The Gaming News Thread

[frogbeastegg]

Stardock opening second studio with plans for a cross platform (PC included) RPG

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Helped in part by generous Michigan tax breaks, developer/publisher Stardock (Sins of a Solar Empire, Demigod) is planning a $900,000 expansion of its headquarters to accomodate development of a new PC roleplaying game.

The expansion will create some 53 jobs, pushing the company's workforce to well over 100 employees--an impressive number for the once-modest Plymouth, Michigan based studio.

Any new RPG in development is great news IMO

[TevashSzat]

Lots of Bad News.....

Axe drops at Warhammer dev as subs sink to 300K

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With MMORPG's subscriber base shrinking rapidly, Mark Jacobs confirms his studio is "resizing"; rumors put cuts at up to 130.

As part of its grim earnings report yesterday, Electronic Arts announced that it lost $641 million during the October-December quarter of last year. One reason behind the shortfall was the declining subscriber base of the Mythic Entertainment-developed Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Though the game hit 750,000 subscribers three weeks after the game's launch in September, EA said yesterday that the North American and European base had fallen to just 300,000.

Now, it appears as if Warhammer Online's dwindling user base is having an adverse effect on its developer. In a post to Warhammer Online's official Web site, Mythic studio GM Mark Jacobs confirmed that his studio is undergoing a measure of downsizing, maintaining that the head-count reduction is a product of the game's life cycle.

"Mythic has always been committed to maintaining a high level of development and customer service to our MMO players," said Jacobs. "Though we are resizing the team to move from a prelaunch to a postlaunch size, we remain fully committed to creating and delivering the best WAR experience."

Jacobs went on to say that staff reductions in the customer service, quality assurance, and play-testing departments were a result of decreased demand, now that players have become acclimated to the massively multiplayer online game. "Staffing numbers will always map to consumer needs--it goes up when we launch new products and expand popular ones, and comes back down as players become familiar with the game," said Jacobs.

The Mythic GM did not specifically say how much lighter his studio is running. However, game blog Joystiq asserts that the total layoffs ranged between 60 and 130, with a number of senior designers among those served their walking papers.

EA expects to drop head count across its many studios by 1,100 in the coming months. The publisher has already enacted a number of these cuts, with such studios as Skate 2 and Need for Speed developer Black Box and Madden NFL office EA Tiburon both having confirmed layoffs in the past month.

24% of THQ staff cut after $192 million Q4 loss

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More than 600 workers pink-slipped after 30% revenue decline; Saints Row 2 ships more than 2.6 million, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 tops 4 million.

Anyone hoping that the Bataan Death March of gloomy game-publisher earning reports would end soon saw their prayers go unheeded this week. The day after Electronic Arts reported a $641 million loss for the quarter ended December 31, 2008, THQ turned in its financial numbers for the same period.


The three months saw the Saints Row 2 publisher suffer a net loss of $191.8 million ($2.86 per share), way down from the $15.5 million profit ($0.23 cents per share) that it reported during the same period in 2007. Overall, THQ's October-December revenue fell 30 percent year-on-year from $509.6 million (2007) to $357.3 million (2008).

As a result of its financial shortfall, THQ plans to lay off 24 percent of its worldwide workforce, or 600 people. The announcement comes three months after THQ closed five internal studios and streamlined another two. Just 10 days later, it announced that it was trimming back its release schedule to just one or two games for the hardcore market each year.

"We delivered high-quality games to market this holiday season, but fell short of our revenue and profit targets in this challenging environment," said Farrell in a statement. "We are taking highly targeted actions with the objective of investing in games with the highest franchise potential and returning to profitability. We have executed on our previously announced plan to reduce our cost structure by $120 million. Given continued economic weakness, we plan to reduce costs by an additional $100 million."

