14 DAY TRIAL // It's a bad time for medium and small videogame developers and publishers. The credit crunch which is affecting the world wide economy means that it's getting harder and harder for them to find sources to finance developing new games. And when financial problems show their ugly face, bigger companies, which have larger cash reserves and easier access to credit lines, get ready to pounce and take over their smaller brethren.
At the moment, SCi is one of the best targets for an offer. SCi Entertainment is widely seen as very good value for money even if its losses increased four times during the last year. It seems that the main contender for the company is mega publisher Electronic Arts, which could use the 25% stake it already has in the entity as leverage to push for a buy out. Press reports reveal that there are already “early stage” talks taking place between the two companies, focusing mainly on the price which would be paid for SCi Entertainment and on the future of franchises like Tomb Raider.
Electronic Arts has refused to comment on the story and Eidos is also keeping quiet about it at the moment. So, there might be some truth to the take over rumors since neither of the sides that could be involved in the deal is willing to come out and deny the story.
Ubisoft could also be interested in taking over SCi as its president mentioned that the French based publisher had plenty of cash which could be used to snap up attractive assets. Both Tomb Raider and Hitman are successful game series which have fallen on hard times lately, mainly because SCi did not have the resources needed to invest in truly AAA titles.