gamecock posts

Southpeak Games is the latest publicly traded game publisher to issue financial results for the past quarter. The company's latest numbers for the three months that ended Sept. 30 show revenues of $8.4 million compared to revenues of $18.3 million for the same period a year ago. The company had a loss of $1.3 million for the quarter compared to a profit of $3.4 million for the same period a year ago.

Despite the bad news financially, Southpeak's press release on the results was very optimistic, saying that they have high hopes for the current fiscal quarter and their line-up of games, including two, Legendary and Mushroom Men, that they acquired with the purchase last month of Gamecock.

There's more news today of game developers losing their jobs. Today the word got out that the Spokane-based developed Cyan Worlds, best known for their Myst series of adventure games, laid off nearly 50 workers in its QA division. Cyan Worlds had been testing games for Gamecock Media but with their recent acquisition by Southpeak Games apparently also meant that those games would no longer be tested at Cyan.

Cyan has already had issues this year as its MMO Myst Online was shut down by its online publisher Gametap. According to the article at the Spokane-based Spokesman Review, Cyan is trying to make deals with individual game developers to test their games as a way to keep revenues going. They also have a new game concept of their own that they are shopping around to various publishers.

[Via Gamasutra]

Back in June the first of two planned downloadable episodes for the action-adventure game Insecticide was released. Developed by Crackpot Entertainment and published by Gamecock, the full game was released on the Nintendo DS console, yet PC gamers are still waiting for the second and final PC episode of the game to be released. The game's official web site claims episode 2 is out there but none of the vendors mentioned (Steam, Direct2Drive and Trymedia) actually have the episode available to download and purchase.

Since Gamecock was recently acquired by Southpeak Games we contacted their PR folks to get an update on when or even if the second Insecticide PC episode would be released. We were told that there are no updates at all on the release, with the rep saying, "It seems to be TBD at this point." Big Download also contacted Crackpot Entertainment for comment but at the time of this post we had not heard back from them. At the moment it doesn't look like folks who bought the first episode will be getting the final one anytime soon.

There's been a little confusion over the release date for Legendary, the upcoming modern day mythological themed FPS from developer Spark Unlimited. The problems began when the game's original publisher Gamecock was purchased a couple of weeks ago by Southpeak Games.

Now the final release date has been announced for the game. Legendary will now head to stores for the PC on the week of Nov. 18 (the console versions are due in stores next week). Legendary's PC version will now be competing head-to-head with the launch of the highly anticipated shooter Left 4 Dead from Valve; it's also scheduled to ship to stores the same week.

The status of Velvet Assassin's publisher is a little up in the air thanks to the purchase of the game's former publisher, Gamecock, by Southpeak Games earlier this month. That isn't stopping the marketing of the upcoming stealth action game. Today we got some new screenshots that show off the titles heroine doing what she does best.

And you know what she does best, of course: KILLIN' NAZIS! Yep, this new trio of shots show off some of the game's impressive lighting effects and terrific art design but we know what we want in this title. HOT CHICKS KILLIN' NAZIS!. We don't think Velvet Assassin can be release soon enough.

This trailer gets players pysched to battle mythological beasts in Legend. Pandora's Box will be opened, unleashing hordes of creatures onto an unsuspecting world, next week when the game releases on October 28.

Download HD Legendary: Man vs Myth Trailer (236 MB)
Check out all Legendary Downloads

Gallery: Legendary

0Earlier this week it was announced that Southpeak Games would buy out the wild-and-wacky Gamecock Media Group. While our interview with Southpeak CEO Melanie Mroz didn't give us much info on what will happen to the Gamecock brand and its team members our sister site Game Daily has some more info on how much the deal cost Southpeak.

Basically Southpeak gets 7 percent of all the revenue from Gamecock's future games as well as a warrent for Gamecock to purchase 700,000 shares of Southpeak's stock. In fact, as the article states, the actual deal is far more complicated but it does suggest that Gamecock was looking for any kind of deal. It should be interesting to see if Southpeak plans to release any of Gamecock's announced titles beyond Legendary, Mushroom Men and Velvet Assassin.

After founding the almost legendary Gathering of Developers and then seeing that publishing company sold off to Take Two Interactive, Mike Wilson and a number of other members of that original team reformed in early 2007 (with help from some still unnamed investors) to form Gamecock Media Group. As with the original Gathering, Gamecock was a publisher that concentrated mostly on original and sometimes innovative game titles and also staged some weird marketing moves, including holding a "funeral" for E3 and Wilson running a mock campaign president of the video game trade group the Entertainment Software Association.

However their first games got mixed results in sales and in reviews which is perhaps the reason why it was announced this week that another publisher, Southpeak Games, would be buying out Gamecock and ending the Austin, Texas based team's second major bid to be an alternative publisher.

Big Download managed to get Southpeak Games' CEO Melanie Mroz to answer a few questions about the new Southpeak-Gamecock deal and but as you can see there's still some unknowns that have yet to be addressed, including whether or not the Gamecock brand you see above will survive.

One of the game industry's more interesting publishers (both in games and in their marketing) has decided to give up at least part of their independence. The Austin-based Gamecock Media Group, formed largely by the founders of the original Gathering of Developers, has now been acquired by Southpeak Interactive. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.

Officially announced in early 2007, Gamecock generated a lot of attention thanks in part to its over-the-top marketing and promotion, including parties and press events that were different than the norm (including a "funeral" for the old E3 format). The games, however, have so far met with mixed responses from both critics and sales (and one game, the PC MMO title Fury, was an unmitigated disaster as it shut down only a few months after its release). Two upcoming Gamecock titles, Mushroom Men and Legendary, are still due out this fall with Velvet Assassin due out in early 2009. The press release did not mention what will happen to Gamecock's other announced titles (Dungeon Hero, Section 8 and the unnamed action game from Croteam)

We are only a few weeks from the release of Legendary, the big Gamecock Media title for the fall/holiday season and today their PR folks sent over some new screenshots of the upcoming first person shooter from developer Spark Unlimited.

The new screenshots show off lots of the monster attacks that are at the heart of Legendary which shows what happens if Pandora's Box was not only a real thing but if someone unwittingly opens up its contents. The new shots show off what looks like a massive tentacled creature that is destroying London. So far there's no word on if a PC demo for Legendary is in the works.