Crispy Gamer News

So long EGM. After the January 2009 issue of the long running print magazine, it’s game over.  This news is another sad reminder that the magazine we all love are on the path to extinction. According to a Gamasutra report, the magazine has become a casialty of UGO Networks purchase of Ziff Davis’ 1Up Network. With the purchase of 1Up.com comes Mycheats.com, Gametab.com, and GameVideos.com. No word on how much this acquisition cost UGO. The report, which also contains a letter from CEO Jason Young, says that 30 people from the 1Up staff have been cut including web staff and podcast producers.

“With this transaction happening, we have also made the decision to discontinue publication of EGM,” told 1Up staff in an email. “The January 2009 issue will be the final issue of the publication. With demand for print continuing to decline amongst both advertisers and readers and the content being produced by 1UP no longer available for use in the publication, it simply did not make sense for us to move forward with this business any longer.”

FileFront, a popular destination for downloads such as demos, patches, mods and utilities, will remain a part of the Ziff Davis family under its PCMag Digital Network. the company is putting a lot of faith going forward in this sector.

“We will continue to operate the Filefront business as a part of the PCMag Digital Network,” continued Young in the email. “In the coming months we will determine the best ways to leverage the scale and functionality of this digital property to expand our business position.”

Official statement from 1Up right here.

Interesting news this week out of Ubisoft. It looks like the publisher just isn’t happy with its current size. During a presentation at the 36th Annual UBS Global Media Conference, Ubi CFO Alain Martinez is currently negotiating with at least three different studios for possible acquisition.

“We have about three deals within the five million Euro range, each of them, that we are negotiating,” said Martinez. “Probably, one or two of them will be closed in the next three or four months.”

This year has seen no shortage of acquisitions and mergers in the video game industry, and Ubisoft has already picked up more than a few studios of its own, most recently acquiring World in Conflict developer, Massive Entertainment.

And while Ubisoft seems to be eager to snap up available studios, it recently missed out on one major acquisition. According to Martinez, Ubisoft was in talks to pick up MMO developer Cryptic Studios, only to lose out to Atari earlier this week.

“We lost one deal which we were a bit mad,” he said. “We lost Cryptic. It’s a U.S. company. That was taken by Atari [and] we were a bit disappointed.”

Y’know, maybe it’s just me, but I remember a time not too long ago when Atari seemed to be on life support with Death knocking at the company’s door. Well, I’d love to get some of the vitamins it’s been taking these days, because Atari didn’t just slam the door in Death’s face, but it’s hit the ground running.

First came word that the publisher had picked up two major released in the aftermath of the Activision/Vivendi merger, Ghostbusters and The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. Now the company has put together a deal to acquire California based MMO developer Cryptic Studios, lock, stock, and barrel.

Cryptic Studios, which first made a name for itself with the superhero themed MMO title,City of Heroes, has been on a major roll recently. The company eventually sold off its stake in City of Heroes to NCsoft, and was on tap to develop a new MMO for the PC and 360 for Microsoft, based off the Marvel Comics stable of characters. Although the Marvel deal fell apart, due to Microsoft and Marvel being unable to agree on the direction of the game, Cryptic decided not to abandon the superhero MMO formula, using its capital to buyout the popular pen and paper role-playing property, Champions, and starting development of the upcoming MMO, Champions Online. And if that wasn’t enough, Cryptic also managed to score itself another big property, with the development of a new MMO based on the Star Trek universe.

According to a statement released today to investors, Infogrames (Atari’s parent company) will shell out an upfront payment of $27.6 million, with an additional estimated “maximum earn-out” totaling another $27.5 million in cash and Infogrames stock. And if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a clause in the deal which could give Cryptic shareholders another $20 million bonus in cash or Infogrames stock if Champions Online and Star Trek Online both outperform an undisclosed target in online revenue for 2010-2011.

“We share a common vision with Atari and their leadership team.” said John Needham, Chief Executive Officer of Cryptic Studios, “With our game development and online platform technology skills, we’re very excited about the opportunities that this unique combination with Atari creates. I am committed to helping Atari grow into a leading online game company and look forward to being part of the team.”

According to David Gardner, CEO of Infogrames, “The acquisition of Cryptic Studios brings to Infogrames an outstanding creative organisation, with a proven track-record of success in the fast-growing MMO category. Cryptic’s success is founded on leading-edge technology and the vision of a seasoned executive management team. I am impressed with the tools and technology that Cryptic has developed to make MMOs less expensive to build. Creating vast worlds and interesting interactions can be very people intensive but with the use of Cryptic’s toolset they have a proven way of cutting average production costs in half. This is exactly the type of company we wanted to acquire in order to build Atari for the 21st century.”

You remember what they say about real estate? It’s all about three things: Location. Location. Location. That’s the first thing that came to mind when we got word today that Codemasters had reached a deal with Activision Blizzard to buy UK-based developer, Swordfish Studios. If you’ve got that odd sense of déjà vu, you’re not alone. Earlier this week, we reported that developer Monumental Games had also acquired Swordfish from Activision Blizzard. No, this isn’t a case of double dipping, and yes, both news bites are correct … it’s just a matter of location.
(more…)

It looks like everyone’s circling around these days for a piece of the Activision Blizzard castoffs. In just the past week, we’ve reported on Atari picking up the Ghostbusters game and Ubisoft’s acquisition of Massive Entertainment, and now comes word that UK-based developer Monumental Games has picked up Swordfish Studios from Activision.

As a result of the deal, Swordfish Studio Head, Mike Delves, will join the Monumental management team to head up the business that will now be known as Monumental Manchester. Commenting on the Swordfish acquisition, Delves stated, “The Manchester team have already been getting to know their counterparts from Nottingham and we’re really excited about working together and all the new opportunities this represents. Monumental have clearly been the ones to watch for a while now, and we’re glad to be playing a crucial part in a new phase of growth.”
(more…)