Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Endemol sells off mobile game producer

Within a month two Dutch game companies is sold to foreign companies. After that Media Republic sold its marketing games division Guerrilla to Sony, now the mobile game producer Overloaded is sold to the Norwegian company Mobile Media Company by Endemol. Although Endemol sells off the company, it will continue to cooperate with Overload. The games producer developed games such as Fear Factor, Xyanide and Steel Dragon.

What is going on? Endemol bought the company two years ago and wanted to make it the in-house producer of games. Despite the fact that Overloaded produced specific Endemol titles such as Big Brothers, The Games and Directors Cut, Overloaded never became a core business of Endemol. Now the company says that it wants to work with more producers. Media Republic sold Guerrilla to Sony.

Both sales show that the companies selling are returning to their core business, respectively television and marketing. On the other hand the gaming sector looks set for a rationalisation. The Mobile Media Company hopes to get access to a global production and distribution network with the acquisition of Overloaded. The Mobile Media Company has already subsidiaries in the UK, Romania, Hong Kong, China and the US. For Sony Guerrilla will be a new production street for the Sony’s Playstation.

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