Officials from Eidos announced that the company has purchased European wireless game developer Rockpool Games, along with its two sister companies, Ironstone Partners and SoGoPlay. The three companies will become part of Eidos’ New Media division.

As part of the deal, Eidos will take on Rockpool Games’ Manchester studios as well as 36 new staff members who are currently working on multiple titles, though no other details concerning these projects have been released.

Rockpool Games is perhaps best known for developing wireless versions of popular franchises such as Worms, MotoGP, and Toca Race Driver. Ironstone Partners is a licensing company which own a catalog of intellectual property rights, including the Epyx back catalog of classic video games, as well as Top Trumps, Withit, and Commodore. Finally, SoGoPlay is a developer and publisher of casual games, and works with licensed IP and creates its own brands and concepts to be published on its own gaming portal and on other gaming websites.

“We believe that the global market for mobile games is set to grow considerably over the next few years from around $3billion in 2006 to $10billion in 2009 (source: Juniper Research), and that casual games are also becoming increasingly important. Rockpool’s breadth of activity, including not only mobile games but casual PC games, fits well with Eidos’ strategy to expand the company’s business in this direction and will strengthen our position in these consistently growing markets,” said Eidos CEO Jane Cavanagh.

“This deal marks a major leap forward in the development of our businesses. Being part of the Eidos family means that we can accelerate our growth and build on the great achievements we have already made in the mobile, casual and wider games market. We are very excited about what the future holds and believe we have found the right home, for our people, our brands, our technology and for our strategy,” said Paul Gouge, managing director of Rockpool Games.