koch-media posts

After years of working on the X series of space trading simulations, it looks like developer Egosoft is finally ready to announce something a little bit different for its next title. Today the developer's official web site announced that the announcement of its next game project will be made by its publisher Koch Media on April 28 at the FedCon sci-fi convention in Germany.

While the first announcement will be made at FedCon Egosoft states that all the info will also be revealed on the developer's web site. The game itself has the code name "TNBT" which likely is an acronym for "The Next Big Thing".

[Via Blue's News]

Dead Island has generated as much, if not more, interest in the movie industry as it has in the game industry. That was in part due to the CGI teaser trailer released last week to help promote the upcoming zombie action game from developer Techland and publisher Deep Silver.

While some movie industry web sites reported last week that the movie rights to Dead Island were actually snapped up two years ago, Deep Silver quickly sent out word that was not the case. In a chat with the Los Angeles Times Malte Wagener, the head of global business development for Deep Silver's parent company Koch Media, stated that while there is still no movie deal in place for Dead Island there have indeed been a number of inquires. He states, "Right now I'd say it boils down to three or four opportunities. "

He added, "We had a couple of big-name directors come to us. One of the top directors in Hollywood sent a studio his link to the trailer and said he was interested in this, and the studio contacted us." Wagerner knows that the massive buzz that the trailer created is finite, saying, "We're a private company and we're not under the same pressure as other companies. We don't have people saying accept the next offer. But we're also aware the buzz won't last forever."

Download the Dead Island Cinematic Trailer at Big Download

On Saturday we and other web sites reported that the movie rights to the long-in-development zombie action game Dead Island had already been bought by movie producer Sean Daniel and Union Entertainment back in 2009. The first reports came from movie industry web sites which usually are accurate.

Now our sister site Joystiq reports that according to a statement from Klemens Kundratitz, the CEO of Koch Media (the parent company of Dead Island publisher Deep Silver) those movie right haven't been bought at all. While it admits that it has received "a vast amount of inquiries" about securing those rights, Kundratitz states, "We want to do it the right way as film realizations of games (or vice versa) usually fail to deliver what the fans were looking for." That's certainly true. Our question: How did all these movie industry web sites miss the mark so badly on their original stories?

A European-based developer and publisher is dealing with some financial hardships this week. Gamasutra reports that Playlogic has filed for the equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in its native county of the Netherlands.The report states that Playlogic has admitted to being "behind on payments to some of our vendors." It also claims that it is owed money from its distributor Koch Media to the tune of 1.7 million euros and has started legal proceedings to obtain that money.

Playlogic's last game was the platform action title Fairytale Fights. While the game was released for the Xbox 360 and PS3 last fall, the promised PC version has yet to be released.

It's hard to believe that the development team behind the Call of Juarez first person shooters would switch to a totally new genre for their next game but Techland is doing just. Today they announced their plans for Nail'd, a ATV racing game that's due out in the fall of 2010.

The game, which will be published by Deep Silver, has already launched its web site with info, screenshots and the first trailer from the game. So what will make Nail'd so much different than other ATV-based racing games? Well the game's press release claims that before Nail'd "no other racing has ever featured such differences in altitude." We are guessing that means you will be catching a lot of air while driving the ATVs. Look for motorcycles and quads to join the ATVs and players will also be able to customize their rides with lots of different parts. There will be 16 total racing tracks in four different locations. And yes there's multiplayer support for up to 12 players.

Download HD nail'd Trailer (90 MB)

German-base Deep Silver is apparently planning to get more involved in the US game market. Today the publisher announced a new arrangement with Southpeak Games that will have Southpeak become the official distributor for all of Deep Silver's upcoming games.

As part of the new deal, Deep Silver's parent company Koch Media has bought a minority stake in Southpeak Games. Specific financial numbers were not announced. Deep Silver released the RPG Risen last year and their upcoming PC game titles include the open world action title Ride to Hell and the upcoming game adaptation of the canceled TV series Prison Break.

It was a rumor last year but today the official word is that a game based on Prison Break TV show is on its way to the PC and other platforms. Too bad the TV show itself was canceled by Fox earlier this year. The game was known to be under the Brash Entertainment publishing wing before they imploded in the fall of 2008.

Thankfully the game, developed by Zootfly and now to be published by Deep Silver, follows the events from the TV show's first (and best) season. The game's storyline runs parallel to the first season's prison escape plot as your player character is also sent to Fox River State Penitentiary.

Your goal? Find out why the TV show's main character Michael Scofield would suddenly decide to rob a bank even though he had no previous criminal record (as fans of the show know, he got himself arrested so he could go to jail and try to free his brother who was framed for murder and about to go to the chair).

Your new character will meet several folks from the TV show and use "diverse climbing and stealth skills" to explore the prison. There's no word on what your character does when, or even if, he finds out the truth about Scofield's plans. There's also no word on when the game itself will be released.

In the midst of all of this consolidation in the game industry, one publisher is actually expanding its borders in the US. That publisher is Deep Silver, the brand owned by German based Koch Media, has announced today its plans to open a new US based office.

The new Deep Silver office is based in Hermosa Beach, CA (just outside Los Angeles) and will house the company's US sales and marketing staff as well a place to develop their relations with North American based developers. Upcoming games under the Deep Silver banner include the fantasy action-RPG title Sacred 2 and the highly anticipated first person shooter prequel S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky from developer GSC Game World. It should be interesting to see how Deep Silver handles the US market.