Saber Porto (formerly Bigmoon Entertainment) is a Portuguese video game developer based in

Porto, Portugal Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, with additional offices in

Sheffield, United Kingdom Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and ...

. The company was founded in 2008 by Paulo J. Gomes ( Paulo J. Games) to create video games for PC and consoles, along with animated films and television series like ''TIC TAC TALES'' and ''PIKABOO''. Over the years, Bigmoon transitioned to work exclusively on video games, participating in game projects related to different genres. The company was recognized for being involved in racing games, such as the ''

WRC WRC may refer to: Broadcasting stations * WRC-TV, a television station (virtual channel 4, digital channel 34) licensed to Washington, D.C., United States * Several radio stations in the Washington, D.C. area: ** WTEM, a radio station (980 AM) l ...

'' series, ''MotoGP13'', ''FlatOut4: Total Insanity'', and '' Dakar 18''. On 18 October 2019, it was announced that Bigmoon Entertainment was acquired by

Saber Interactive Saber Interactive Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher founded in 2001 with headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Saber was acquired by Embracer Group in February 2020, making the studio a direct subsidiary. The company ...

and renamed Saber Porto.

History

2008–2014

The company started in 2008 as Bigmoon Animation Studios, and developed TV animation series for kids. Its first production was ''TIC TAC TALES'', a TV animation series with 39 episodes, created by Paulo J. Gomes and broadcast by RTP,

RTP África RTP África is a Portuguese television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is available in the Portuguese-speaking African countries, where it is available as a basic cable and ...

RTP Internacional RTP Internacional (RTPi) is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's international television service, and is known for broadca ...

, and distributed in Europe by Panini Media in 2010, 2011, and 2012. In 2009, Bigmoon Animation Studios produced TV animation musicals for

Canal Panda Canal Panda was an Iberian pay television channel, the first one dedicated to kids programming, mostly animated series for children aged 6–14. The channel was founded in 1996 as ''Panda Club'' in Spain and Portugal, but the name was changed t ...

and distributed them on DVD by Info capital with the title ''PIKABOO''. After the release of ''TIC TAC TALES'', a second company was formed: Bigmoon Interactive Studios, which was developing the game version of ''TIC TAC TALES'' called ''D-TEAM: The Kidnapping of Professor Zig''. In 2012, Bigmoon Interactive Studios started working for

Milestone A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway, railway line, canal or border, boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks; or they can give their position on the rou ...

(''

WRC 3 ''WRC 3: The Official Game of the FIA World Rally Championship'' (also known as ''WRC 2003'') is a racing video game developed by Evolution Studios and published by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2003 as a part of the ''World Rally Championship'' ...

'' and ''WRC – THE GAME'') and

bitComposer bitComposer Interactive GmbH was a video game publisher headquartered in Eschborn, Germany. Founded in March 2009 as bitComposer Games GmbH, the company focuses on PC, console, mobile, and online platforms. In December 2010, bitComposer founded ...

, working in the game ''North & South''. After the success of both partnerships, Milestone contracted Bigmoon to create motorcycles for ''MotoGP 13,'' bitComposer asked it to work on '' Jagged Alliance: Back in Action'', and OG Games contacted the company to develop ''My Health Club'' for mobile devices. In January 2013, when Bigmoon was finishing ''Jagged Alliance: Back in Action'' for

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

and

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

, a contract was signed with Head Up games to develop a new PC action RPG game: ''Trapped Dead: Lockdown''. In December 2014, Bigmoon Interactive Studios received the information that its main publisher partner, bitComposer, entered insolvency, canceling ongoing projects. In the same year,

Maximum Games Maximum Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Walnut Creek, California. Originally founded in 2009 as a publisher of family-oriented titles for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii, the company shifted to publishing games of all ...

contracted Bigmoon to develop the PS4 and Xbox One port from the PC game '' Lichdom: Battlemage'' using

CryEngine CryEngine (stylized as CRYENGINE) is a game engine designed by the German game developer Crytek. It has been used in all of their titles with the initial version being used in '' Far Cry'', and continues to be updated to support new consoles and ...

3. In June 2015, while Bigmoon was developing the console version for ''Lichdom'', Maximum Games hired the company to complete and port ''Alekhine's Gun'' to PS4 and Xbox One.

2016–present

In 2016, Bigmoon Entertainment released ''Alekhine's Gun'' and ''Lichdom: Battlemage,'' and started a new contract with Astragon Entertainment to develop ''Police Simulator 18'', later renamed ''Police Simulator: Patrol Duty''. Bigmoon then started working with Camel 101 on the survival-horror game ''Syndrome'' and individually in the classic RPG ''Demons Age''. Bigmoon released its first self-publishing title ''Syndrome'' in September 2017. By the end of 2016, Gomes wanted to bring a new game genre to the industry, and he created the Rally Raid racing subgenre, securing exclusive rights to develop and publish his own version of the

Dakar Rally The Dakar Rally (or simply "The Dakar"; formerly known as the "Paris–Dakar Rally") is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. Most events since the inception in 1978 were staged from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal ...

. In 2017, he entered into an agreement with

Koch Media Plaion (formerly Koch Media) is a German-Austrian media company headquartered in Höfen, Tyrol, Austria, with an operating subsidiary based in Planegg, Germany. The company was founded in 1994 by Franz Koch and Klemens Kundratitz. The compan ...

to proceed with ''Dakar 18''. The game involved all the resources of the studio and was the biggest Portuguese investment in videogame development, being released for PS4, Xbox One and PC in September 2018. In 2019, Bigmoon worked with Saber Interactive to port ''Call of Cthulhu'' for the

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a tablet that can either be docked for use as a home console or used as a portable device, making it a ...

. After the success of ''Call of Cthulhu'''s development, Saber Interactive and Bigmoon Entertainment entered into an acquisition agreement that was finalised in October 2019. Saber Interactive acquired Bigmoon Entertainment and rebranded it to Saber Interactive Porto (Saber Porto).

Bigmoon animated films and series

Bigmoon games and collaborations

Cancelled games

References

{{Embracer Group Saber Interactive Video game development companies Video game companies established in 2008 Video game companies of Portugal Portuguese companies established in 2008 Companies based in Porto 2019 mergers and acquisitions