On June 2, UK writer Secret Mode revealed that it had picked up Chained Together from Anegar Video games. The hardcore co-op platformer, which sees gamers climbing up from the depths of hell whereas chained to their buddies, was launched in June 2024 and has bought greater than 10 million copies up to now.
Secret Mode broke away from the Tencent-owned Sumo Group in March 2025, turning into unbiased with the assist of personal fairness agency Emona Capital. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz earlier this 12 months, Secret Mode CEO Ed Blincoe defined that Emona enabled the writer to amass the titles Escape the Backrooms and Star Wars: Galactic Racer, and that Emona’s backing has helped Secret Mode to “transfer ahead” into “greater and higher alternatives.”
“We’re always on the hunt for new content material,” Blincoe tells GamesIndustry.biz, “whether or not that is available in the type of new video games or making main acquisitions corresponding to Chained Together. We’re doing this via direct outreach, attending exhibits and occasions, inbound alternatives, and so on, and we’re consistently speaking to builders, brokers, and bankers to establish new alternatives.”
In phrases of the Chained Together deal, Blincoe says it was led by Secret Mode and supported by Emona Capital. “We used the group internally to do the overwhelming majority of the due diligence and leaned into the experience that the Emona group convey on the financials.”
“Acquisitions like this are a core pillar of our technique,” he continues, “alongside signing new titles to publish. We did an analogous deal final 12 months for our co-op horror sport Escape the Backrooms, which we have not too long ago launched on console and have already lined up a major content material plan for.”
Escape the Backrooms from Fancy Video games was launched in Early Entry on Steam in August 2022, and Secret Mode got here on board as writer in August 2025. The sport is about for its 1.0 Steam launch on October 23 this 12 months, and its concurrent participant depend has greater than doubled over the previous week because of the launch of the Backrooms movie, which has already turn into A24’s highest-grossing movie at the US box office after simply six days in cinemas. In line with SteamDB, Escape the Backrooms’ concurrent participant depend leapt up from practically 7,500 on Might 28 to just about 17,000 on June 4. The sport’s all-time peak concurrent participant depend is 48,879.
The Chained Together deal shares some apparent similarities with Secret Mode’s earlier acquisition of Escape the Backrooms, in that it represents a confirmed co-op multiplayer hit with a big established participant base.
Blincoe will not go into the particulars of the deal for Chained Together, besides to say that “via Emona we now have entry to vital additional funding if and the place it is wanted for extra offers like this.”
Now, the plan is to usher in expertise to develop the sport. “We’re very near signing a new growth group to assist proceed constructing content material for Chained Together,” explains Blincoe. “We are able to’t say who it’s proper now, but it surely’s a group that we belief and who’ve so much of expertise in working with present IP.”
Canadian studio Blackbird Interactive, the developer of Hardspace: Shipbreaker, was beforehand introduced on board to port Escape the Backrooms to consoles.
Blincoe thinks there is a robust future forward for Secret Mode’s newest acquisition. Chained Together has an all-time peak concurrent participant depend of 94,480, in line with SteamDB, which it achieved at launch two years in the past. However since then the participant depend has dropped significantly: the 24-hour peak on June 4 was 5,842 gamers.
“We consider Chained Together has so much of potential, and we’re already constructing a plan for how we need to develop the viewers for the sport whereas giving present gamers a purpose to come back again,” says Blincoe.
“We are able to’t share precisely how we’re going about that proper now, however we’re what the present viewers has been asking for since launch, and what new experiences we may give to these gamers and new ones to get of us enthusiastic about this sport over again.”