Paul Wedgwood’s Supernova acquires Shadow Warrior studio Flying Wild Hog

Supernova Capital LLP, a new venture from former Splash Damage founder and chief executive officer Paul Wedgwood, announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Flying Wild Hog, a Polish studio known for the shooter series Shadow Warrior.

Wedgwood started Supernova after leaving Splash Damage, a studio he founded in 2001. Like with Flying Wild Hog, Splash Damage made its reputation with first-person shooters like Return to Castle Wolfenstein. It most recently worked on the multiplayer for Gears of War 4 in 2016. In 2017, Wedgewood sold Splash Damage in a deal worth up to $160 million to Hong Kong listed company Leyou. He created Supernova so that developers could have a happier and healthier work environment.

“We designed Supernova to reignite the passion in struggling star developers by simply caring for them; reducing confusion, decreasing politics, raising productivity, profitability, and dramatically improving morale – essentially fusing their talents with Supernova’s proven leadership, so that together, we can create the happiest and healthiest and most profitable studios in our solar system,” Wedgwood said in a press release sent to GamesBeat.

Stories of crunch and toxic work environments are prevalent throughout the gaming industry. Supernova will try to counter that trend.

Flying Wild Hog started in 2009 and has around 200 employees.

“New owners or not, the Flying Wild Hog you know won’t be changing its culture, and we’ve got some exciting new game announcements to share with you soon!” Michał Szustak, Flying Wild Hog chief executive officer, noted in the press release.