Saw this on Frictionless Insight:
http://www.3doinfo.com/SalesProceduresOrder.pdf
If you scroll down to page 30, you’ll see the list of assets. Anyone want to chip in $100K to bid on the HOMM assets?
I’d love to see someone buy the Homm assets and bring one of my favorite series back into the light.
I’d like to see PopTop buy it. C’mon, Phil!
I thought they were filing for a bankruptcy reorganization. But when all their franchises and “All 3DO company assets” are up for sale, what’s left?
I have some room on a home equity line of credit if some folks want to go in together on HoMM. :wink: I hear it is a popular series for the PC. Something about monsters and fighting or something.
Oh please yes.
Not likely PopTop has that much spare cash at the moment but Maybe Taketwo will buy it for them?
Didn’t 3DO pay like $13 million for NWC back when? Where did that money go? I’m kind of surprised JVC can’t buy assets back.
I heard that Jon Van Caneghem was doing just that but that was a bit before this.
And here it is
(translated from Russian)
As reported David Botan (former designer of the levels in New World Computing) on forum Round table, “heroic father” Jon Van Caneghem intends on 18 July to shut offices NWC (in Solvange) for the
commonplace reason for the curtailment of the period of the lease of
the office accomodations (earlier for them it paid 3DO, but JVC it does not want to take out money from its own pocket). This it means that the former colleagues, still on the work (but not obtained for this of money), are now deprived even of this possibility. The second news is not better than the first: according to David myulich 3DO rather it will go “in parts”. David says that hardly will be located the company, which will want to acquire all active memberships 3DO wholly and simple to renew the interrupted work.
Basically what they are saying is JVC has closed the offices of NWC because the lease was up. He plans to rebuy all the assets, relocate the company, and continue work on HOMM V.
Here is the line-up bidding for 3DO according to Reuters.
In a notice filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Francisco, 3DO’s attorneys said Microsoft, Eidos, Ubi Soft, JoWooD Productions Software AG, Namco Hometek Inc., Turbine Entertainment Software Corp. and Crave Entertainment filed by Wednesday’s deadline to bid in the Aug. 14 auction.
UBI-Soft having the Warlords and Heroes series…hmmmm.
I’m surprised that Take 2 isn’t interested in making a grab for HOMM so PopTop could take over that franchise. I guess PopTop is just going to do sim-styled strategy titles.
I’m surprised by Turbine’s interest. Obviously they’re interested in owning their own IP that has value. D&D Online and Middle Earth Online might make them some nice money, but they won’t boost the value of the company the way owning their own successful IP will. I guess they might want to make a Might and Magic MMOG? Maybe some kind of HOMM MMOG?
I’ll also be surprised if Microsoft doesn’t walk away with High Heat Baseball. That would be a great match for them. They could ditch Inside Pitch.
Microsoft might also try to grab Heroes. It’s a solid franchise, and they work with several developers that could do it justice. In fact, of that list of companies, I think I’d most like to see Microsoft get that property.
Like Mark, though, I’m surprised Take2 didn’t make a bid.
Yeah, Microsoft would be a good fit for HOMM. Even though 3DO milked it to the poiot of making it a running joke, I’d still like to see a new HOMM periodically if done right. I’m not sure how much you can change in the design, though. It’s already a tight design. It doesn’t need a lot of new stuff.
I hope this happens. Someone needs to take the High Heat gameplay and match it with good graphics like the EA games. Microsoft has the resources to do that, as well as actually upgrading the game every year instead of doing nothing with it like 3DO did.
By they way, what’s Inside Pitch? Is Microsoft trying to get back into the PC baseball market? It would be nice if EA had some competition, but Microsoft 3D Baseball wasn’t very good.
A Might and Magic MMORPG would be a terrible idea. It’s a single player franchise. You play as a group of heroes. The end.
I certainly hope somebody buys these rights and makes Might & Magic X. The Might & Magic series has one of the best magic systems EVER.
You know, I’d like an MMOG where I control a small group. I’d like to level four characters at once, for example. You could still group with other players in groups of three (three players controlling four characters each for 12 total). That would be fun, but the pathfinding would be a nightmare, I’m sure.
I’d play that! I’ve always loved RPG’s where you control a group vs. a single person.
Inside Pitch was MS offering in the baseball console wars this spring/summer. I’d rank it behind Sega’s World Series Baseball 2k3, EA’s MVP Baseball, Acclaim’s ASB 2004, and 3DO’s High Heat 2004 as far as the quality of the game was concerned.
For the record, I agree completely with Mark here. MS needs the High Heat IP, as well as the bedrock code with which to build a game to compete with Sega and EA.
Hmmm…that might actually be pretty cool.
I still wouldn’t want them to do it with the M&M license though.
I’d say HOMM hit its peak with HOMM3. The cartoony style, rather flat characters was always part of its charm for me. If anything, it would have to be a big break in a new direction with all the dangers of producing a MOO3.