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By
David Jenkins
Gamasutra
January
30, 1998
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 News
Analysis
Eurospeak
Founder
Flees Probe Entertainment
Leaving
the safety of corporate nests to feather your own independent company
was a popular pastime of games developers, on both sides of the Atlantic,
last year. The trend looks like continuing in 1998 with UK stalwart Fergus
McGovern being the first big name to make the break. He plans to sever
all relations with Acclaim and start up his own independent games
company, on the first of June. Famous, in the UK at least, as the founder
and leading light of Probe Entertainment, McGovern’s knowledge of
both the development and publishing side of the business is highly regarded
by his peers. Even if South London-based Probe’s own, 15 year, reputation
is largely for quickie arcade and film conversions, rather than the quality
titles, such as the forthcoming FORSAKEN and recent EXTREME-G, that they
are capable of. The reasons for McGovern’s departure are, predictably,
that he has been unhappy working for Acclaim (who bought Probe in October
1995, for a deal rumoured to be worth $40m), and has been so for some
time. This unhappiness is allegedly due, in part, to the dramatic fall
in Acclaim’s share price since the acquisition of Probe. Despite
this, the actual split is reported to be amicable, with McGovern continuing
as the third largest private shareholder in Acclaim, but with no further
involvement in Probe. The setting up of a new development studio is planned
as being simultaneous with McGovern’s egress, so it seems reasonable
to expect some game announcements soon after.
In general most big publishers seem to be responding to developer’s
dislike of large corporations by getting even bigger. BMG Interactive
have taken a slightly odd angle on this idea, with suggestions of
a deal involving their entire European operations and obscure US publisher
ASC. Parent group Bertelsmann has long been unconvinced of the viability
of their interactive arm, especially after the US interactive division
was closed down last year. A means of profitably relieving themselves
of their software arm has therefore been on the cards for some months.
It now seems likely that BMG Interactive will merge with Connecticut-based
ASC Games. ASC’s lack of internal development or European presence,
means the merger would certainly make sense for them. In fact the two
companies have already been working together with BMG publishing ASC’s
ONE in Europe, and ASC handling GRAND THEFT AUTO in the States.
ASC Games have denied any suggestion of a rumour but BMG Interactive have
admitted that their future is in doubt as things stand now. Interestingly
Bertelsmann will still retain an interest in BMG, whatever happens to
it, so their faith in the games industry can’t be entirely diminished.
With the success of CONSTRUCTOR veteran British developer System 3 have
bounced back from their long years locked in the release-less realms of
obscurity. Eidos Interactive, at least, are unlikely to be happy about
this though, for their recent release of the US developed MYTH has resulted
in a law suite from the Lancashire based reincarnates. The reason for
the legal altercation is that System 3 also have a game called MYTH, only
this one was first released, to some acclaim, in 1989 with other versions
appearing as late as 1992 and a PlayStation revamp planned for later this
year. System 3 insists that they have tried to avoid the use of
lawyers, admitting that Bungie Software were probably initially unaware
of their namesake’s existence. Brows became furrowed though when
Eidos refused to respond to suggestions that a name change might be in
order. Thus legal action has begun both in the UK and the US. Eidos haven’t
commented on the situation, but System 3’s founder Mark Cale admits
that "We feel bitter…that Eidos and Bungie are trading on the goodwill
generated by our game in the past". After Nintendo’s high profile
renaming of both StarFox games, apparently because of a couple of ancient
8-bit games, it looks like System 3’s winning run will continue.
Poor old Sega, they really are becoming the easy targets for just about
anyone else in the industry who fancies a bit of Mickey-taking. The way
things are going though the jokes might become stale much faster than
imagined, if only because Sega Europe appears to be following their little
blue mascot into an unnatural hibernation. Twenty Sega Europe staff are
to be made redundant over the next few weeks, with only a skeleton staff
left at the London and French offices. This follows the loss of 60 people
in the US last week (leaving only 120 at the California HQ!), and the
announcement that Shoichiro Imajiri will be taking over as president in
Japan. All hopes are obviously perched on the 1999 release of Katana (or
whatever it’s called this week), but with developer support unofficially
gauged as "interested, but not ecstatic" it seems entirely possible that
the smarmy blue hedgehog might not make it to the millennium.
Sony’s only millennial worries are likely to centre on how big to
make the celebrations. For this week Sony announced that the UK
installed user base for the PlayStation has passed the 2 million
mark. Over 2,100,000 units have been sold since the console’s release
in September 1995, making it the most successful computer system ever
in the UK, and the fastest-selling. To commemorate their success Sony
have come over all charitable and joined with the Prince [Charles]’s
Trust to release a second charity CD-ROM. The first CD featured a number
of prominent demos and managed to sell 30,000 copies. The new disc features
golden oldies BROKEN SWORD, ROAD RASH, and MYST and will retail for £39.99
($63.98), hopefully raising up £1m ($1.6m) for the Trust’s various
endeavours.
David Jenkins works with British Telecom's Wireplay, an online gaming
service. He also contributes to Develop, Europe’s premier
newsletter for computer game developers and publishers, and CTW,
the weekly trade magazine. He has also been involved in the organisation
of the Develop! and Online conferences in London.
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