Epic Games has announced its acquisition of Chair Entertainment group, the US independent studio behind Xbox Live Arcade game Undertow.

Founded in 2005, Chair was formed by key staff from developer GlyphX's Advent Rising team and went on to develop Undertow using UE3. The studio also recently secured the exclusive rights to turn Orson Scott Card's Enders Game book series into games (Card also wrote Advent Rising).

Now part of the Epic Games family, Chair will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the firm, but will retain its name and still focus on making new games that utilise Epic's popular Unreal Engine 3 middleware. The two had previously signed a deal locking Chair into developing games exclusively with UE3 in the middle of last year.

"Our team has long admired Epic for its ability to shape the game industry with its innovative technology and first-rate video game offerings," said Ryan Holmes, co-founder and CEO of Chair Entertainment Group.

"We share Epic's passion for creating ground-breaking game play experiences and are excited for the opportunity to partner with a truly visionary company."

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VP of Epic Mark Rein added: "We are thrilled to bring the Chair team into the Epic family, and look forward to working with them to create original new games that continue to innovate and inspire.

"Chair's stylized approach to creating games is further enhanced by their ability to stretch our technology in new directions that not only help in creating amazing gaming experiences but also demonstrate the power and versatility of the Unreal Engine."

Epic acquired Polish studio People Can Fly last year to work on the PC version of Gears of War.