southpeak-games posts

A little while ago we reported on a story that stated publisher Southpeak Games was under the scrutiny of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Today we received a statement from Southpeak Games that clarifies its position on this current situation with the SEC.

As we reported, the SEC is looking into allegations that Southpeak Games violated the SEC's rules for revealing company details in the first quarter 2009 financial report. Soutpeak's statement, which can be read in full after the jump, gives its version of the events and also on whether the company's now former chief financial officer Reba McDermott is planning to file a lawsuit against Southpeak Games.

Southpeak Games' management are not going to have a good Thanksgiving. Gamesindustry.biz (free registration required) is reporting that the game publisher has run afoul of the he US Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC is attempting to issue a cease and desist order against the company and two of its executives; chairman Terry Phillips and CEO Melanie Mroz,

According to SEC documents, it alleges that the company violated the SEC's rules for revealing company details in the first quarter 2009 financial report. This also apparently involves Southpeak's now former chief financial officer Reba McDermott. She left the company after just nine months and now is prepping to take legal action against Southpeak Games.

Southpeak is still dealing with a lawsuit filed against it by Timegate Studios who alleged that Southpeak withheld royalty payments over the sales of its 2009 first person shooter Section 8. Timegate's upcoming sequel, Section 8: Prejudice, will now be self-published by the developer.

Risen was a huge sales success on Steam this past weekend thanks to a price cut to $14.99, so much so that many buyers of the fantasy RPG title from developer Piranha Bytes couldn't play the game due to the publisher running out of the required activation keys. Now the game's US publisher Southpeak Games has emailed Big Download stating that all of the people who bought Risen this weekend on Steam have received their keys and can now actually play the game.

So how many copies did Risen sell on Steam during the four-day sales period? While Southpeak Games would not give specific numbers it did say, " ... it sold more copies in four days in the Steam sale than it had since its launch in October 2009 ."

We haven't had much news lately about Stronghold 3, the upcoming medieval castle sim-RTS game from developer Firefly Studios. However the developer launched a new poll on its Facebook page asking its fans for their opinions on dead animals.

Before you run screaming to PETA, this is a poll for picking which dead animal will be used for the in-game trebuchets. The dead animal ammo was used in those times in the hopes of generating disease among the enemy and in the game the ammo will "cause a cloud of disease that seeps through castles, killing anyone in its path." The four choices in the poll are a Senile donkey, a cage of rabid otters,a retired dancing bear, and a aack of diseased badgers. We don't think you can go wrong with any of those picks.

Earlier this week, publisher Southpeak Interactive announced that the US release of the fantasy RPG sequel Two Worlds II was being pushed back from October to January 2011. At the time the publisher stated the delay was to give the game "heavyweight quality assurance." Now the game's co-developer TopWare Interactive claims otherwise, telling GameSpot that Two Worlds II was actually completed earlier this month.

According to TopWare, the game's delay in the US was actually because Southpeak felt the game might get lost in the shuffle of other RPG titles coming out this fall. Company spokesperson James Seaman states, " .. fans only have so much time to spend playing these content-rich games, and there were concerns our title could potentially be lost in the fanfare." The game's European publisher Zuxxez will still release Two Worlds II "in a handful of territories October 21", according to the report.

If you thought that the fall 2010 PC game schedule was finally all settled, think again. Our sister site Joystiq reports that Two Worlds 2, the sequel to the fantasy RPG from developer Reality Pump Studios, won't be out in October in the US. Instead the game will be released in January 2011.

In its official statement, Southpeak said the delay was to give the game "heavyweight quality assurance". That sounds an awful lot like, "We don't want any show stopping bugs this time." The new release date is apparently just confirmed for the US at the moment. Ship dates for other territories in the world will be announced later.

The original Section 8 was a solid sci-fi multiplayer-oriented first person shooter that appealed to the Tribes fan in all of us. However developer TimeGate Studios was apparently unhappy with how its publisher Southpeak Games handled the release of the title back in 2009 and last December sued the publisher over claims of unpaid royalties.

While there's no word on the outcome of that lawsuit that isn't stopping Timegate from its announcement today of Section 8: Prejudice, the next game in the shooter series. There's no word yet on specific features for the game but GameTrailers.com has a pretty action-packed gameplay trailer that shows off a lot of new environments and other features. The game is due out sometime in early 2011. You can check out the trailer after the jump:

Are you ready for some EXTREME CHESS? Well, that may have been one of the alternate titles for Battle Vs Chess. The more action-oriented fantasy themed version of the classic strategy game now has a release date of September 28 via publisher Southpeak Games.

Developed by Topware Interactive and Gaijin Entertainment, the game uses the classic chess board and pieces in new and different ways such as "Madness Placement" (chess pieces are placed randomly on the board) and a full campaign mode with over 50 scenarios and puzzles. We especially want to see the new "Tactical Placement". The player moves his or her pieces before the game starts and those moves become visible to the player only after the game has begun. Sneaky. The PC port will cost a mere $19.99.

A few months ago developer Firefly Studios announced it would be making Stronghold 3, the next game in its long running historical strategy-sim series. Today comes word that Southpeak Games will be the publisher for Stronghold 3 and the game is scheduled to ship sometime in the first quarter of 2011.

Along with the publisher announcement comes some more info and the first (very early) screenshots from the title. The game itself will feature improvements in castle construction, the addition of night sieges in the game, two seperate single player campaigns (one with combat, the other with economic goals) and ways to play through real historical castle sieges from history. Multiplayer support will also be added.

If you like your chess matches to have some extra oomph then perhaps Battle vs Chess might be something to look forward to. The game, which was previously announced last March, now has a publisher in Southpeak Games. It will bring the Gaijin Entertainment developed game to the PC and other platforms sometime this fall.

Much like the holographic chess game in Star Wars, the chess pieces are animated and fight each other in scripted animations when they try to occupy the same space. However players can directly control the chess pieces in its Action Mode, turning the game into a fighting title with special weapons, moves and combo attacks.