southpeak-interactive posts

We haven't heard much about the progress of Stronghold 3 lately and now the historical RTS game's publisher Southpeak Interactive has announced that the title won't be out this spring as originally announced. The game's release date has now been pushed back to sometime this summer.

Southpeak's press release states developer Firefly Worlds needs more time to "include a host of great new features" in Stronghold 3 with the developer's head man Simon Bradbury stating, "We want to make sure fans get the game they want and deserve." Specific details about the game's new features were not mentioned in today's press release.

Southpeak Games managed to sneak in its latest financial results late last week for the quarter that ended on December 31, 2010. For the time period the game publisher brought in revenues of $7.5 million compared to $10.1 million for the same period a year ago. The company recorded a let loss of $2.1 million for the quarter compared to a loss of $2.6 million for the same period a year ago.

In the press release, Southpeak stated that it has a "substantial investment" in the success of the fantasy RPG Two Worlds II which it co-published here in the US with TopWare. The release of that game, however, does not figure into the financial results it published last week. At the moment the only upcoming game that Southpeak has announced officially is the PC exclusive RTS title Stronghold 3 which is due out this spring.

The fantasy RPG sequel Two Worlds II has been released in parts of Europe for a while now but it will finally be released in the US soon. The game was originally set for release this week but today its co-publisher Topware announced it will finally be released in the US on February 4.

In the same press release, Topware announced that a limited Royal Edition of the game is now available for pre-order. The PC/Mac Royal Edition is apparently only accessible at Amazon.com where it shows only two copies are avaialble. The $79.99 Royal Edition includes the Reality Pump-developed game along with extras like a Dragon Queen statuette, a behind-the-scenes DVD, a double sided poster with a map of the game's fantasy world, an exclusive art book, playig cards and exclusive in-game weapons and items.

Two Worlds II, already released in parts of Europe last fall, is finally scheduled to show up for the US market in early February. In the first video developer diary released by its US publisher Southpeak Games, Scott Cromie, the creative director of the game's co-publisher TopWare Interactive talks about some of the game's new features compared to the original title.

Those features include the improved graphical engine which Cromie claims shows off the best visuals no matter which platform the game is made for. Players can also dismantle weapons in the game to upgrade equipment and the spell system can now be customized to make over 1 million potential spells available.

Download the Two Worlds II Developer Diary 1 trailer at Big Download

You may remember earlier this year that developers Topware Interactive and Gaijin Entertainment released Battle Vs Chess, a fantasy strategy take on the classic chess game. That move apparently didn't make Interplay very happy. The publisher filed a lawsuit against Topware on September 24, claiming that Battle Vs Chess was an infringement on Interplay's own Battle Chess trademark.

In a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Interplay announced that the court battle against Topware has succeeded in a preliminary injunction being granted that prevents Topware from "further use of Battle Chess or any confusingly similar title by TopWare." So that pretty much means that the game can't be sold until it gets a new title.

[Via Fallout Wika]

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.

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.

We are still not out of the financial reporting season for game publishers. This week Southpeak Games announced that for the quarter that ended on March 31 they generated $7.5 million in revenues compared to $13.5 million for the same period a year ago. Southpeak managed to squeak out a small profit of $192,000 for the quarter compared to a loss of $692,000 for the same period a year ago.

In its press release Southpeak notes that it had now resolved legal issues with fellow game publishers CDV and Paradox Interactive (a recent lawsuit filed by Section 8 developer Timegate Studios was not mentioned). Southpeak plans to release the fantasy RPG sequel Two Worlds II this fall and has most recently secured the publishing rights to Stronghold 3 for its release in 2011.

After working for the past couple of years on a game that later went on hold, developer Firefly Studios is going back to basics. The UK-based developer has now confirmed that it is developing Stronghold 3, the latest game in their long running historical RTS-sim game series.

Little info on the game itself has been released so far other than the fact that Southpeak Games will publish the title for release in spring 2011. Firefly's last major game project was supposed to be Dungeon Hero, a fantasy action-RPG. The game got a publishing deal with GameCock but Southpeak did not bring that game along to its lineup when it purchased GameCock in late 2008. A teaser web site for Stronghold 3 has launched with a simple yet effective animation.