THQ's losses came despite what looked like solid numbers for some of the holiday releases to which Farrell referred. The decently received WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 shipped--not sold--more than 4 million units, followed by the better-regarded Saints Row 2 with 2.6 million units. The critically praised de Blob shipped some 700,000 units.

And Some Good......

Metal Gear Solid 4 hits 4.5 million, Konami posts $195 million profit

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Solid Snake continues to inject liquid currency into Japanese publisher, which saw sales rise to $2.56 billion for last nine months of 2008; full-year outlook lowered, however.

Solid Snake continues to get it done for Konami. Today, the Japanese game maker reported its results for the April-December period, saying that total revenues for the first nine months of its 2009 fiscal year grew 5.1 percent to ¥234 billion ($2.56 billion). Konami's profit margins also continued to outpace the year-ago period, given that net income rose 17.3 percent to ¥17.8 billion ($195 million).

Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, which was released exclusively for the PlayStation 3 in June, continued to be one of the company's top performers. The top-rated action adventure sold more than 4.5 million units in 2008, shifting approximately 500,000 additional copies in the October-December quarter.

For the first nine months of its current fiscal year, which runs from April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009, Konami has sold 22.35 million software units across its various franchises. In addition to Metal Gear's gains, the publisher has been bolstered by the success of its Pro Evolution Soccer franchise, which has sold more than 7.41 million units during the nine-month period. Other top performers for the game company include Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia for the Nintendo DS, as well as installments in its perennial Dance Dance Revolution rhythm franchise.

Despite Konami's positive growth during the period, the publisher provided a warning to investors that the global economic downturn will have a negative impact on its full-year returns. Citing slower consumer spending and a strengthening of the yen, Konami revised its full-year revenue and profit outlook downward. The publisher now expects revenues to rise 3.2 percent to ¥307 billion ($3.36 billion) during the year, with profits now projected to grow a mere .3 percent to ¥18.5 billion ($203 million).

Stardock opening new studio

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Sins of a Solar Empire publisher expands Michigan operations thanks to state tax incentive; reveals new RPG in development.

Yesterday, EA announced that it would be extending its head-count reduction to include 1,100 positions, thanks to mounting losses that tallied $681 million during its October-December quarter. Today, THQ followed up that news with word that 24 percent of its workforce--or 600 staffers--were on the outs due to a 30 percent slip in revenue. So, isn't it high time somebody announced some good news?

Today, Sins of a Solar Empire publisher Stardock Entertainment said that it plans to open a second studio in Michigan and in the process hire up to 50 new employees. The game maker's new studio will focus on creating an unannounced role-playing game, which Stardock plans to self-publish. The new studio was made possible thanks to tax incentives and communication-infrastructure upgrades approved by the Michigan Economic Growth Authority.

"We're very pleased with the support we've received from Wayne County and the state of Michigan," said Stardock president and CEO Brad Wardell in a statement. "We think Michigan is well placed to become a hub for technology companies thanks to new programs from the state to make Michigan more competitive to do business in. We look forward to continuing our strong growth with additional development projects over the next couple of years."

Stardock is currently at work on a number of projects. The independent game maker is signed on to publish Gas Powered Games' role-playing/real-time strategy hybrid Demigod this spring. In November 2008, Stardock announced its fantasy RTS Elemental: War of Magic for the PC, which is currently slated to be released in February 2010. Though long under the radar, Stardock is also building the massively multiplayer real-time strategy game Society, which was first announced in 2005.

Beyond the game spectrum, Stardock also hosts the digital delivery platform Impulse and creates a range of Windows custom-interface software utilities

[Caius]

We will not let you experiment our games, says GameTap

This Thursday, GameTap will remove 97 games from its gratis lineup, making them available only to Gold subscribers. The current free lineup consists of 145 titles, making this a 67% reduction in games. Of course, quality is more important than quantity in this situation, and there are several noteworthy titles (Tomb Raider: Legend, Deus Ex, Psychonauts) being removed.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

The crysis people bought the Haze people? More unimpressive shooters coming up, I guess.

