Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft, UbiSoft, Namco Buy 3DO Assets
Steve Shewchuk writes "3DO, the publisher known for its Might and Magic, Army Men, and High Heat Baseball franchises, has successfully auctioned off a number of its assets after its transition into bankruptcy protection. High Heat Baseball has been purchased by Microsoft, while the Might and Magic series went to Ubisoft. Street Racing Syndicate sold to Namco Hometek, but there's no word on Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, one of the biggest 'in production' games before 3DO went bankrupt."
I don't know if Ubisoft buying Might and Magic is a good thing, I haven't been wowed by any of their titles that I have played. I'm insanely addicted to Heroes, and have been kind enough to spread that addiction to many others. I was disheaterned to hear 3DO had gone bankrupt. Hopefully Ubisoft will do justice to the franchise.
Apathy...make it a way of life.
Great -- there goes High Heat baseball. The franchise has suffered in years past: 3DO had a single-minded focus on getting the product out the door, and then would abandon it. The user community would release all kinds of cool add-ons, such as stadiums, uniforms, etc., but we never got so much as a patch from 3DO.
Microsoft Baseball from the late 90s was OK for the time, but it's arcade style was worlds away from the true-to-life experience that HH provided. This is a sad day for baseball sims. I'm glad EA took a step in the right direction with this year's offering, but for me, now it's the only game in town.
I LOVE the Heroes of Might and Magic series. UbiSoft also made a number of games that I thought were quite good. (They were involved with a lot of the Tom Clancy games.)
I cant wait to see what they do with it.
But, thats just my opinion,
SirLantos
The flying hamster of DOOM rains coconuts on your pitiful city.
Didn't 3DO have some really interesting hardware patents? - I know that after Commodore went bust, a lot of Amiga hardware designers went to work for 3DO, and as a result 3DO had some cool Amiga style custom-chip trickery.
Does anyone know what's happenned to any hardware patents 3DO might have had?
I hope Microsoft doesn't buy the Army Men rights - the little green pains in the ass will wind up as characters for the Office Assistant.
"A-ten-HUT, Private, looks like you could use some help."
This detachment from the fans of their games spells potential lawsuits coming. There are two fan-based Might and Magic games in being produced, and judging from the technical demo I've played, they look great. Fans were extremely active in other areas as well. They released a patch that fixed the otherwise disastrous Might and Magic IX, which 3DO toletrated even though it was a blatant violation of the EULA (no files modification clause). There is a whole host of fan fiction available. In fact, 3DO often embraced the fans' efforts, including the 20 best maps from a contest into the second Heroes of Might and Magic expansion. I'm afraid that UBI Soft won't be as lenient. I've seen them sending cease-and-desist letters for lesser offenses, and that makes me worried that they'll destroy one of the most devoted fan communities in no time.
..march into that giant bubbling lava vat in the sky.
If someone doesn't buy this game and finish it off, I might have to organize a real apocalypse.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman