Apple has its first-ever internal studio after acquiring Sneaky Sasquatch dev RAC7

Apple has completed its first-ever studio acquisition after purchasing the two-person team behind Apple Arcade title Sneaky Sasquatch.

As reported by Digital Trends, the iPhone maker bought RAC7 for an undisclosed fee. Apple confirmed the move in a statement sent to the publication.

"We love Sneaky Sasquatch and are excited that the 2-person RAC7 team has joined Apple to continue their work on it with us," said an Apple spokesperson. "We will continue to deliver a great experience for Apple Arcade players with hundreds of games from many of the best game developers in the world."

The news comes a year after a report from MobileGamer featuring several disgruntled Apple Arcade developers suggested there was a "smell of death" around the service.

Those sources claimed payouts to Apple Arcade developers were dwindling and that numerous projects had been unceremoniously canceled over the years due to a change in strategy.

Shortly after that report was published, Apple Arcade senior director Alex Rofman told The Guardian that Apple Arcade remained "more important than ever."

"Arcade is a place for games that might not otherwise exist, and I think that's a really important part of our strategy," he said. "We fund the development of new games so that developers can build them without risk."

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Notably, Rofman name-dropped RAC7 during that interview and said the studio was an example of "the success and the growth" Apple Arcade could inspire.

"RAC7 is two guys who have been making games together since they were in high school. They don't want to run a studio. To see the success and the growth of [Sneaky Sasquatch] has really been amazing," he continued.

"It's very aligned with Apple's values: it's an incredibly deep, challenging game, but there's no violence. There's nothing offensive. So we do think that Arcade is an outlet for indie studios with creative, innovative ideas. That is still important to us and always will be."