Bigben acquires rights to Tour de France and Pro Cycling Manager games

Bigben Interactive has acquired the publishing rights of the Tour de France and Pro Cycling Manager games. The deal stems from the addition of development studio Cyanide to the Bigben group and the agreement with French sports event organizer ASO.

The French publisher Bigben takes over the rights of both sports games from the French company Focus Interactive. That company was forced to relinquish the titles after Bigben took over Cyanide Studio in May last year. This brought an end to a seventeen-year partnership between Focus and Cyanide and with it an end to a long series of joint Tour de France titles. Bigben believes his position as a publisher will be further strengthened by acquiring the two cycling games.

According to MCV, Focus Interactive would have tried to acquire Cyanide Studio itself. However, the supervisory board would have opposed this, after which CEO Cédric Lagarrigue would have taken the decision to resign.

In the Tour de France games, players can ride the official route of the cyclists and relive the highlights of the races. In Pro Cycling Manager for PC, the player becomes the manager of a team of cyclists. The team can participate in more than two hundred races with a total of more than five hundred stages around the world, including major events such as La Vuelta and the Tour de France.