EDINBURGH-based F4G Software has rescued the intellectual property behind two console games belonging to bankrupt Acclaim Entertainment and set up a studio in Manchester to continue their development.
More than 30 former Acclaim employees will be rehired to finish the quad bikes video game ATV and Interview With A Made Man, which is based on the New York mafia.
The move is a major departure for F4G Software, a division of Noble Group, which typically funds and manages computer games projects on behalf of developers or publishers. This is the first time that the company has owned the intellectual property itself and temporarily taken on the role of developer.
Charlie McMicking, a director with F4G Software, said: "We think we are good at getting games made. We know the industry and how it works.
This is a way to raise our return to shareholders by taking slightly more risk."
F4G Software normally receives a project management fee of around 20-per cent plus the working capital it has invested when a game is finished and is taken on by a publisher. With this latest deal, F4G will also receive the developer's margin and any extra money that a publisher may pay if it buys the intellectual property . It is anticipated that the games will hit the market in the autumn of 2006. F4G Software is currently in discussions with a number of publishers.
McMicking added that F4G may pursue other IP acquisitions on a project basis in the future, but that its next two deals would follow its normal investment strategy.
He said that F4G was particularly well placed to buy the intellectual property for ATV and Interview With A Made Man "very cheaply" because of its previous dealings with the US courtappointed trustee and the UK administrator sorting out the liquidation of Acclaim Entertainment.
Acclaim Entertainment, a video game developer with operations in the US and Manchester, filed for bankruptcy in 2004 owing creditors dollars-100 million.
At the time, F4G Software was funding Acclaim's street racing game Juiced and a federal bankruptcy judge approved an agreement that allowed F4G to recoup its investment plus additional money.
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