[Martok]

Stardock opening second studio with plans for a cross platform (PC included) RPG

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Helped in part by generous Michigan tax breaks, developer/publisher Stardock (Sins of a Solar Empire, Demigod) is planning a $900,000 expansion of its headquarters to accomodate development of a new PC roleplaying game.

The expansion will create some 53 jobs, pushing the company's workforce to well over 100 employees--an impressive number for the once-modest Plymouth, Michigan based studio.

Any new RPG in development is great news IMO

Holy crap. I'd no idea this was in the works.

I knew Stardock was planning on *eventually* making an RPG in the spirit of the Baldurs Gate series, but I didn't think it would happen this soon. Outstanding news.

[TevashSzat]

Capcom, Konami shack up with Home in Japan

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Game Watch lists Koei, Tecmo, Ubisoft, and Activision as among 24 companies putting down stakes in PlayStation 3's virtual world.

If there's one overlying complaint about Sony's PlayStation Home open beta, it's the lack of options of things to actually do. Sony has no intention of leaving Home barren, however, as the PlayStation 3 maker revealed 24 developers and publishers who have signed on to create content for the service at a press conference in Japan.

As reported by Japanese-language site Game Watch, the new partners range from the obvious to the obscure. Big-name players include Activision, Konami, Capcom, Sega, and Ubisoft, as well as the previously announced Electronic Arts. However, Sony also said that smaller Japanese game makers such as Acquire, AQ Interactive, Genki, and Irem have also enlisted to create content for the service.

One of the first games to take advantage of Home will be Capcom's Resident Evil 5. As detailed by Sony Global Home Division director Junji Shoda, Capcom is creating a Resident Evil 5 lounge for Home that will integrate with the game. As players progress through the survival horror shooter, new minigames will unlock in the Resident Evil 5 area, Shoda reportedly said.

A full roster of current Home licensees is listed below.

Acquire
Activision
AQ Interactive
Atlus
Capcom
D3 Publisher
Disney Interactive
EA
Game Republic
Genki
Gungho
Hudson
Irem
Koei
Konami
Namco Bandai
Nippon Ichi
Paon
Q Entertainment
Sega
SNK Playmore
Spike
Tecmo
Ubisoft

Square Enix shares circle six-year low

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Just months after it made a $200 million bid for Tecmo, RPG giant's share price slides 11 percent after earnings report delay.

The past week saw a series of game company earnings reports from Electronic Arts, THQ, Capcom, and Konami. Today, it was supposed to be Square Enix's turn, but the Final Fantasy XIII publisher decided yesterday to delay its earnings announcement until February 12.

Whatever the factors behind it, the announcement delay had an immediate impact on Square Enix's share price. On Thursday, its value plummeted on the news, closing at ¥1,972 ($21.45) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. That was its lowest closing price since May of 2003, shortly after one-time competitors Square Co. and Enix Corporation merged. The stock rebounded somewhat on Friday, ending the day at ¥2,080 ($22.62).

This week's Square Enix troubles stand in stark contrast to last August, when the publisher's financial position allowed it to make a $200 million offer for Ninja Gaiden publisher Tecmo. Though Tecmo opted for a now-consummated union with Dynasty Warriors-maker Koei, Square Enix vowed it would look for other acquisitions. Whether it is still in the financial position to do so will be made clear by next week's earnings report.

[TevashSzat]

Sega Sammy cuts 560 jobs

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Sonic house solicits voluntary retirement from 18 percent of workforce, plans to close 110 arcades; full-year earnings revised downward.

Another day, another massive round of layoffs for the gaming industry. In tandem with grim fiscal results earlier this year, third-party publishers such as Electronic Arts and THQ as well as first-party hardware makers such as Microsoft have cut head count in bids to staunch hemorrhaging losses. Today, Sega Sammy stepped up to the plate, announcing as part of its disappointing nine-month earnings report that it will cut 560 jobs, or 18 percent of its workforce.

