43 jobs have been saved at Free Radical Design following Crytek’s successful acquisition of the group.
“The sale was relatively easy for us to achieve,” says Cameron Gunn, administrator at Resolve Partners, “there were several interested parties in the end, and we had to auction the business.”
Valve’s acclaimed Left 4 Dead sold over 1.8 million retail units in 2008, according to EA.
DICE’s Mirror’s Edge and Redwood Shores’ Dead Space both passed one million sales last year, according to EA’s well-documented financial report.
Despite EA’s gloomy financials for its fiscal Q3 – where the struggling publisher announced wider losses, bigger staff cuts and delayed releases for key titles – there was still positive news peppered across its report.
[Update]
Free Radical's future has been uncertain in recent weeks, but a new report claims the U.K.-based studio has secured a lease on life with a new owner.
1UP reports that German first-person shooter house Crytek, developer of Crysis, has agreed to purchase Haze developer Free Radical. If true, it would be Crytek's fifth location, and its first in the U.K.
EA in the past has expressed regret that it was caught flat-footed by the success of the Nintendo Wii, but the efforts to get caught up on the platform will soon emerge with the release of more core titles.
EA CEO John Riccitiello said that his company will be bringing games based on mass market Hasbro and Sims properties to the Wii, but also core properties that "have legs," such as a certain horror title that released in 2008.
In talking about big titles for EA's next fiscal year, CEO John Riccitiello dropped hints about the future of the epic space-themed RPG franchise Mass Effect.
"[In Q4], BioWare will release Mass Effect 2 on multiple platforms," he said during a Tuesday earnings call.
The original 2007 Mass Effect was initially an Xbox 360 exclusive published by Microsoft Game Studios. EA's acquisition of BioWare opened up rumors that the franchise could go multiplatform.
Mass Effect later appeared on PC.
Despite an increase in game quality, EA announced miserable financials for its fiscal Q3, along with further job cuts and a reduced outlook for fiscal 2009.
The publisher announced Q3 net loss of $641 million, up from a $33 million loss a year ago. Revenue was $1.65 billion, up from $1.5 billion for the comparable quarter a year prior.
Prior to announcing fiscal Q3 earnings, EA on Tuesday announced the delay of The Sims 3, Godfather 2 and Dragon Age for PC, leaving no hope for the titles to make the current fiscal year, which ends in March.
EA said The Sims 3, previously slated for release this month, is now due to ship on June 2 for PC. Other versions will launch this summer.
EA marketing VP Russell Arons said in a statement, "The June launch combined with the break-through game the team is building gives us the perfect runway to create awareness for The Sims 3
Desktop gaming advocates PC Gaming Alliance on Tuesday announced the addition of reps from Capcom and The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University to the organization's board of directors.
The non-profit PCGA, which has the goal of spreading the gospel of the viability of PC gaming and breaking alleged misconceptions about the business, has members including Activision Publishing, Dell, Microsoft, Nvida, Epic Games, WildTangent and others.
Research firm EEDAR (Electronic Entertainment Design and Research) finds that, at retail, "an increasing amount of games are being released below the standard points" of $59.99 for PS3 and Xbox 360 games and $49.99 for Nintendo Wii software.
Sega confirmed Tuesday that work has begun on Iron Man 2 at Sega Studios San Francisco.
The multiplatform action game is due in 2010, and is to debut alongside the corresponding Marvel Studios film Iron Man 2, the sequel to the 2008 blockbuster starring Robert Downey Jr.
Sega's original Iron Man game sold 1.84 million units in Europe and the U.S. during its opening quarter last year.
Ubisoft has been one of the few major game publishers that continues to expand, while others are making cuts.
Just days after announcing the acquisition of a Brazilian studio, Ubisoft on Tuesday said it has acquired Vancouver-based Action Pants, the Paris, France-based publisher's first studio on the North American West Coast.
Activision’s Guitar Hero World Tour sold twice as many copies in the US last year than its fiercest rival, Rock Band 2, according to data provided by NPD group.
World Tour, which was released in the US on October 26 – six weeks after Neversoft’s Rock Band 2 – is said to have amassed sales of 3.4 million units in the US last year. Rock Band, on the other hand, sold a total of 1.7 million copies.
A new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game might beat the stigma surrounding licensed titles if the developer's track record is any indication of quality.
Ubisoft said Monday that it would be publishing an "all-new" Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles videogame for Wii, developed by Game Arts, one studio that played a major role in creating the multi-million-selling, critically-acclaimed Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii.
One of the most recognizable names in videogames has joined online reward-based gaming platform GameWager as executive advisor.
The Austin, Tex.-based firm announced Monday that Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, will be offering his insight into the gaming industry in order to help the upstart.
GameWager users log onto the platform's website for free and allows gamers to earn virtual tokens for completing in-game objectives in PC games such as Team Fortress 2 or Counter-Strike.
Lobbying disclosure filings with the Office of the Clerk show that the Entertainment Software Association spent nearly $4.3 million in lobbying expenses in 2008.
The ESA lobbied issues including anti-piracy, copyrighting, file-sharing, IP enforcement and other areas related to the games industry.
Tecmo and Koei announced to the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Monday that shareholders have approved a merger between the two game companies, Bloomberg reports.
The resulting company will be called Tecmo Koei Holdings, which will form in April.
The report added that Tecmo's second-largest shareholder, Effissimo Capital Management could sell its 18 percent stake. The company was against the merger.
Konami said Monday that it will continue to use Atari Australia as its distribution partner, following the demise of potential distributor Red Ant.
Konami said in a statement to MCV, "...With immediate effect ... [Konami] will continue its relationship with Atari Australia, a subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment."
Sales of November 2008's Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe fighting mash-up have proven to be a bright spot for the embattle Chicago-based Midway Games.
The publisher said Monday that it has shipped 1.8 million units of Mortal Kombat vs. DC worldwide. The game is available on PS3 and Xbox 360.
Midway also said the fighter was the most pre-ordered Mortal Kombat game in the company's history, and globally over 3.6 million Mortal Kombat vs DC matches have been played online for PS3.
Gamers have a host of nasty habits, a new study out of Brigham Young University claims.
For instance, study lead Prof. Laura Walker found that regular gamers are 10 percent more likely to drink alcohol and partake in drug use than those who rarely played games.
The study also said people who play games every day are three times as likely to use marijuana.
Depending on who you ask, PC gaming is either dying or thriving.
Arthur Bruno, co-head of Cambridge, Mass.-based Crate Entertainment isn't saying that PC gaming is doomed, but admits that it's difficult to ignore a supposedly safer risk-to-reward ratio in console development.
UK internet users who illegally share and download pirated material will not see bans from ISPs.
That was the suggestion made from Intellectual Property Minister David Lammy (pictured), who told British national paper The Times that such a ruling would be hindered by legal complexities. “I'm not sure it's actually going to be possible,” he said.
It is now likely that EA’s highly-anticipated Sims 3 title will not be making its February 20 launch date, after its publisher issued a statement claiming that it is now “evaluating the launch window.”
At a time when financial turbulence is hitting publishers and developers, THQ has bucked the trend with a cheerful outlook: the publisher is pleased with the sales of De Blob, and wants to make a sequel.
According to sales data compiled by the NPD Group, along with a report from IGN, the Wii’s unique platformer had sold some 230,000 units in the US by the end of December, with THQ claiming the game has sold comfortably worldwaide since its September 2008 release.