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Major Game Companies Bid For 3DO Assets

Posted by simoniker on from the wolves-have-attorneys-and-large-deposits dept.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Reuters/Yahoo report revealing that seven video game companies have qualified to bid in the auction for the assets of bankrupt publisher 3DO Co. The assets of the recently defunct developer/publisher are being displayed at the 3DOinfo.com website, and the article indicates that "In a notice filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Francisco, 3DO's attorneys said Microsoft, Eidos, Ubi Soft, JoWooD Productions Software AG, Namco Hometek Inc., Turbine Entertainment Software Corp. and Crave Entertainment filed by Wednesday's deadline to bid in the Aug. 14 auction." Their specific targets weren't revealed, but it's easy to speculate that companies such as Turbine might be interested in the Heroes Of Might And Magic license - other assets up for sale include High Heat Baseball and Army Men.

25 comments

  1. It's kind of sad... by double-oh+three · · Score: 1, Informative

    It's kind of sad that one of the only companies where the CEO used his own private capital to try and keep it afloat went belly-up.

    --
    "For years, I struggled with reality... but I'm happy to say I finally won out over it." -- Elwood P. Dowd
    1. Re:It's kind of sad... by mahdi13 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Bryon Fargo used his pocket money to keep Interplay going...then Targus bought them and fired Bryon
      Talk about sad =(

      --
      "Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
    2. Re:It's kind of sad... by Colonel+Blimp · · Score: 1

      More than sad, I still own stock from long ago in this trainwreck. At least I can write some of it off hopefully....

  2. Good! by kmak · · Score: 1

    I hate it when these big companies buys a small company with a good franchise, like Heroes of Might and Magic, and just keep pumping out crap sequels...

    All they kept on doing was improving the graphics, and the gameplay was more or less the same - no new innovations whatsoever.

    They also did the same to High Heat Baseball.. the 2002 version was like rated the best baseball game.. and then they just got lazy, and now that honor goes to MVP Baseball of EA Sports...

    I just don't like how they handled all these franchises which I actually enjoyed at one time.. ah well..

    --

    I'm not the devil.. just his advocate.
    1. Re:Good! by kmak · · Score: 1

      That's probably true, but I was referring to PC version, which there isn't a World Series Baseball..

      --

      I'm not the devil.. just his advocate.
    2. Re:Good! by kmak · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      I apologize, but hey, if you were going to troll me on what's a better game, you'll always find something when you try really hard anyhow.. I'm an idiot, and just trying to make a point..

      (You don't happen to work for 3DO, do you?)

      --

      I'm not the devil.. just his advocate.
    3. Re:Good! by kmak · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Now I'm getting off-topic (actually, to be more clear, that was a few post ago), but sure.

      (I wish I had, I loved HoMM...)

      --

      I'm not the devil.. just his advocate.
    4. Re:Good! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't feed the trolls!

  3. fighting over 3DO by chill182 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Company 1: I want the crappy Army Men franchise!
    Company 2: No I want it! You can't have it.
    C1: But with 3DO's sucky lineup of games I could release twice as much video game vomit a year!
    C2: If I don't get 3DO I'll have go back to punching kids in the gut and stealing their lunch money. Granted, it's not as morally apprehensible as releasing Army Men games but it's also not nearly as lucrative.

  4. My two cents by NetDanzr · · Score: 1

    I'm personally torn between Microsoft and JoWooD. The former is slowly getting known for very stable releases; unlike with other big publishers, it seems like you need much fewer patches with Microsoft gaming products. The problem here is the lack of interraction with the fan community. JoWooD is not as technically proficient, but their fan interraction is second to none in this group. And considering what they did with Arx Fatalis (even though they were only the publishers), I can see some future for Might and Magic here.

    I'm not really sure what Namco does in this group at all, and I'm pretty much indifferent to them. Don't remember ever playing one of their games.Same with Crave. As for Turbine, their only claim to fame is Asheron's Call, and I don't want to see Might and Magic going MMORPG. I'm not very fond of Eidos, either. I can't see them publishing a turn-based strategy or a RPG game at all. The worst of the group is without any doubt UBI Soft. I wish they dies a slow, horrible death for all their crap they published.

    And as my luck has it, UBI Soft has been designated as the lead bidder for the Might and Magic franchise with a $1.3 million bid.