Sega Sammy plans to enact its head-count reduction by calling for an early retirement of the specified number of employees. The company expects to issue this call in two weeks, and plans to conclude its cuts by March 31, 2009, the end of its current fiscal year. It also plans to close an additional 110 amusement facilities, as well as scale back its research-and-development expenditures by 20 percent compared to last year.

Sega Sammy's deep cuts come in the face of slipping revenues and mounting losses. For the first nine months of its current fiscal year, Sega Sammy posted shrinking revenues of ¥309 billion ($3.41 billion), which was down from ¥342 billion ($3.78 billion) during the year-ago period. Losses hit ¥10 billion ($119 million) for the nine-month period, which was actually an improvement over the ¥15 billion ($174 million) Sega lost during the same period last year.

"During the first three quarters of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, the Japanese economy faced more severe hardships as pressure on corporate earnings from the ongoing and sharp rise in the yen, the country's worsening job picture, and other factors amid continued turmoil in the global financial markets, raised concerns that the real economy would slow further," Sega Sammy said in a statement.

Though Sega Sammy's primary area of business remains its profitable pachinko machines, the company also draws a significant amount of its revenue from its less-than-profitable video game division. During the reporting period, the segment posted an operating loss of ¥5 billion ($62.4 million) on revenues of ¥96 billion ($1.06 billion) for the period. Sega Sammy said that game sales were led by current fiscal-year releases Sonic Unleashed and Football Manager 2009, as well as continued sales of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

Sega Sammy doesn't expect its fiscal fourth quarter to prop up flagging financial results for the full year. As part of its earnings announcement today, Sega Sammy revised its full-year sales outlook downward 7.4 percent to ¥435 billion ($4.77 billion), with losses expected to total ¥26.5 billion ($290 million).

Nintendo opening new $141M R&D facility

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Kyoto-based Wii maker plans to consolidate product development efforts in 40,000 square foot campus near current headquarters.

As part of its nine-month earnings report in January, Nintendo severely disappointed investors by revising its full-year earnings downward 9 percent and cutting its profit projections by an onerous 36 percent. The thing is, even despite the hit, Nintendo still expects to pull in a record-setting gob of cash for the year, to the tune of ¥230 billion ($2.54 billion) on revenues of ¥1.82 trillion ($20.1 billion).

Sufficiently flush with money, the Kyoto, Japan-based game maker has revealed plans to build a new research and development office near its current headquarters. As reported by Japanese financial news service Nikkei Net, the facility will be constructed in close proximity to its current headquarters on a 40,000 square meter lot Nintendo purchased for ¥12.8 billion ($141.6 million) in December.

After a poor showing from the GameCube, Nintendo's R&D department turned the tide during the current hardware generation, thanks to the innovative input methods of the Wii and DS. Through December, Nintendo's console had sold 44.96 million units globally since launching in late 2006, while the DS had sold 96.22 million units over the course of its three iterations since the original system launched in 2004.

Nintendo representatives informed Nikkei that the new facility will be devoted to creating new game consoles as well as software for the Wii and DS. Previously, Nintendo's R&D department operated out of two different facilities, and the new setup is intended to help the teams more effectively collaborate, a Nintendo representative said. Nikkei notes that Nintendo has not yet determined when it plans to integrate the two facilities.

Nielsen: US game marketing tab = $823 millio

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According to an oft-quoted--and oft-abused--axiom, one has to spend money to make money. Given that the US gaming industry posted record retail sales of $22 billion last year, it stands to reason that tens--if not hundreds--of millions of marketing dollars were spent to reach that figure. However, given that historically no study has quantified the game-industry's overall advertising expenditures, it has remained a mystery exactly how much publishers and platform holders spend hawking their wares.

