The GameShadow Blog

Ubisoft has purchased French development studio Nadeo. Nadeo has been responsible for the long-running TrackMania series. Ubisoft is aiming to expand further in the online gaming world and this announcement should excite fans of the TrackMania series, with TrackMania 2 due out in 2010.

Kalypso Media has announced an agreement for the acquisition of Ascaron Entertainment.   It will take over most of the brands, intangible assets and exploitation rights, including the likes of Darkstar One.   Ascaron announced in April 2009 that it had gone into administration.

Ubisoft has acquired the assets and personnel of Swedish development studio Massive Entertainment. The studio is best known for its expertise in the real time strategy genre, with one of the most successful titles being 2007′s World In Conflict, the branding of which has also been aquired by Ubisoft.

Following news that Fallout 3 has had to remove certain drug references in order to gain classification in Australia, the game’s Product Manager, Pete Hines, has lashed out against the ratings agencies, and their varying standards. “The frustrating thing for us is that the standards and rules can be so varied across territories, that we [...]

EA has confirmed that private discussions are now to take place between itself and Take Two over the proposed acquisition of the latter. This is the latest development in a story that’s been running for months. Take Two repeatedly dismissed EA’s increasing bids for the company, vowing not to even consider a sale until after [...]

For the first time, Valve’s Doug Lombardi has mentioned the possibility of the publisher / developer’s sale. Valve’s “happy to have that conversation,” he told Gamasutra. “By the same token, the company’s doing pretty well, and we’re really happy with what we’re doing,” he added. “So we’ll see. I mean, anything is possible.” He went [...]

It’s been a busy old week for Eidos, and one partially in keeping with the company’s changeable successes in the last year or so. Long story short, a much needed cash injection has arrived, courtesy of stock purchase by Warner Bros. SCi, Eidos’ parent company, first announced that it was taking purchase offers, in order [...]

Having acquired the rights to the Tom Clancy name for a reported $60 million, Ubisoft has announced that an MMO based on the IP is in the works. Could be a WoW beater, apparently. With 35 Clancy games already on the market, it’s understandable that Ubi would want to secure the rights to the name [...]

Unwilling to wait for Take Two to release GTA IV and come back to the negotiation, EA has made an offer to Take Two’s shareholders of $26 per share – well above the current market valuation. This move effectively takes the decision out of the hands of Strauss Zelnick and his board of directors, who [...]

Industry analysts are suggesting the EA – Take Two takeover is likely to happen at some stage. When it does, EA/Take Two and Activision/Blizzard will be the two dominant publishers by a staggering distance. Do we need to be worried? Short answer ‘yes’, long answer ‘no’. There’s no denying that publisher acquisitions have, in the [...]

We all know EA has a poor rep for buying and gutting some of the greatest studios in gaming history… Bullfrog, Origin, Westwood… and now MTV has been kind enough to put togetehr a complete list of exactly what the company has bought, when, and what happened. Although EA CEO Riccitiello admitted himself the company [...]

On February 24th 2008, EA revealed that it had made a bid to purchase huge games publisher Take Two (whose primary asset is the GTA producing Rockstar). Though EA CEO John Riccitiello had been keen to acquire the pubisher for some time, the objective was only made public when dialogue between the two companies halted. [...]

Having previously stated they had no intention of coming under the Valve banner any time soon, Turtle Rock Studios has been acquired by Valve. Another one bites the dust? Well, let’s be honest, probably not. Though acquisition rarely seems to pre-empt a burst of innovation, I feel in this case we need not fear. Favouritism? [...]

Another one bites the dust. 2K Games, one arm of publishing giant Take 2, has just announced its acquisition of Illusion Softworks, the Czech developer – and owner – of properties like Hidden & Dangerous and Mafia. This news comes moments after EA announces its official acquisition of Bioware and Pandemic. The deal will bring [...]

According to the People, Her Majesty is a fan of Nintendo’s new console. Prince William’s girlfriend Kate Middleton bought him the console for Christmas, and now can’t get her away from it. The People says she saw William playing ten-pin bowling, begged to have a go and “by all accounts was a natural.” Will we [...]