    1. Re:My two cents by PainKilleR-CE · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'm not really sure what Namco does in this group at all, and I'm pretty much indifferent to them. Don't remember ever playing one of their games

      Most recently they've been doing fighting games, Tekken and Soul Calibur are Namco franchises. Namco goes pretty far back, though, buying Atari (Japan) from Atari US back in the 70's and releasing arcade games such as Galaga, Galaxian, Pac-Man, Pole Position, and Xevious (Namco didn't sell coin-op arcade machines directly in the US until the 90's, so most of these games aren't normally associated with them here, Pac-Man, for instance, was distributed by Midway in the US). During the 90's they acquired Atari's arcade division and Aladdin's Castle Inc., which made them the largest arcade operator in the US.

      Also made Ridge Racer for the PS1, and Ridge Racer V for the PS2. They're also currently working with Nintendo on a couple of titles (Donkey Kong Racer and Star Fox), and they were rumoured to have been involved with Square and Enix before the SquareEnix merger.

      http://www.namco.co.jp/eg/history.html
      has most of the above and a bit more (like the information on their various Japanese amusement parks).

      --
      -PainKilleR-[CE]
    2. Re:My two cents by NetDanzr · · Score: 1

      Many thanks for the information; the site you mentioned proved to be very helpful. I never thought a non-PC gaming publisher would be interested in the 3DO franchises, which is why I assumed Namco was some obscure PC publisher. I'm ashamed to show my complete lack of console-based knowledge once again :(.

    3. Re:My two cents by Docktor · · Score: 1

      What's your major gripe with Ubi Soft? They had one of the best titles of last year in Splinter Cell. They are responsible for the strong Rainbow Six and Rayman franchises. This year at E3, they had some great new titles in XIII, Prince of Persia, and Beyond Good & Evil. That's a much stronger lineup than the third-tier products of JoWooD.

    4. Re:My two cents by NetDanzr · · Score: 1

      My main problem is their total disregard for their fans. They are the first to drop support of their older titles. For games that they still officially support, getting technical help is even harder than when dealing with Westwood. They are also responsible for one of the worst games of all time (from a technical perspective) - Pool of Radiance. Worst of all, however, they sell game boxes that contain CDs in paper sleeves and manuals in electronic format for full price. For example, they handled the distribution of Morrowind and its expansions in a few overseas markets. They left out the map and put the manual on the CD, yet they still sold it for the rough equivalent of $50, and not as a budget release.

    5. Re:My two cents by Radius9 · · Score: 1

      Namco was also the original developer of games like PacMan, even though Midway distributed it in the US. As for acquiring Atari's arcade division in the 90's, I do believe that is wrong. WMS Industries (Williams/Midway) acquired it, hence games like San Francisco Rush being released under the Atari name when in the arcades. Someone else owned the Atari name for home releases (not Namco), and everything that was Atari in the arcades was rebranded as a Midway game when released for the home. The Atari that was owned by Midway was all headquartered in Atari's original location in the San Francisco Bay Area, and had many of the original employees, including Ed Logg of Asteroids fame.

    6. Re:My two cents by PainKilleR-CE · · Score: 1

      From the site I referenced in my previous post:

      1974 Entered coin-operated videogame market through acquisition of Atari (Japan) Corp. from Atari Corp. of the U.S.

      1990
      Namco America Inc. began direct sales of coin-operated games in the U.S. and acquired Atari Operations Inc. to commence amusement arcade operations in the U.S. Established Namco Hometek Inc. as a U.S. distribution base for home videogame software.

      They didn't buy the name afaik, but they definitely bought assets that were needed to become a major US arcade operator (since they had no previous US arcade operations).

      --
      -PainKilleR-[CE]
    7. Re:My two cents by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      Let's not forget Chessmaster or Conquest (A very underrated RTS, in my opinion).

      Chris Mattern

  5. HotGen also by pommiekiwifruit · · Score: 1
    HotGen Studios closed their doors recently and the boss of that lost a lot of personal money. Not that the former employees were happy about the closure either.

    And that probably applies to most of the other smaller companies that have shut recently.

  6. Close Call by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    THANK GOD!!!!

    I was so worried that i wouldn't get to play "Armymen: Sarge's amazing shore leave adventure in the time eating zombie dimension"

    Its nice to know that somebody out there recognizes how important the franchises established by 3DO are to the future of gaming.

  7. Army Men by Kris_J · · Score: 1

    Just let the Army Men property die, for crying out loud.