Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming

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Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)

Monday, April 13, 2009

Who should buy Midway

Midway is on the chopping block. It's been a weird, relatively recent spiral for the game industry mainstay, but sadly, it looks like Midway may go the way of Atari or Acclaim (if it's lucky), reborn in another skin for a venerable brand.

So who should buy Midway? The brand's got cachet, IP, and ... loads of debt (likely the biggest stumbling block for purchase).

Allegedly, at least three companies are vying for Midway: Warner Brothers, Ubisoft and "a private Chicago investor" (not that that went well previously).

The first two are interesting options, I'm not going to speculate on the third, but what about a dark-horse fourth?

What about Epic Games?

Now, I'm being totally speculative, have no apriori knowledge, and this probably won't fly, but it struck me this morning that this could be a good match.

Think about it, Epic's into buying good dev teams in their bid for world domination (a la Chair Entertainment and People can Fly), Midway has a whole lot of experience using the Unreal Engine (basically making it their company-wide tech), but have grumbled about it (with some possible legal fallout that could be absorbed in an acquisition), the Unreal Tournament license has gone from Atari to Midway, and given Midway's current state, I doubt they can hold onto it.

I'm just saying.

I don't know what Epic's cap table looks like, if an acquisition is even feasible, what other discussions Epic is having with the likes of Microsoft in relation to the Gears franchise, or with Electronic Arts, who is the named publisher for the People Can Fly title, etc.

So, it's wildly speculative. But sometimes the more interesting Biz Dev thoughts are.

Labels: Business Development, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Microsoft, ramblings

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Zorsis is Dead Space for Wii's Daddy

OK, not really, but I am pretty tickled by the similarities.

If you're not up to speed on the Wii offering for the top-notch survival horror Dead Space title from Electronic Arts, it's not going to be a port -- it's going to be a prequel, implemented totally differently as an on-rails, almost light-gun(esque) title.

If you're not familiar with "Forbidden Terror on Station Z!" (aka, "Zorsis"), it's the technical demo Emergent Game Technologies did for our Wii engine offering for the 2008 GDC (I wanted a gritty, atypical Wii "grown-up" demo), and it's a zombie on-rails "light-gun" shooter (in space).

Here's a Zorsis screen cap from GDC a year ago:

Zorsis screenshot from Emergent Game Technologies; contact Adam Creighton for more information

And here's a screen cap of Dead Space: Extraction (shipping from EA this fall):

Even the Extraction targeting reticules have the same blue and orange motif!

All kidding aside, kudos to EA for not just shoe-horning Dead Space as a quick-and-dirty port to the Wii. This new entry in the franchise really showcases their commitment to treating it like a leverage able IP (not that the comic books, animated film, etc. didn't).

Still, there is a weird, kindred similarity to "Zorsis" ...

Zorsis gameplay vids (PC and Wii) can be found on YouTube, and you can download the PC version of the demo to play as well.

Labels: Electronic Arts, Gamebryo, GDC08, humor

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.