Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group has announced its acquisition of a majority stake in Batman: Arkham Asylum developer Rocksteady Studios, “continuing Warner Bros.’ pattern as one of the industry’s fastest growing games publishers.”

According to Warner, Batman: Arkham Asylum has shipped over three million units worldwide and received numerous industry awards, and as a reward for Rocksteady’s fantastic work on the title, the developer is being shared up, with Square Enix (owners of Eidos, who published Arkham Asylum) hanging on to 25 percent of the studio.

President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, Kevin Tsujihara said of the deal:

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After the extended bidding and acquisition process surrounding Square Enix’s buy-out of the UK-based Eidos Interactive, the deal has now come to a close with the formal rebranding of Eidos as Square Enix Europe.

Square Enix Europe represents “the unified business unit” that comprises sales and marketing offices in the UK, France and Germany, which will handle the promotion of the group’s games across Europe and PAL territories, as well as the management of the company’s developers including Crystal Dynamics, IO Interactive, Beautiful Game Studios, Square Enix London Studios and Eidos Montréal.

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It’s just been jointly announced that The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire comic book megalith Marvel Entertainment for a whopping $4 billion in a stock and cash transaction.

The acquisition, Disney says, highlights the company’s “strategic focus on quality branded content, technological innovation and international expansion to build long-term shareholder value.”

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Midway’s head of corporate communications, Geoff Mogilner has confirmed to Gamasutra that the publisher’s UK studio, Midway Newcastle, has unfortunately been closed, affecting some 80 employees who worked there. Mogilner said:

“We can confirm that we closed the Newcastle studio unfortunately. We had a period of time that was required by UK law to notify the employees of the pending studio closure.”

“During that time, we made every effort to find a buyer for the studio, and we were unfortunately unsuccessful at that. Today was when we had to close the studio.”

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Following the successful acquisition of Eidos by Square Enix, a new European publishing division of the Japanese publisher, known as Square Enix Europe, will be formed, headed up by current Eidos boss, Phil Rogers.

While the Eidos brand will still remain on games developed internally at the company, the name as a publishing label will cease to exist. Commenting on the formation of the new publishing arm, an Eidos spokesperson said:

“Square Enix Europe (final name TBC) 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.”

The spokesperson also mentioned that the move will unfortunately result in job losses at both the European and North American divisions of Square Enix, but they are “hoping to minimise this wherever possible and offer support and advice to any employees directly affected.”

Source: MCV

A bankruptcy court judge has recently approved Warner Bros. proposed $33 million buyout of Midway, as well as two of its studios and select assets from the financially stressed publisher, the most valuable of which is arguably Mortal Kombat.

The judge confirmed that any objections to the deal (and there were many) had been resolved, clearing the way for the acquisition to go ahead.

The deal, however, does not included two of Midway’s development studios, Midway San Diego and Midway Newcastle, both of which have 60 days to find a suitable owner. If this does not happen, the studios will be shut down.

After a sale and bid procedures motion was filed by Midway in late May, which served to notify potentially interested third-parties that a sale to Warner Bros. (a subsidiary of Time Warner, Inc.) was imminent, giving those third-parties an opportunity to put in their own bid for Midway and its assets, it appears as though Warner Bros. has emerged as the sole bidder before the deadline for new bids recently expired.

Now, with a bid of $33 million, Warner Bros. stand to secure ownership of a vast majority of Midway’s assets, including the Mortal Kombat, Spy Hunter, Joust and Wheelman franchises, as well Midway’s development studios in Chicago and Seattle.

The fate of Midway’s Newcastle and San Diego offices, which are not included in the deal, remains unclear at this time.

Before Warner Bros. can officially claim ownership of the agreed upon assets, however, several creditor complaints will need to be resolved, including one by Threshold Entertainment’s Larry Kasanoff, who produced two Mortal Kombat films and still claims possession of the franchise’s big-screen and TV distribution rights, and another complaint by the Vin Diesel-owned Tigon Studios, which claims it is owed $200 000 for Diesel’s work in Wheelman.

In a press release issued a little while ago, troubled games publisher Midway revealed that they have entered into a “stalking horse” asset purchase agreement with entertainment gargantuan, Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Time Warner, Inc.

Additionally, Midway have filed a sale and bid procedures motion with the US Bankruptcy Court, which serves to provide notice that a sale to Warner Bros. is imminent, giving interested third-parties the opportunity to enter their own bids for Midway’s assets.

Under Midway’s current agreement, however, Warner Bros. stand to acquire a substantial amount of Midway’s assets, including the Mortal Kombat franchise and development studios in Chicago and Seattle, for a total of $33 000 000, subject to further adjustments.

The current agreement does not, however, include Midway’s San Diego or Newcastle development studios, nor their TNA wrestling franchise.

Midway, Warner Bros. and interested third-party buyers will enter into a bidding process before and after an expected court approval of the Warner Bros. agreement, at which time further Midway assets will be formally bid upon.

Hopefully this whole process will bring to an end the troubled times that Midway has been having, especially over the last year.

