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38 Studios asset auction may be delayed due to high demand
When companies die, their assets are sold to make back whatever money can be recovered. That's normal. But you wouldn't expect a great deal of interest in the intellectual property of a company that had worked on only two games and actually released just one of them. Apparently that expectation would be wrong; Richard Land, the attorney in charge of selling off 38 Studios' holdings, has requested that the IP auction be delayed due to greater interest than expected. For those of you who had forgotten the details, here's a recap: The sale of these assets are part of an attempt by the state of Rhode Island to recover some of the enormous losses when 38 Studios went bankrupt following a $75 million loan from the state. The auction was originally scheduled to take place November 13th to the 14th. What parties are interested in the IP remains to be seen, as do the offers that have supposedly been put on the table.
Red 5 Studios' parent company lines up $24 million Firefall investment
Anyone who has played Firefall wouldn't associate it with more standard free-to-play Chinese MMOs, but the game is certainly generating a lot of financial interest in China. The9, the Chinese gaming company that owns developer Red 5 Studios, is lining up for the game to get a major investment from Oriental Pearl Culture Development Ltd., a major entertainment development organization. That investment shakes out to around $24 million and would make Oriental Pearl one of the largest minority shareholders in the company. Overall, Firefall is apparently valued around $100 million based upon statements released by the companies. This latest investment is still in a non-binding stage and could be cancelled if Oriental Pearl changed its mind and decided against investing in the company. Preliminary reports suggest that the deal will go through, generating quite a windfall for the not yet technically launched game and demonstrating once again just how big the MMO scene is becoming worldwide.
