Vivendi Games today announced the acquisition of Wanako Games, based in Santiago, Chile. Wanako is the largest game development studio in Latin America. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The acquisition underscores the commitment by Vivendi Games' Sierra Online division to enhance its internal product development capabilities in the fast growing console download online games space. Sierra Online will bring to life several of Wanako's innovative, original concepts and will retain and grow its talented team of developers.

Sierra Online teamed up with Wanako Games on the development of the action-packed Xbox Live Arcade title, Assault Heroes(TM), released in December 2006. Assault Heroes was awarded Xbox Live Arcade Game of the Year by IGN.com, the web's number one videogame information site. Next up, Wanako Games will bring their artistic expertise to the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade game, 3-D Ultra Minigolf Adventures.

"Wanako exudes the commitment to quality and a passion for developing great games that we ourselves strongly believe in," said Ed Zobrist, president, Sierra Online. "The studio has an extensive offering of valuable tools and technologies that can be leveraged across all of Sierra Online's development studios. The combination of Wanako's development experience, creativity and technical capabilities will contribute greatly to our presence as a leading publisher of console download online games."

"We are very excited to join a visionary group like Sierra Online who is focused on bringing truly entertaining and innovative online games to a mass market," said Esteban Sosnik, founder and former CEO of Wanako Games. "In working with Sierra Online on Assault Heroes it quickly became clear that our companies
shared the same core values in game development and by joining together we could
develop and deliver amazing products."

Sosnik will become head of Sierra Online Latin America and assume a broader role responsible for Sierra Online's business initiatives in Latin America.

"The entire development team is incredibly excited to join forces with
SierraOnline to lead the industry in the casual online games space," said Tiburcio de la Cárcova, development manager and creative director of Wanako Games.

Tiburcio
will continue to manage and grow the studio in Santiago. Wanako is currently
developing a number of other unannounced Sierra Online titles.