British games publisher Eidos Plc and privately-held Turbine Entertainment Software Corp. have emerged as the most active bidders for the assets of bankrupt video game publisher 3DO Co. ahead of a status conference on Monday.
Documents posted over the weekend to a 3DO Web site showed Eidos qualifying to make offers on established game franchises "High Heat Baseball," "Army Men" and "Might & Magic" as well as the in-progress game "Street Racing Syndicate." Privately held Turbine Entertainment Software Corp. also bid on "Might & Magic" and "Army Men" and on two different patent groups.
French publisher Ubi Soft Entertainment bid only on the "Might & Magic" group and has been designated lead bidder for those assets. According to the documents, Microsoft Corp. is bidding only on "High Heat," generally acknowledged by gaming critics as the best baseball simulation on the market.
Namco Hometek Inc. bid only on "Street Racing Syndicate," while Crave Entertainment made only one bid, on "High Heat." Germany's JoWood Productions Software bid on "Street Racing Syndicate" and "Jacked."
The documents listed two other bidders that were not part of the list of qualified companies filed last week - an entity called Patent Purchase Manager LLC and 4kids Entertainment Inc. Patent Purchase bid on the two patent groups and 4kids was the sole bidder for the Cubix assets.
The filing did not indicate any bids for the asset group consisting of the in-progress game "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," the assets of the Jonny Moseley snowboarding games or the assets of the World Destruction League franchise.
The bankruptcy auction is scheduled for Thursday. 3DO filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 28 and said it would try to sell its assets.
3DO founder and Chief Executive Trip Hawkins was listed in the new documents as a bidder for the company's Internet patents, though the creditors' committee has filed an objection to his designation as a qualified bidder.
SOURCE:
Reuters.
