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Amazon loses exclusive deal with Andrew Wiley
Amazon's exclusive digital distribution deal with star literary agent Andrew Wiley looks like it wasn't all it was cracked up to be; in fact, it seems to have fallen through before the ink dried on the contracts. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Andrew Wiley is "largely abandoning" the agreement it struck with Amazon after 13 of the 20 titles supposedly included in the deal -- published by Random House -- came up for debate. The books, which included works by John Updike, VS Naipaul and Dave Eggers, among others, will now be digitally distributed by Random House itself to Amazon. While neither Wiley nor Amazon commented on the failed deal, we have a feeling that the Kindle maker will still sleep just fine this evening.
The Daily Grind: Will you welcome back the Hellgate franchise?
Hellgate: London is one of those games that has really divided opinion from our readers. Some brand it as a deeply-flawed game, or were burned by that costly Founder's lifetime subscription when the game shut down after a rather short life. Others -- like some of us on the Massively staff -- truly miss the game's blend of horror and sci-fi elements and have been hoping that Hellgate: London would one day return in some form or another. Although the future of the game has been murky, the most recent (and most straightforward) announcement is that Hellgate: London is slated to return to Western shores. HanbitSoft has secured the worldwide publishing rights to the game from Namco-Bandai, so now it's just a matter of time before it returns. We're interested to hear what you think about this. Would you welcome the return of Hellgate: London? For that matter, how would you feel about playing the game in its current free-to-play incarnation, Hellgate: Resurrection?
Runic Games partners with MMO portal Perfect World for their upcoming game
Perfect World Entertainment, the MMO portal of the self-titled Perfect World International and Ether Saga Online, has announced a partnership between themselves and the phoenix game studio Runic Games for the publishing rights of the upcoming MMO, Torchlight.This is a large step forward for Runic Games, the previous Mythos game team of the now defunct Flagship Studios. Their agreement with Perfect World is for global publishing rights, meaning Torchlight could be seeing an international release.Little is currently known about Torchlight, other than the game will be focusing on a single city and centered around the acquisition of a magical ore that imbues equipment with power, but also has a downside to it as well. The game has a bit of a cartoony, playful character to it, as seen in some early concept art shown on the main Runic Games website.
All Points Bulletin publishing rights returned to Realtime Worlds
Gamasutra is reporting that Realtime Worlds, makers of the Xbox 360 title Crackdown, has regained publishing rights for their in-development MMO. All Point Bulletin has been in development for some time, and the publishing rights for the game were sold to Webzen (Mu Online, SUN, Huxley) back in 2005. A large round of venture capital investement has afforded them this opportunity, though the article notes it hasn't been publicized what those rights cost.Grand Theft Auto creator David Jones is head of the company, and says that this move 'marks a major milestone' for Realtime. The Urban MMO is slated to be arriving on PCs and Xbox 360s in the near future.
