Metue.com

Gamestop is billed as the world’s largest video game retailer but until today, they had no footprint in France, Europe’s second largest market.  For $700 million, including debt, that will now change.

Gamestop announced Wednesday they will buy France’s Micromania retail chain from L Capital,  a private equity firm affiliated with LVMH.

The all cash deal will be funded through a combination of cash on hand (the company had $539.9m in Cash and Equivalents as of August 2nd), a $150m term loan from Bank of America and existing lines of credit.

Click to Read More

When Warner Brothers released the 300 in 2007, the views of critics and fans varied widely.  Some, like Richard Roeper, loved it.  He went so far as to call it "the "’Citizen Kane’ of graphic novels.’  Others like the Wall Street Journal’s Joe Morgenstern, or the New York Time’s A.O Scott, found the film almost utterly unredeeming; too violent and undeveloped.  The common ground, amongst a majority of views, was the visual effects.   That point wasn’t lost on the gaming industry.

In July, Ubisoft acquired Hybride Technologies, the special effects shop behind the film (and also Sin City).  Now, EA is tapping the 300’s director  Zack Snyder with a three game development deal.

Click to Read More

Digital Rights Management (“DRM”), and the assorted encryption techniques that fall under its moniker, has become industries’ primary preventative weapon for thwarting rampant content piracy.  It’s been their canon, their go-to machine.  Unfortunately, like any weapon if improperly used it has the ability to blow up in its user’s face.  Sony learned that lesson the hard way in 2005.   Now, the use of a different Sony developed technology called SecuROM, along with a questionable disclosure policy, has put video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA) in the crosshairs. A lawsuit’s already been filed.

Click to Read More

Be it a bubble or a breakthrough, investors are sure loving games. Not two weeks ago, Seattle based Big Fish Games, a maker of downloadable games, drew down an $83m round; a number likely big enough to put them on the podium for the largest gaming venture financing of all time.  Today, Redwood City, CA based Trion World Network, a “server based” game developer and publishing platform company, turned in a medal worthy performance of their own.

In a series C round, Trion raised $70m. 

Click to Read More

From the venture wires, two startups closed new financings this week: Austin, Texas based game company, Challenge Games, and Bethesda, Maryland based online book publishing community WEbook.

Challenge Games
Based in Austin, Challenge Games was founded in 2006 with the aim of building short-form (playable in short term increments) multiplayer games.  To date, the company has launched two free browser based games: Duels (released Aug. 07) and Baseball Boss (released July ’08). 

Click to Read More

Are video games the MTV of a new generation? Are DVD’s really on the road to becoming obsolete? Are smartphones being accepted as fast as the hype suggests?   New research from NPD Group and the Pew Foundation sheds a little light on each of these questions.   This edition of the Metue “By the Numbers Report” recaps some of their findings

Click to Read More

The takeover attempt was highly public.  From early February to late August, for more than six months, it grabbed headlines.  The private courtship that followed lasted less than a month.

On Sunday, Electronic Arts came out of a self imposed quiet period to announce their private discussions with Take Two were concluded.   At this time, EA said, the companies have decided not to pursue any merger.

Just two weeks ago, there was the slight prospect of otherwise.  Click to Read More