Today, that changed. The Nielsen Company, the industry research firm best-known for issuing the television ratings that make or break shows, revealed its estimate of US expenditures on advertising and marketing games. The company puts the figure at $823 million for 2008, a little less than 4 percent of the total game-industry market.

Nielsen was assisted in its calculations by the game-industry intelligence firm Electronic Entertainment Design and Research. The figure was announced as part of a new collaboration between the two companies which will integrate Nielsen's Monitor-Plus advertising-tracking service with EEDAR's Game DNA historical database of game features. Information gleaned from the joint effort will be available in subsequent studies from both companies

Wanted dev: Multiplayer hurts games

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Executive producer Pete Wanat says studios spend too much time and money shoehorning feature into games that don't need it.

When Wanted: Weapons of Fate arrives for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC next month, gamers who pick up the interactive sequel to last year's action film will get the chance to try out their bullet-curving technique on the game's many assassin adversaries. However, they won't be able to twist lead into one another, given that the third-person shooter lacks a multiplayer mode.

During an appearance on the latest installment of GameSpot's HotSpot podcast, Universal Pictures Digital Platforms Group's Pete Wanat--the executive producer on Weapons of Fate--explained the reasons behind that decision. Wanat said that most people who play multiplayer games just play the best of the bunch, and that developers spend too much effort putting multiplayer modes into games that don't need them.

"For the most part, we waste our money and our time building multiplayer levels," Wanat said. "And why do we do this? Because a couple years ago the press was all about saying, 'This game has to have multiplayer, there's no replayability.' F*** that. That's a bad joke."

Wanat added that oftentimes the pressure to make a multiplayer version of a game comes from a publisher's marketing department. Just having that feature on the back of a box, the argument goes, makes it easier to sell a game.
"What it does is it hurts the single-player game," Wanat said. "You don't get to add multiplayer [at] no cost. If you're going to make a multiplayer version, you take people, time, and money away from the single-player experience. And that all goes to hurt the single player. ... Not everybody is Bungie. Not everybody can have 100 guys working on their multiplayer. The Call of Duty 4 guys? If they want to do multiplayer, then do multiplayer. We'll play the f*** out of multiplayer in Call of Dut

[TevashSzat]

Activision Blizzard posts Q4 loss despite record revs

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[UPDATE] Call of Duty: WAW, Guitar Hero World Tour, and Wrath of the Lich King help mint $2.3 billion in three months; megapublisher still loses $72 million but rules out "mass layoffs"; Wii DJ Hero confirmed for this year, Starcraft II beta coming in "next few months."

The past several weeks have seen a steady stream of dreary financial results, with THQ, Sega, Sony, and Electronic Arts all announcing losses and layoffs. However, several companies have issued positive earnings reports, including Ubisoft, Take-Two, and Nintendo.

Today, the biggest third-party publisher of them all, Activsion Blizzard, weighed in with an earnings announcement that's both good and bad. On the one hand, the company's record $2.3 billion in October-December net revenue beat the $2.15 billion a Thomson Reuters survey of analysts had predicted. On the other, the company posted a $72 million loss during a quarter when it launched new entries in its three biggest franchises: Guitar Hero World Tour (October 26), Call of Duty: World at War (November 10), and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (November 13).

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick played down the loss with a backhanded dig at staff-cut-beset competitors. "We won't be distracted by layoffs and restructuring and things that other companies are going to be distracted with," Kotick told Reuters. "We don't respond to managing our operating expenses because there's a financial crisis, we do it all the time."

Despite Kotick's upbeat tone, the markets reacted swiftly and negatively. In after-hours trading, Activision Blizzard's stock was down over 5 percent, trading at $9 as of press time.

Speaking with analysts in a conference call, Activision Blizzard CFO Thomas Tippl said that the company may take advantage of the dismal economic climate to add talent to its internal roster. "A long, challenging economic environment may provide acquisition opportunities due to strong cash position," he said. According to Kotick, Activision Blizzard currently has over $3 billion in cash reserves with zero debt load.

