California, Los Angeles, May 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Riva Technology and Entertainment announced today that they have signed a brand licensing deal with the iconic comic book series publisher Dark Horse. The deal will see RTE producing multiple mobile games based on the massively successful The Umbrella Academy comic books and Netflix series.
RTE have secured a strong streak of acquisitions, partnerships and licensing deals in recent years, including a licensing deal earlier this month with MGA Entertainment to produce and publish mobile games based on their hit properties L.O.L. Surprise! and Rainbow High.
Earlier this year RTE invested in multiple companies including SUB2r who produce broadcast-quality streaming video cameras, leading games publisher Rogue Games and OKLetsPlay, the leading platform for esports cash matches and tournaments. RTE also owns a majority stake in global games producer Firefly Games.
Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 with the goal of attracting the industry’s top talent through a business model acknowledging the rights of comics creators. In the 35 years since Dark Horse Comics was founded, the company has grown to become the third-largest comic publisher in the United States, amassing an ever-growing, enthusiastic fan base. In 1988, Dark Horse revolutionized comics based on popular films with the release of its hit series Aliens, with Predator following soon after. The launch of Star Wars in 1990 solidified Dark Horse’s domination of movie-based comics series. While licensed projects had been around for decades, most publishers devoted few resources to titles they did not own. Dark Horse took a different tact by plotting stories and using top talent to create comics series that were essentially sequels to popular films. This fresh approach met with enormous success, and sales on these popular titles soared into the millions. Today, Dark Horse is the acknowledged industry leader in this profitable publishing niche.
In 2007 Dark Horse launched The Umbrella Academy comics, whose plot revolves around a dysfunctional family of adopted sibling superheroes who reunite to solve the mystery of their father's death and the threat of an impending apocalypse. Through a mix of dynamic storytelling by My Chemical Romance front man Gerard Way and eye-catching artwork by Gabriel Bá, the book was a success with music and comics fans alike and won numerous awards over the course of two mini-series. However, it was when Dark Horse and Netflix joined forces in 2018 that Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba reunited for the return of their Harvey, Eisner, and YALSA award-winning series, and the success of The Umbrella Academy really began to accelerate. The following year The Umbrella Academy television series premiered on Netflix to worldwide acclaim. The first season was released on Netflix on February 15, 2019. In April 2019, Netflix reported that 45 million households had watched season one during its first month of release, thus becoming one of the most streamed series of the year.
RTE are very pleased to have acquired the brand license from Dark Horse to take the series to even greater heights with the production of multiple The Umbrella Academy mobile games.
RTE CEO & Founder Paul Roy says “Bringing the already globally popular series The Umbrella Academy into the gaming realm and enabling it to reach even higher levels of global success is something we are very enthusiastic about. We feel it is an excellent progression for Dark Horse comics and we look forward to collaborating with them in this journey”
“Working with IP & Licensing experts Riva Technology and Entertainment will be mutually advantageous and is a strategic move for Dark Horse which will allow us access to a piece of the billion-dollar gaming industry. We carefully choose our partners based on their experience and industry impact, and for that RTE was the obvious choice” said the Chairman of Dark Horse, Stanley Cheung.
“We are really looking forward to seeing our hugely successful The Umbrella Academy series morph into its latest form in the gaming realm” adds Founder and CEO of Dark Horse, Mike Richardson.
About Riva Technology and Entertainment:
Founded in 2002, with a global presence stretching from the USA to East Asia, RTE has successfully been delivering the vision of tomorrow for close to 20 years. RTE's group of companies hold an industry advantage in their ability to take every project from concept to execution; all housed under one roof. The complementary companies cover location-based entertainment, brand and Intellectual Property licensing, content development, consumer products, gaming, and esports.
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