Purple Lamp GmbH (formerly Purple Lamp Studios) is an Austrian video game developer based in Vienna.[2] It was founded as an independent company in 2018 by employees from Sproing Interactive after Sproing filed for insolvency in 2016 and closed down in 2017. They had also acquired the rights to the Sproing brand and certain games previously made by them, and kept the games active by operating a subdivision under the name Sproing Publishing.[3]
In November 2020, the company was acquired by Embracer Group, and was placed under THQ Nordic as the parent company.[4]
History
Purple Lamp was founded in March 2018 by Harald Riegler and Andrew Hance, with the former also acting as chief executive officer. Riegler was the co-founder and CEO of Sproing Interactive, which filled for insolvency in 2016 and subsequently declared bankruptcy in December 2017.[5] The company initially consisted mostly of developers from Sproing and was originally supported by the investment firm More Space GmbH. They also acquired the brand rights and assets from Sproing and selected titles they previously developed, and kept supporting them by operating a subdivision under the name Sproing Publishing.[3][6] One of their first projects was taking over and co-developing the early access version of The Guild 3 with GolemLabs for THQ Nordic on June 2018,[7] and were later selected by the publisher as the developer of SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated, which released in June 2020 to commercial success. Riegler resigned as CEO in August 2018, with his position being taken over by Hance.[8]
On November 18, 2020, the studio was purchased by Embracer Group for an undisclosed amount, becoming a subsidiary of THQ Nordic with a primary focus on developing games based on licensed IPs.[9]
