation for its mobile title Bladeslinger while launching 24Bit Games in February 2012.

Luma was also soon forced to restructure. By April 2013, Lamothe was all-in on 24Bit Games.

“I initially founded 24Bit Games as a personal vehicle for me to pursue collaborative outsource work,” Lamothe told Games In Africa in a 2021 interview.

“I was fortunate enough to be able to build upon my years of game programming experience and industry relationships to keep my ambitions afloat to the point where at the end of 2014, the number of incoming projects required me to start hiring additional developers to help out.”

Lamothe said some of their highest-profile projects were porting Broforce to Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch for Devolver Digital and Free Lives, and porting Twelve Minutes to Xbox platforms for Annapurna.

They also co-developed Totally Accurate Battle Simulator with Landfall for PC and various console platforms.

24Bit Games COO Pieter Koornhof told GamesIndustry.biz last year that Annapurna and 24Bit had worked together since 2019.

Koornhof explained that they started off doing light porting work for some of their clients, with Gone Home developer Fullbright being the first.

He said they saw a good cultural fit between the companies from the start and started porting many of Annapurna’s more popular games.

When Annapurna started dropping hints about forging a stronger commercial relationship, Koornhof said they played coy.

“The industry is precarious; in Africa, it’s even more precarious, because we’re constantly having to punch above our weight,” he said.

“Most people just don’t know us. We didn’t want to do anything that it didn’t make sense to do.”

Koornof said they danced around Annapurna’s advances for two or three years before the American company became more insistent towards the end of 2022 and opened discussions about what an acquisition might look like.

Koornhof and 24Bit Games producer and UX designer Tarryn van der Byl said the South African games industry has been gaining huge momentum recently.

The industry has seen growth, increased interest from publishers, and the establishment of incubators and better game development programmes.

Van der Byl said Annapurna’s acquisition of 24Bit would hopefully amplify this positive trajectory.

“I think with the Annapurna acquisition, it will make a difference,” she said.

The Ellisons’ acquisition of Paramount Global (not to be confused with South African defence and aerospace company Paramount Group), should further boost South Africa’s video game industry.

While the Competition Commission recommended that the Competition Tribunal approve the Paramount acquisition, it did so conditionally.

“The Commission is of the view that the proposed transaction is unlikely to substantially lessen or prevent competition in any market,” it said in a statement announcing its approval.

“To address public interest concerns, the acquiring group has undertaken to support skills development in video game development,” it said.

“The proposed transaction does not raise further significant public interest concerns.”