Selling Your Game Studio. Insights from the Sale of Hutch to MTG Group.
summary
Hutch sells to MTG for an expected $375M headline after years of bootstrapping, early angel rounds, and fast prototyping that generates ~20M downloads per release and about $70M revenue a year. Details include a reported $275M cash up front plus a ~$100M earnout, equitable founder dilution to about 9–10% each, an employee EMI pool ~13%, a stack of three hit games and a playbook of rapid launch then live‑ops tuning that demonstrably works.
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chapters (25)
- 0:00Hutch’s journey and sale
- 1:57Founding Hutch bootstrapped
- 4:45Mobile racing games focus
- 8:57Investors’ profitable games
- 12:05Overcoming early failures
- 16:36Game five success strategy
- 19:01Deciding to sell Hutch
- 21:10Investor M&A process
- 23:17Sale kept confidential
- 24:20Choosing buyer and deal
- 27:50Rejecting offers to MTG
- 28:12375 million sale price
- 29:14Equity distribution
- 29:57Exhausting sale process
- 31:24Life after Hutch sale
- 32:06Lessons learned
- 33:30Public company post-acquisition
- 34:55Team reactions and retention
- 35:40Q&A: Investor-founder balance
- 38:30Q&A: First investment challenges
- 40:38Q&A: Time management at Hutch
- 42:22Q&A: Studio structure and hiring
- 44:51Q&A: Senior staff and conflict
- 46:38Q&A: Arie’s M&A role
- 48:43Closing remarks
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