Koch Media
Latest
Sega shuttering several offices across Europe and Australia
Sega's European arm is closing offices in four European regions and Australia, the company announced this morning. The move is part of Sega's continued "restructuring" toward a smaller company – a result of "extraordinary" losses incurred over the past few years. Sega offices in France, Spain, Benelux, Germany, and Australia are being closed.Taking up distribution responsibilities in lieu of Sega is Koch Media, parent company of Dead Island publisher Deep Silver, who will handle things in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, and Spain. Handling Benelux and Australia are Level03 Distribution and 5 Star Games, while Sega's London office will remain open in an oversight capacity.Sega Europe COO Jurgen Post reconfirmed Sega's commitment to its core IPs in the announcement. "SEGA is entering a new and exciting phase that will position the company as a content led organisation maximising sales with strong and balanced IP such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Total War, Football Manager and the Aliens franchise." He also noted Sega's "confident that this will lead to a successful future."It's at this time unclear how many Sega employees were let go in today's office closures, but we've reached out to the company for more info.
THQ shuts down publishing in Italy and Spain [Update]
THQ has closed its offices in Italy and Spain and hired an outside distributor, Koch Media, to ship its games throughout those regions instead. The closures follow a "strategic review" of THQ's operations in Italy and Spain, according to Annie Sullivan, THQ's managing director of European market development."We were looking for a distribution partner who has the most effective networks locally to market THQ's products," Sullivan said. "I'm excited for the opportunities that THQ's partnership with Koch Media represents and am looking forward to working together on successful launches of our forthcoming products."We have contacted THQ for more information on the European closures.Update: THQ has responded, noting that these are not "new" actions, but are new distributor agreements in Spain and Italy: "As part of the previously announced restructuring of its global publishing business, THQ made changes to its publishing operations in Europe. As a result of those changes, the company will now utilize Koch Media as its publishing distributor in Spain. In Italy, the company continues to utilize a distribution company, and a new agreement is in place with Koch Media for that region."These are not new actions, just updates on previous decisions and new agreements with specific territory distribution partners."
Report: Ubisoft, Atari, many other publishers requesting payment from German pirates
Someone in Germany -- perhaps even some people -- illegally pirated a copy of Prison Break: The Conspiracy. Hard to believe as it may be, it appears to be the case according to TorrentFreak, who delved into German public records looking for game publishers who have employed German law to track down (and demand money from) people who allegedly pirated various games. In Germany, Koch Media publishes the Prison Break game, and has been demanding settlements of "several hundred Euros" from offending IP addresses. The records indicate that several major publishers, either directly or through subsidiaries/secondary parties, have been sending out letters to German citizens requesting varying levels of payment in return for not being sued. Where things get murky, however, is how the publishers are seeking out the accused pirates, using not always reliable "IP address-only evidence" -- easily circumvented with proxy domains and such. You know, hacker stuff. TorrentFreak's report indicates that a variety of publishers and distributors are involved, including (but not limited to): Atari, Koch Media (representing Techland's Dead Island and Prison Break, and Eidos/Square Enix's Deus Ex: Human Revolution as well as Dungeon Siege 3 and various Final Fantasy titles), Daedalic Entertainment (representing LucasArts), Codemasters, BitComposer, Ubisoft, Kalypso Media, dtp entertainment, and Aerosoft. It is currently unclear how many settlement notices have been sent out by each company, or if any will continue doing so after these actions have been brought to light. Witcher 2 developer CD Projekt Red was recently pursuing similar cases in Germany until it announced the end of the practice last week.
Playlogic asks for mercy from court against creditors
Dutch publisher Playlogic (Fairytale Fights, Obscure: The Aftermath) has notified the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it has entered into "surseance van betaling," which is closely equivalent to the States' Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company claims in the filing that "Tough market conditions, late payments by large customers and the delays in projects have forced the company to seek protection under the Dutch bankruptcy laws." According to GI.biz, Playlogic is suing distribution partner Koch Media for €1.7 million ($2.2M) in unpaid bills as it continues hemorrhaging money, after recording a $20 million loss in its previous fiscal year. For a company that stated just yesterday that it wasn't bankrupt, it's amazing what a difference a day makes.
