News

Week of September 10 - September 17, 2000

[Thursday, September 14, 2000]

Infogrames Looting
Shareholders of the former GT Interactive are alleging that Infogrames has looted the company. London's The Times newspaper is reporting that two U.S. investors are filing suit against the company, claiming that directors of Infogrames, Inc., as GT is now known, transferred valuable company assets to French parent company Inforgrames SA while leaving the U.S. company to pay for new product development. The shareholders are asking the court to award them damages and legal fees.

UDS Gets Futurama
Swedish developer UDS has obtained the rights to develop and publish games based on Matt Groening's Futurama. The three year deal will see UDS develop games based on the animated series and co-publish them with Fox Interactive, with Fox publising in North America and UDS co-publishing internationally. The first Fututama title is expected to appear in the first half of 2002.

[Wednesday, September 13, 2000]

Game Rental Firms Pledge Vigilance
In reaction to the release of this week's FTC report on marketing violent entertainment to minors, the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) issued a "pledge to parents." This pledge is centered around two promises: 1) Not to rent or sell video games designated as "restricted" to persons under the age of 17 without parental consent, including all videogames rated "M" by the ESRB, and 2) Not to rent or sell videogames rated "Adults Only" by the ESRB to persons age 17 or under. Interestingly, the FTC report wasn't directly critical of the rental industry.

The VSDA President, Bo Anderson, cautioned against using the FTC report for restrictive legislation. "We must keep in mind that, in addressing the issue of violence in American society, the government cannot infringe the constitutional rights of video retailers and their customers -- or of parents to raise their families as they see fit," he said. "Ultimately the responsibility for raising children lies with their parents, not the government and certainly not video store clerks." Amen.

Infogrames, Diesel Form Partnership
What clothing label do your in-game characters prefer? Underscoring the continued integration of videogames and pop culture, Infogrames and clothing manufacturer Diesel announced a worldwide cross promotion featuring Infogrames' forthcoming game Driver 2. Developers at Infogrames are dressing Driver 2 in-game characters in Diesel apparel, and the game will also feature Diesel billboards, bumper stickers and stores throughout the game. As payback, customized floor and window displays touting Driver 2 will appear in Diesel stores worldwide.

Siggraph 2001 Call for Abstracts
The 28th annual Siggraph, held August 12-17, 2001 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, just issued its call for participation. As you might have guessed, Siggraph is looking for graphics professionals to contribute innovative ideas about science, education, games, special effects, medicine, the Internet, and just about any conceivable application of computer graphics and interactive techniques. If you're interested in participating at Siggraph, check out www.siggraph.org/s2001/cfp.

[Tuesday, September 12, 2000]

TDK Buys Sound Source
TDK USA is acquiring a controlling interest in Sound Source Interactive. TDK will invest more than $5 million to acquire a 72 percent stake in children's game maker Sound Source Interactive. Sound Source, a developer of family friendly titles based on largely on film and television licenses, will be renamed TDK Mediactive and will work closely with European TDK division of the same name. The company will remain in its current Calabasas, California, headquarters and will continue under the leadership of Sound Source CEO Vincent Bitetti. Shin Tanabe, currently executive director of TDK Recording Media Europe, will join TDK Mediactive in California as president and COO.

Slow Sale for Mattel
Mattel Interactive is rapidly losing value as the company fails to find a buyer. When Mattel put its interactive division on the market five months ago analyst felt that it might fetch bids as high as $1 billion, less than a third of what Mattel had put out when it purchased The Learning Company. Mattel's treatment of the division as a discontinued operation, along with the sale of Mattel Interactive's interest in Cyber Patrol, has brought estimates down to $300 million.

Gore Reacts to Yesterday's FTC Report
With the release of the Federal Trade Commission report yesterday that criticized (among other media) the game industry, presidential candidate Al Gore said that the stricter self-regulation measures should be adopted within six months, or else.

[Monday, September 11, 2000]

New FTC Report Calls for Stricter Rules for Selling Games
A much anticipated government report titled "Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children: A Review of Self Regulation and Industry Practices in the Motion Picture, Music Recording and Electronic Gaming Industries" was released today. Written by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the report recommends that more should be done to address the way that media markets violent entertainment to children, and calls for stricter measures at the retail level to prevent minors from purchasing violent games. The entire report is available from the FTC web site here.

Operational Merger
Infogrames is belatedly merging operations at the former GT Interactive with its own North American subsidiary. The confusing transaction has Infogrames SA merging the operations of wholly-owned subsidiary Infogrames North America with those of a new, wholly-owned subsidiary of majority owned subsidiary Infogrames, Inc. (the former GT Interactive). The joined company will continue to trade on the Nasdaq under Infogrames, Inc.'s symbol, GTIS. "We believe that this will continue to strengthen the Infogrames global family, and more specifically our North American presence, by combining the two organizations into one industry power," said Infogrames CEO Bruno Bonnell. The merger is expected to close on October 2.

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