Fuse Powered acquires 2D game engine maker Corona Labs (exclusive)

Fuse Powered is announcing today that it has acquired Corona Labs, a maker of a popular game engine that is used to create two-dimensional mobile games and apps. The move will help Toronto-based Fuse Powered, a mobile-monetization firm, sell a bigger set of services and tools to help make game developers more successful.

The move is both a response to and a driver of competitive consolidation that is sweeping through the game monetization industry. Companies that grew up with one service, such as analytics, are finding that their customers want them to offer more than that. That’s why rival Unity Technologies, a 3D game engine maker, acquired game services companies Playnomics and Applifier, and it’s also why Kontagent and PlayHaven merged to form Upsight.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Corona Labs is the maker of Corona SDK, a mobile-app development platform used by more than 300,000 mobile-game and app publishers and developers around the world. Those publishers have more than 200 million monthly active users, according to Corona. Its mission is to make the creation of games and apps easier. It supports platforms such as iOS, Android, Kindle, and Windows Phone. The focus is on professional game developers, including one-person indie studios.

Fuse Powered gives developers a ton of data and the tools to dissect that data and interact with audiences in real-time. It lets them set up and offer in-app purchases in free-to-play games and apps. And it has a full service ad-mediation platform, Ad Rally, that helps them make money from ads.

Jon Walsh, the chief executive of Fuse Powered, told GamesBeat that the combination of the two companies will help Fuse Powered engage with developers earlier in the food chain. It will enable developers to use the 2D game engine to make their games and think about monetization — the service offered by Fuse Powered — from the very beginning.

“If you put those things together, that is like chocolate and peanut butter,” Walsh said. “It’s a combination that we’ll see more and more of as this industry consolidates.”

One-stop shopping is a big trend, and Fuse Powered plans to integrate its services and tools together.

“Things are getting tougher out there for independent developers and even big publishers,” Walsh said. “There’s increasing competition. Production budgets are going up. It’s a natural part of the industry to consolidate.”

Game developers don’t want to handle the integration of many different software development kits, Wash said. He added that the entire Corona Labs team will join Fuse Powered.

“Over the past five years, we’ve built a very strong development platform and community,” said Walter Luh, the CEO of Corona Labs, in a statement. “In Fuse, we’ve found another company with the same vision to help mobile publishers make more successful games more easily. We will continue to build on the world-class Corona platform, and now our developers will also have amazing monetization and publishing tools at their disposal, with even more to come.”

Fuse Powered has been responsible for more than 400 million installs, Walsh said. The purchase price was not disclosed.

“It’s a nice booster for Fuse, and we are going to help Corona accelerate their growth even more,” hesaid.

Rivals include Unity Technologies, GameSalad, and Chukong Technologies, the maker of the Cocos2d-x game engine.