In a report posted on game trade site MCV, it seems as though Atari will no longer be a European brand, but instead focus on US operations, while Japanese megalith Namco Bandai will buy out Atari’s current operations in Europe, rebranded as Distribution Partners.

In March of last year, Namco Bandai bought a 34% stake in Atari Europe, and is expected to complete the acquisition of the business from Atari’s parent company, Infogrames, next month.

A new business, Distribution Partners, will become home for Atari Europe’s sales and marketing staff, while seeing an increase in staff in order to better solidify their position in Europe.

Distribution Partners is expected to handle Namco Bandai’s product sales in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Asia, and will be headed up by John Galloway, previously of Take Two, THQ and EA. Distribution Partners will also handle Atari-produced titles outside of the US until 2014, which includes Ghostbusters: The Video Game, on non-Sony platforms, in June. Atari’s European marketing boss, David Miller said:

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In a recently released report, it has been announced that the proposed acquisition of Eidos by Square Enix has been approved by an overwhelming majority vote on the part of Eidos’ shareholders.

As a result of the voting, Square Enix will gain control of Eidos next month, as well as the ownership of all of their properties, including Tomb Raider, Hitman, Kane and Lynch and Championship Manager. In a joint statement, both companies said:

“Eidos and SQEX are pleased to announce that, at the Court Meeting held earlier today, the Scheme was approved by the requisite majority.

“Subsequently, at the EGM, the special resolution required to implement the Scheme was also passed by the requisite majority.”

Square Enix hasn’t yet revealed its intentions regarding Eidos and its properties, other than to say that its list of franchises affords Square Enix a better portfolio of games aimed at western audiences, providing a better springboard into other territories.

A timeline has been released regarding Square Enix’s acquisition of Eidos, as the two companies hope to conclude the long-reported proposed purchase of the latter by the former by early May.

According to the schedule, shareholders will vote on the matter on March 25th and, if the majority response is affirmative, and Time Warner (who own 20 percent of Eidos) also approves the deal, Square Enix will take full ownership of Eidos by May 6th.

Once the acquisition has been set in motion, Eidos shares will be suspended on April 21st and its share listings cancellation will be due to occur the day after.

Square Enix has recently snapped up 11 percent of Eidos’ shares, while an additional 3 percent will be bought in the near future. This move adds further credibility to the proposal that Square Enix will indeed acquire Eidos. A statement from the Japanese developer/publisher reads:

“The board of Square Enix is pleased to announce that it has acquired 2,000,000 Eidos shares from Insight Investment Management and 27,349,341 Eidos shares from Pioneer Investment Management, representing in aggregate approximately 11.13 per cent of the issued share capital of Eidos, at a price of 32 pence per Eidos share.”

Warner Bros., who own a significant stake in Eidos, supports the proposed acquisition, through which Square Enix intends to beef up its portfolio of games that appeal directly to Western gamers with Eidos’ intellectual property, including Tomb Raider, Hitman and Kane and Lynch.

The media colossus known as Warner Bros. has confirmed its support of a Square Enix acquisition of publisher Eidos - a publisher in which Warner holds a 20 percent stake.

Warner will vote in favour of a Square Enix acquisition when the decision is held at the end of March. This means that approximately 35 percent of Eidos’ stock holders, including Warner, are behind the proposed bid for Eidos, as other stock holders have already pledged their support in the form of letters of intent.

The bid could still fall through if another 3rd party puts in a higher bid, or if the stock holders change their decision come vote time, but with such momentum behind Square Enix’s bid, it looks like Eidos will have a new owner in the coming weeks.

The acquisition would make sense for both Square Enix and Eidos, as the former look to improve their Western appeal and portfolio of games, while the latter has been looking for a suitable buyer for some time now. With a bid of £84 million, a 129 percent premium over Eidos’s current value, stock holders would be foolish not to approve.

You see, it wasn’t as crazy as a lot of people thought. Square Enix have put in their bid to acquire Eidos for £84 million, which, according to reports, represents a 129 percent premium over Eidos’ current value.

While the offer has not yet been approved, it is believed that Eidos directors will recommend that shareholders accept the offer. Eidos chairman Tim Ryan said:

“We believe that this cash offer provides Eidos Shareholders with an attractive price and certainty in today’s challenging market backdrop and economic outlook.

“The acquisition of Eidos will complement Square Enix’s expansion into Western markets and offers mutually beneficial opportunities for the combined group. The Board believes that this offer is in the best interests of the shareholders.”

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Publisher Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has announced their acquisition of game developer Snowblind Studios.

Founded in 1997, Snowblind studios, a Washington-based development studio, has created a string of RPG and action-RPG games, such as Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, Champions of Norrath, Justice League: Heroes and Champions: Return to Arms, as well as a couple of vehicle-based games, such as Top Gear: Overdrive on the N64 and the still-in-development Death Tank for Xbox LIVE Arcade.

Snowblind will join Monolith Productions (FEAR) and Traveller’s Tales (LEGO series of games) to become Warner’s third internal studio. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment president Martin Tremblay said of the deal:

“The acquisition of Snowblind is an important milestone for our games business, allowing us to expand our development capabilities even further. We are proud to be associated with such a talented team that is focused on executing innovative and captivating game designs.”