Today, Sega announced that it has acquired the Bulgaria-based Crytek Black Sea. Additionally, it revealed it has added the 60-person team from the studio to bolster Total War developer Creative Assembly. Crytek Black Sea has been renamed Creative Assembly Sofia, and will be working on a number of unannounced projects.

As you may know, Creative Assembly has just finished work up on Halo Wars 2, which shipped last month on Xbox One and PC. The studio is also coming off a year of substantial growth, experiencing growth in headcount by 37%, and with the new acquisition, is now home of 500 plus.

Tim Heaton, Studio Director at Creative Assembly accompanied the announcement with the following statement:

"Now in our 30th year of games development, with an army of multi-million selling titles to our name and a history of world-renowned partnerships, Creative Assembly is proof of the UK games industry's potential for global success. Due to this success, we are further expanding our UK base and developing additional projects overseas, whilst pursuing top talent from across the globe to join us, all in support of our commitment to creating high quality, authentic gaming experiences. Our continued growth allows us to be dynamic with our future projects, constantly seeking new opportunities and reaching a wider audience with our games."

Jurgen Post, President and COO of Sega Europe, added:

"The acquisition of Crytek Black Sea further enhances Sega Europe's development capabilities and strengthens our ability to output diverse and engaging content for our IP. Creative Assembly Sofia will be working exclusively on content for Creative Assembly and will prove an invaluable asset given the multitude of unannounced titles currently in the works. This acquisition represents another step in the right direction for the growth of our global business, underlining our commitment to add value to our existing studios and our continued support for the UK games industry."

Heaton further confirmed to GamesIndustry that Creative Assembly has been looking to expand for awhile now, and actually had its eyes on a few studios. The Studio Director specifically told GI the following:

"[We] have actually been eyeing potential studios specifically to expand CA's output for some time. Parties have been discussing this deal over the last few months, since the opportunity arose to purchase Crytek Black Sea, and integrate them into CA's operation. While Sega are always looking out for acquisitions that fit with the rest of the business, this addition has been motivated by the growing CA output, and the need to support that growth with talented and experienced teams. CA has never had the aim solely to grow big, but our games have given us the opportunity to work on more projects. As we have taken those opportunities, we have needed to seek out more talent who reflect the calibre of our games."

As you may remember, late last year Crytek announced that it was closing five studios, Crytek Black Sea was among these studios.