Archive for September, 2008

1. Why Google might buy Valve?

   September 18, 2008

   Ok, so I’ve been slow to blog on the biggest story to hit the games world this year*, but I’ve been thinking about it. Thinking long and hard. On the face of it, this deal looks unlikely. Valve is famous for making the Half-Life range of games. Google, whose objective is to organise the world’s [...]

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   Posted in: Analysis, Featured

   Tagged with: digital distribution, google, half-life, m&a, starred, steam, valve

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2. Nvidia announces 360 job losses

   September 18, 2008

   In a press release today, Nvidia announced that it is reducing headcount by 360, or approximately 6.5% of the workforce. Added to the GameOverZone.

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   Posted in: Game Over Zone

   Tagged with: job loss tracker, nvidia, redundancies

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3. In2Games bought, but not a word from founders

   September 16, 2008

   GI.biz reports that In2Games has been acquired by Californian peripherals company PDP. In2Games was founded to bring joypad-free gaming to the console. In the days when the Wii was still on the horizon, their Gametrak peripheral offered players the chance to box, play golf and generally intereact with their console (a PS2 only, if I remember [...]

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   Posted in: Finance

   Tagged with: console, m&a, peripherals

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4. Whose user-generated content is it anyway?

   September 15, 2008

   This month’s Develop magazine carries an interesting article on the ownership of User-Generated Content. Tahir  Basheer of Sheridans points out the case law around this is very unproven. He questions for example, what happens if a publisher turns off their servers thus denying users access to assets that they created and owned. The thrust of [...]

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   Posted in: Sandbox

   Tagged with: legal, sheridans, user generated content

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5. Big Fish raises $83 million from top tier investors

   September 12, 2008

   Big Fish, the casual games company, today announced that it had raised $83 million from top tier investors including Balderton, General Catalyst and Salmon River. Balderton, of course, owns 100% of Codemasters, a stake in Habbo Hotel  and cashed out of Bebo earlier this year when it was acquired by AOL for $850 million. They [...]

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   Posted in: Finance

   Tagged with: balderton, big fish, capital raising, casual games, investment

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6. NCSoft confirms 58 redundancies in Brighton

   September 11, 2008

   58 people are to be made redundant at NCSoft Europe. The layoffs follow the commercial failure of Tabula Rasa, which cost $100 million to develop but is forecast to make only $15.8 millon in revenue in its first year.

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   Posted in: Game Over Zone

   Tagged with: job loss tracker, ncsoft, redundancies

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