Games Publishers – list and jobs of video game publishers.

Midway Games Ltd., formerly a subsidiary of Midway Games Inc., today announced that Spiess Media Holding UG, a company owned by Martin Spiess, Executive Vice President – International of Midway Games Ltd., has purchased the UK and French offices of Midway Games Inc., formerly a developer and publisher of computer and video games with a rich tradition, as part of a management buyout. F&F Publishing GmbH, a company owned by Uwe Fürstenberg, General Manager of Midway Games GmbH, and Hans Meyer, Finance Director of Midway Games GmbH, has purchased the German office of the Midway group. Through the transactions, the European publishing and distribution branches of Midway are secured in all three key European markets. Both Spiess and Fürstenberg will be leading their newly acquired companies as interactive entertainment distribution and publishing service providers. Plans are also underway to form a strategic alliance and use the combined forces of the European organisations as an efficient European network.

From Square Enix’s acquisition of Eidos emerges a new European arm for the Japanese publisher, currently known as Square Enix Europe, to be headed by Eidos boss Phil Rogers. The Eidos name will still be used to brand its own developed games, but the move represents the elimination of the Eidos organization as publishing label.  “Square Enix Europe will include Eidos’ global network of studios and combine the Square Enix and Eidos European sales and marketing businesses to create one efficient and powerful structure for game publishing” said a spokesperson.

Namco Bandai Games Europe says it has wrapped up the purchase of Atari’s European distribution business, re-naming the new entity Namco Bandai Partners.
Namco Bandai Partners will now oversee distribution of Namco Bandai Games, Atari titles and those of other publishing partners in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. It’ll operate in the UK as Namco Bandai Partners UK.

Last week, Midway held an auction for its various assets; a few weeks beforehand, Time Warner was expected to make off with the lion’s share of property for roughly $33 million. This turned out to be the case, as a Delaware bankruptcy judge approved the deal and Time Warner wound up acquiring most of the publisher’s properties and studios. However, noticeably absent from this acquisition were two of Midway’s prominent studios: Midway Newcastle and Midway San Diego, the offices responsible for games like Wheelman and TNA, respectively.

French publisher Infogrames (Alone In The Dark) has officially completed its acquisition of U.S. based Atari, Inc. Although Infogrames was previously the majority shareholder, Atari now becomes a wholly owned subsidiary. Infogrames will pay $1.68 per share for all outstanding shares of Atari common stock not already owned by Infogrames or its affiliates. This gives the merger an approximate value of $11 million, which Infogrames will pay for from existing cash resources. The merger simplifies the relationship between the two companies, with a new global structure intended to reduce general and administrative expenses (including those related to being a U.S. public company) and generate economies of scale.

1C Company, the largest Russian developer/publisher, today announced that their company would become even larger as they have acquired one of their rivals, Buka. Specifc financial terms were not disclosed but the press release states, ” . . . .managers of both enterprises will try to make the best use of the synergy in their publishing, distribution and marketing activities.”  Buka has published a number of Western games in Russia, including titles from Ubisoft, Codemasters, THQ, Valve and others. It also publishes and develops its own games such as the Hard Truck series of titles and the upcoming action-adventure game Collapse.