[UPDATE] Looking ahead, Activision predicts revenues of $4.2 billion for the full 2009 calendar year (not the current fiscal year, as was initially reported). The company said that figure included $600 million in downward revisions--$400 million due to a stronger-than-expected US dollar and $200 million "from the company's lower margin distribution and the co-publishing businesses."

In a conference call with analysts, executives noted the $200 million revision was in part due to the delay of the next James Bond game. The title, rumored to be a driving-centric game from Bizarre Creations, is being pushed back into calendar year 2010 "to avoid head to head competition with Call of Duty: [Modern Warfare 2.]"

[UPDATE] Highlights from the conference call are listed below:

--DJ Hero reconfirmed as coming out in 2009 on a variety of platforms, with the Wii specifically mentioned; no price point yet.

--2009 will see a new Tony Hawk game on the Wii. It is unclear if the game will be the widely rumored skateboard-peripheral-based Tony Hawk's Adrenaline.

--Upcoming Tony Hawk again described as being radically different. "We said we would reinvent this franchise from the ground up and we've developed an interactive approach for Tony that should allow us to broaden the appeal of skateboarding beyond the core to mass market audiences," Activision Publishing president Michael Griffith told analysts. "More details later for competitive reasons."

--Yet another Guitar Hero game coming to DS. No word on whether it will use the Game Boy Advance slot, which the forthcoming DSi does not have.

--New Greatest Hits Guitar Hero games for 360, PS3, and Wii, which will feature full-band renditions of top songs from earlier, guitar-only GH titles.

--Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is now officially official.

--New racing game from Activision-owned Bizarre Creations confirmed by year's end. Again, no details for now "due to competitive reasons."

--Starcraft II beta test will begin "in the next few months." No launch date yet.

--Guitar Hero "installed base" now tops 32 million worldwide. Executives later clarify that this figure is the total number of Guitar Hero units sold worldwide and doesn't take into account multiple guitars and games owned by the same person or in the same household.

--Guitar Hero outsells Rock Band 4 to 1 in terms of overall series sales, say executives.

--The PS2 edition of Guitar Hero: Metallica will trail the other versions, due in March, by several months.

--Activision says its continued support of the PS2 will depend on whether Sony cuts the console's price down the line.

--Tippl admits Activision "could've done better on the cost front in terms of the launch of Guitar Hero World Tour." Says production issues raised the per-unit cost, and Activision is making adjustments to prevent the same problems occurring in the coming year.

--The sinking cost of petroleum--which is used to make the plastic in the guitars and drum kits--will also improve Activision's profit margins on Guitar Hero hardware in the coming year.

Midway bankrupt

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Faced with $240 million debt deadline, the once-mighty Mortal Kombat-maker files for Chapter 11 protection; Mortal Kombat vs. DC shipments near 2 million.

After months of slowly twisting in the financial wind, Midway Games has finally filed for bankruptcy. The Chicago-based publisher today submitted a petition in a federal bankruptcy court in Delaware to seek protection under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code. The company blamed the move on last November's "change in ownership," when then-majority stockholder Sumner Redstone sold off his 87 percent stake in the company--valued at $30 million--for $100,000.


"This was a difficult but necessary decision," Midway Chairman, President, and CEO Matt Booty said in a statement. "We have been focused on realigning our operations and improving our execution, and this filing will relieve the immediate pressure from our creditors and provide us time for an orderly exploration of our strategic alternatives. This Chapter 11 filing is the next logical step in an ongoing process to address our capital structure."

Today's move will allow Midway to reorganize to pay off its creditors, to which the company owes $240 million--or $72.5 million more than the company's $167.5 million in total assets as of September 2008. Currently, the company's worth is substantially more, as it has now shipped (not sold) nearly 2 million copies of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. The publisher also played up the fact that its TNA Impact! title also shipped over 1 million units, with its Game Party franchise selling over 3 million units as of the end of 2008. Its overhead has been drastically decreased as well, with the company announcing plans to lay off 25 percent of its workforce last December.

