Five Game Studios Jointly Establish Developer-Led Holding Company Nova Assembly to Reshape the Independent Game Ecosystem

The global gaming industry ushered in a new ecological model as Nova Assembly, a developer-led holding company jointly initiated by five renowned game studios — Sad Cat Studios, Unfrozen, VEA Games, Game Garden, and Weappy — was officially established. Co-owned and operated by the participating studios, the company aims to preserve the creative independence of each studio while enabling synergy and mutual assistance in resources such as R&D, publishing, and marketing. It seeks to address industry challenges including layoffs, studio closures, and resource centralization, and build a more resilient development model for independent games.

Denis Fedorov, CEO of Nova Assembly and founder of Unfrozen, stated: “In many ways, Nova Assembly is our direct response to the current state of the industry. In recent years, there has been an imbalance between creative aspirations and commercial priorities in the industry. Layoffs, project cancellations, and other issues driven by short-term metrics have become frequent, making it difficult for independent studios to adhere to their creativity and take risks — and we aim to break this predicament.”

Uniting Industry Strength, Upholding Creative Original Aspiration

The five founding studios share a deep connection. All relocated from Russia or Belarus to Cyprus due to the war in Ukraine, with their headquarters now based locally, and all have received investment from GEM Capital: Unfrozen secured $1.7 million in funding in 2021; Sad Cat Studios obtained $5 million in October 2023; and in May 2024, VEA Games, Game Garden, and Weappy jointly received $5 million in a combined funding round.

Over the years, the five studios have frequently exchanged ideas at industry exhibitions, mutually assisted in solving R&D and marketing challenges, and are highly aligned in their game creation concepts and cultural values. Nova Assembly is not a simple team merger or project centralization; instead, it retains the complete creative freedom of each studio, allowing them to share technology, experience, and resources, reduce reliance on outsourcing, and achieve a development model of “independence without isolation.”

Cyprus has now become a hub for more than 300 game studios, with an annual output value exceeding $1.5 billion. Its mature talent and industrial ecosystem have provided a solid foundation for Nova Assembly, and it is also the core reason why the five studios chose to settle here.

Strong Product Matrix, Multiple Blockbuster Titles to Be Launched Soon

Nova Assembly’s product matrix covers diverse genres, with 10 games in development, over 3 million global wishlist entries, and more than 10 million video views, attracting significant industry attention:

• Unfrozen: Developing Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era, which has surpassed 1 million wishlists on Steam and ranks among the top 10 most anticipated games on the platform;
• Sad Cat Studios: Replacedhas over 850,000 wishlists, ranking among the top 30 most anticipated games on Steam globally, and will be released on April 14, 2026;
• VEA Games: Known for its platformer Nikoderiko: The Magical World, the team has previously worked on projects including Skyforge, Armored Warfare, and Allods Online;
• Game Garden: 15 released mobile games have accumulated over 100 million downloads;
• Weappy: The This Is the Policeseries has sold over 1.5 million copies, and the studio is currently developing works such as Hollywood Animal.

Nova Assembly’s first batch of released products has been confirmed: Replaced by Sad Cat Studios will be launched on April 14, followed by Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era by Unfrozen on April 30, officially kicking off its commercial layout.

Layout for Long-Term Ecology, Boosting the Long-Term Development of Independent Games

Looking ahead, Nova Assembly plans to establish its own publishing arm to further improve its full-chain capabilities of “R&D + publishing.” At the same time, it will continue to open up cooperation, form differentiated complementarity with industry platforms such as Kepler Interactive, and strengthen the voice of independent developers.

Ilya Yanovich, Creative Director of Nova Assembly and co-founder of Weappy, emphasized: “In an era dominated by algorithms, we are uniting like-minded people to strengthen humanistic values, exchange creative ideas, provide mutual support, and jointly make decisions loyal to players.”

With the support of Cyprus’s industrial ecosystem and GEM Capital’s investment, Nova Assembly will take “creative freedom + resource synergy” as its core, provide a new development paradigm for independent game studios, promote the global gaming industry to return to the essence of creativity, and achieve long-term healthy development.