The South African game studio linked to one of the richest men in the world

24Bit Games is the largest game development studio on the African continent, and is also owned by the daughter of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

The South African studio was founded in 2012 by Luke Lamothe, and today employs more than 55 people across its offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The studio offers specialised technical game development services, assisting other developers with co-development, porting, and optimisation of their projects.

24Bit has collaborated with studios in both the indie space, such as fellow South African game developer Free Lives, and AAA publishers like Disney and NCSOFT.

Some of the successful projects they have worked on include Broforce, Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, Neon White, and, more recently, the critically acclaimed 2026 game Mixtape.

In 2023, 24Bit was acquired by the American game publisher Annapurna Interactive for an undisclosed amount, marking the US company’s first acquisition.

Annapurna Interactive was founded in 2016 as a division of Annapurna Pictures, an independent media company owned by Megan Ellison, the daughter of Larry Ellison.

Ellison is the eighth richest person in the world as of 31 July 2026, with Forbes estimating his net worth at $164.9 billion (R2.7 trillion).

He co-founded the American technology giant Oracle in 1977, which had a market capitalisation of $367.43 billion (R6.08 trillion) at the time of writing.

Aside from his 40% stake in Oracle, Ellison holds a $19 billion interest in American automotive company Tesla, which was founded by South African-born Elon Musk.

He also holds a controlling stake in the mass-media conglomerate Paramount Skydance, with his son, David Ellison, serving as the company’s CEO.

Ellison briefly held the position of the wealthiest person in the world on 10 September 2025, following a rally in Oracle’s share price, which brought his net worth to $393 billion.

The road to acquisition

Annapurna’s acquisition of 24Bit followed years of close collaboration between the two companies, with 24Bit providing development support on many of the American company’s games.

The relationship began in 2019, when 24Bit took on the task of porting the game Gone Home for one of Annapurna’s clients, Fulbright Interactive.

The studio took on more work for the publisher over the next few years, assisting on titles such as Maquette, Twelve Minutes, and A Memoir Blue.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, 24Bit COO Pieter Koornhof said that when Annapurna initially suggested an even stronger commercial relationship, his company hesitated.

“The industry is precarious,” Koornhof said. “In Africa, it’s even more precarious, because we’re constantly having to punch above our weight.”

“Most people just don’t know us. We didn’t want to do anything that didn’t make sense to do. We danced it around for two or three years.”

In 2022, however, Annapurna officially approached 24Bit with an offer to acquire the company, with the deal closing in October the following year.

Since then, the studio has worked on even more successful projects for Annapurna, including games like Cocoon and Open Roads.

At the time of the acquisition, both Lamothe and Annapurna expressed excitement about the potential of closer collaboration between the two studios.

“We deeply respect Annapurna’s approach to curating a portfolio of great games, its value system around building and extending IP, as well as the company culture,” Lamothe said.

“We have truly enjoyed working together over the years, and we believe we are joining Annapurna at an exciting moment of growth and expansion.”

While the company has retained its focus on porting and development support for other studios’ games, Koornhof said the studio was open to developing its own IPs in future.