Though today's filing might sound final to the layman, Midway's bankruptcy is actually a beginning, not an ending. "These filings tend to be fairly drawn out and slow-moving, and business can take place normally while the bankruptcy proceeds play out, so I would expect any games coming out over the next 2-3 months to be safe, so that would include the Wheelman launch," Signal Hill analyst Todd Greenwald told GameSpot. "As for whether the company can recover long-term, I certainly hope so, but can’t say with any certainty. The fact that Eidos is getting a bid from Square Enix is potentially a good sign, though. "

Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter was similarly upbeat about Midway's ultimate fate. "The creditors will decide, but my guess is that Midway recapitalizes (the creditors turn debt into stock), and gets some new financing so that it can either recover or be sold," he explained. "A going concern is worth a lot more than a liquidation, given that the key talent will leave if the company is liquidated. Look at Acclaim, 3DO and Interplay, where there was nothing left after liquidation, and contrast with Eidos, which has a bid for £84 million on the table. The creditors have to realize that they can collect $100 million plus if they can get this thing turned around."

Square Enix bids for Eidos

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Tomb Raider publisher's board accepts £84.3 million offer, unanimously recommends deal to shareholders.

The identity of the company with which Eidos Interactive--formerly known as SCi Entertainment--entered takeover talks in January has been revealed. Today, the board of the beleaguered publisher revealed that it has come to an agreement with none other than Japanese role-playing game giant Square Enix.

Talking about the deal, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada said: "Eidos' products are highly complementary to our business and will accelerate our aggressive expansion into Western markets." In the announcement of the offer, the Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Hitman, Thief, Championship Manager, and Just Cause franchises were called out as being among "the world's leading video game properties."

The Japanese publisher's offer of £84.3 million ($120 million) is being unanimously recommended to Eidos shareholders by the firm's board. That total represents an offer of 32 pence ($0.46) per share, which is more than triple the company's value when the approach was made, and double its share price when the London Stock Exchange closed yesterday. Since the announcement this morning, Eidos shares have climbed further, peaking at 31.25p ($0.45)--a 123 percent rise from the opening bell.

The announcement follows the news in January, shortly before Eidos announced that it had received and was considering a takeover approach, that sales of Tomb Raider Underworld had failed to meet expectations. Last year, the company shed 20 percent of its workforce, and its CEO admitted that the company needed "immediate change" to deliver appropriate returns to its investors.

Square Enix has been looking for acquisition targets to expand its global reach for some time, with Wada saying that his firm was "talking with quite a few companies in and outside of Japan," with a view to acquisitions. The move follows the Japanese publishing house's unsuccessful $200m move for Tecmo, and comes as its own share price is in the doldrums, nearing a six-year low. The company also released its delayed revised financial projections for the current financial year, downgrading its expected net income by 62.5 percent, blaming conditions in the arcade and offline gaming segments of its business.

[Crandaeolon]

No mention of Onlive yet?

News article:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10202688-235.html

One-hour video presentation from GDC 2009:
http://www.gamespot.com/shows/on-the...e_spot20090324

[Monk]

No mention of Onlive yet?

News article:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10202688-235.html

One-hour video presentation from GDC 2009:
http://www.gamespot.com/shows/on-the...e_spot20090324

OnLive looks incredibly promising and at the same looks like it could be incredibly hard to implement. Imagine how many people are going to sign up on day one. Imagine the that will occur if the developers of this new community/distribution system do not have the hardware in place to cater to demand. All one has to do is recall the launch of steam. For an idea of what may be to come.

Personally? I hope OnLive works. It sounds amazing, but I won't go throwing roses at the feet of those responsible until we get the system ourselves. That way we can see, without a shadow of a doubt or flashy promos, what works and what doesn't.