Cursed Mountain dev Deep Silver Vienna shuttered
As confirmed by parent company Koch Media to Develop, Cursed Mountain developer Deep Silver Vienna has apparently been closed. Citing "the overall economic situation" and noting "this decision is not easy for us," the 20-person staff was recently cut and told they would receive pay through the end of March. Develop posits that the studio's other game -- Ride to Hell -- will likely remain unaffected by the shutdown, as UK dev house Eutechnyx is handling development and Koch Media's Munich offices will oversee the game's management. Deep Silver Vienna was formed in the wake of Rockstar Vienna's closing back in 2006, and originally called itself Games That Matter. Ex-Rockstar Vienna heads Hannes Seifert and Niki Laber launched the studio, and it is said that Siefert has moved on to a position at Square Enix Europe as a creative director. As with every case like this, we'd like to wish those affected the best of luck.
Carcassone laying down tiles on the DS
Everyone's favorite German board game (no, not that one), Carcassonne, is coming to the DS, courtesy of Koch Media. The news comes via Go Nintendo, with the press release mentioning the DS title will feature the original game plus three new territories: the Asian, Arabic, and Nordic worlds. The game will also include the River expansion set, which comes standard with the newer versions of the Carcassonne board game. You can expect three different modes of play, including a single-player, story-driven mode, a quick play mode for, uh, quick play, and a multiplayer mode that will support game sharing and local wireless multiplayer.Our only beef is that the size of the game grid might not scale down to the DS screen too well, and it might be hard to see everything going on. But, hey, even if that's the case, you won't need to clean up a messy board game, and isn't that the important thing here? [image credit]
Wii now widely available to UK retailers
Koch Media, Nintendo's UK distribution partner, told Nindie.com ("A Community for the Independent Retailers of Nintendo!") that Wii consoles are freely available to retailers for the first time since the system's launch. Previously, Wiis were shipped to stores on an "allocation" basis -- the number of systems shipped depended on factors like store size and sale of other Nintendo products.However, allocation still plays into Wii orders in a way. Koch's Craig McNicol told MCV, "We also urge customers to remember that Wii console purchases count towards the allocation of DSi, Wii Fit and forthcoming new releases." If you haven't bought a Wii yet and you're planning to, it might be a good time. Though Nintendo has increased the cost of the system to retailers, it's currently still possible for stores to get them at the original cost. "We haven't put our prices up yet as we're still able to access stock sourced at the original value," Chips' Don McCabe said. "However, this supply is drying up, so we'll have to see what happens with the extra cost."The biggest takeaway for us? There's a community for independent retailers of Nintendo.
See Europe at War in new Military History Commander game
PSP and DS will soon be home to a brand new turn-based strategy game from Koch Media. Military History Commander - Europe at War is the first in a "new series of games." Set in a World War II, players can choose to play as either the Axis or the Allied forces. From the looks of things, this will be a rather standard grid-based strategy affair, with visuals akin to the Advance Wars series of games. Six scenarios are planned for the handhelds, including Operation Barbarossa and D-Day. Players will also be able to create 50 different inventions and recruit famous historical commanders throughout the game. The in-game artwork is done by Osprey Publishing.For now, the game has been announced for release in Europe only. We'll have to wait and see if it sees the light of day in the States as well.%Gallery-43739%
Secret Files: Tunguska coming to the DS
German developer 10tacle Studios has announced plans to develop DS and Wii ports for Secret Files: Tunguska, an adventure title that originally appeared on the PC last year. Players take on the role of Nina Kalenkow, a Russian motorcycle mechanic investigating the disappearance of her scientist father. Nina's search leads her to Tunguska, Siberia, the site of a mysterious 1908 explosion that leveled an estimated 80 million trees over 830 square miles.Though several screenshots mocking up the DS version have been sent out, we can't say for sure whether or not they're just scenes from the PC game that've been pasted onto the handheld. We'll be impressed if the game manages to look even half as good when it comes out later this year in Europe. Jump past the post break for the full Secret Files: Tunguska press release.%Gallery-3888%
Koch to distribute Wii all over UK
We couldn't resist ... the headline wrote itself! But seriously, folks, if you haven't heard, back in January, Nintendo appointed Koch Media to be the preferred distribution partner of their products in the UK. Yep, that's it. Now get back to work![Thanks, Cirrus]
