Archive for October, 2008

1. Eidos/Warner update

   October 30, 2008

   Following my post about takeover speculation surrounding Eidos, Warner has changed its statement. According to Gamesindustry.biz, the company said: “Warner Bros. notes that it intends to acquire shares in SCi if and when it considers appropriate, subject always to the terms of the standstill arrangements”. Which is quite a change, but may just be corporate-speak [...]

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   Posted in: Analysis, Featured

   Tagged with: eidos, m&a, sci, speculation, starred, warner

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2. Electronic Arts cuts forecasts, cuts 6% of workforce

   October 30, 2008

   Citing the “uncertain economic climate”, John Riccitiello, CEO of EA, today announced that EA will be reducing headcount by approximately 6% (600 people by our estimates) by the end of March 2009. The redundancies are expected to cost approximately $10 million in EA’s fiscal third quarter (ended Dec 08) and to save $50 million per [...]

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   Posted in: Game Over Zone

   Tagged with: electronic arts, job loss tracker, redundancies, riccitiello 2

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3. Huddle is only UK start-up to launch on LinkedIn’s new application platform

   October 29, 2008

   Slightly off-topic, but Huddle is one of my clients. They make collaboration software that is easily available on the web, allowing people to share documents, tasks, workflow and more across multiple sites. The basic service is free, with a variety of personal or company-wide upgrade options. It’s part of the move towards cloud-computing, and is [...]

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   Posted in: Sandbox

   Tagged with: application, clients, huddle, linkedin, social networks

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4. Playfish raises a further $17 million

   October 29, 2008

   Kudos to Kristian Segerstrale and the team at Playfish. Playfish has just secured $17 million in funding from Accel Partners and Index Ventures. This takes the total that the team has raised to $21 million. I have blogged before that Playfish is a great company that really gets the social/browser-based gaming space and is making [...]

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   Posted in: Finance

   Tagged with: accel partners, casual games, index ventures, investment, playfish, social networks, starred

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5. Avalanche Studios to halve workforce, lay off 77 staff

   October 28, 2008

   According to Develop, Swedish developer Avalanche has just laid off 77 staff following the cancellation of 2 major projects worth $34 million. The company continues to work on Just Cause 2 for Eidos and co-production with Emote called The Hunter. Added to the Job Loss Tracker.

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   Posted in: Game Over Zone

   Tagged with: avalanche, job loss tracker, layoffs, redundancies

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6. Is Eidos up to its old tricks again?

   October 28, 2008

   Yesterday, Eidos altered its standstill agreement with Warner Bros. The agreement, put in place at the time of the April fundraising, stopped Warner from raising its stake in Eidos without permission. Warner is now able to raise its stake to up to 30% before December 1st. 30% is the amount that would trigger a requirement [...]

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   Posted in: Featured, Finance

   Tagged with: eidos, m&a, sci, speculation, starred

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7. Amazon gets into casual games, buys Reflexive

   October 22, 2008

   The world’s biggest bookseller is branching out. Amazon has just bought casual game portal Reflexive in a move that will strengthen its digital distribution expertise and increase its exposure to a market that has essentially eluded it to date: downloadable casual games. Reflexive is a portal in its own right, but more importantly, if offers [...]

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   Posted in: Distribution

   Tagged with: amazon, casual games, digital distribution, m&a, portals, reflexive

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