Dino Patti reacquires Jumpship and makes investment in Viewfinder creator Sad Owl Studios

Jumpship has come full circle. As cofounder Dino Patti has acquired Jumpship again after selling it in 2022 to Thunderful, which shut Jumpship down in November 2024.

In an interview with GamesBeat, Patti also said that he has made an investment in Sad Owl Studios, the maker of the indie hit Viewfinder.

Patti and Chris Olsen founded Jumpship in 2017 to make Somerville. They developed the game and it was acquired in November 2022 by Thunderful. The game launched and Olsen departed from the company.

But in November 2024, Thunderful had layoffs and shut down Jumpship. Patti said he has now reacquired Jumpship, along with shares in Sad Owl Studios, and is preparing to reboot Jumpship in an exciting and unexpected new direction—currently in stealth mode.

This sounds like a crazy course of events for a game company, but given the last 30 months of turmoil in games, it’s not an unexpected turn of events. And for now it has a happy outcome.

“Jumpship has always been about pushing the boundaries of emotions, storytelling, and innovation in gaming,” said Patti. “I want to take the company in a completely new direction while staying true to that vision.”

While keeping details under wraps for now, Patti, who is based in Denmark, hints at a broader industry shift.

“I can’t lift the veil just yet, but I truly believe the current publishing landscape has gone stale,” he said. “It needs a complete overhaul to better serve talented game developers and, most importantly, the players.”

He added, “This is more than just a business decision; it’s about reigniting the passion and vision that first sparked Jumpship — while taking it further than ever before.”

How the deal happened

Speaking about Sad Owl Studios, Patti shared his enthusiasm.

“Sad Owl Studios is an incredible team with a multi-award-winning IP, Viewfinder, under their belt. I can’t wait to show you what they’ve been cooking,” Patti said.

After Thunderful went through its restructuring, Patti was able to get ownership of Somerville back, though it was empty as everyone had been laid off.

“I’ve been cooking up something, and I came up with a really exciting idea that is kind of based on the core values we kind in Somerville,” Patti said. “It is extending what we’re doing to the whole industry. And without saying too much, I think the way publishers work now is not really helpful.”

He said many don’t deliver the value that developers pay for. It’s essentially very expensive, as publishers often take 50% of the revenue from developers in some of the worst deals.

“I think there needs to be a disruption in the publishing space, and this, without saying too much, might be the way,” he said. “I’m requiring Jumpship and Somerville.”

The Sad Owl Studios deal

Meanwhile, Viewfinder was built by Matt Stark and developer Robot Teddy. Robot Teddy was acquired by Thunderful in October 2021, and Robot Teddy was renamed as Sad Owl Studios. Now Patti has made a minority investment in Sad Owl Studios.

“They’re part of the strategy going forward. And also it’s just an amazing team, and it’s a Viewfinder has done really well,” Patti said.

Patti is determining how many people he can hire, but he is not likely to get them all back. He’s keeping his purpose deliberately vague now.

“We will repurpose the whole thing,” Patti said. “I will bring at least one person on board and we will see how it goes forward.”

One of the things he definitely wanted to do was save Somerville, as he feared it would be forgotten. Patti saw it as a very emotional game and it reminded him of titles he had worked on before.

“Pure emotion is never going out of fashion,” he said.

Still at Coherence

Meanwhile, Patti is still the CEO of Coherence, which enables multiplayer games where thousands of players can be involved in the same game. There are sizable customers using the technology such as Vampire Survivor and Bossa Studios, which has three games based on Coherence multiplayer networking technology. Coherence is working with Lego.

“The product we have now is really amazing,” he said. “We work directly with developers in creating their games. We ensure that they can iterate and test really quickly and optimize it.”