SCi buys Pivotal
On the receiving end.
British publisher SCi has rescued Pivotal Games from the ignominy of parent company Kaboom Studios' receivership, paying receivers Ersnt & Young a cool £2.36 million for the developer's trade and assets, the company announced today. Pivotal is expected to continue much as it did before, with no lay-offs planned for any of the 70 staff - an altered payment structure the only real evidence of new ownership.
The move has been on the cards for a while, and the success of Pivotal's most recent releases The Great Escape and particularly Conflict: Desert Storm II will have helped make SCi's mind up. Both games are still riding high in the All Formats Top 10, and two Conflict sequels are already in the early stages of development.
SCi generally outsources development to third parties, but has told the city that in this case acquisition makes more sense than letting the developer fall into enemy hands - safeguarding its future as publisher of the lucrative Conflict series and allowing it to "positively alter its royalty arrangements [...] such that future earnings will be enhanced". With the latter in mind, SCi hopes to recoup its investment "within the next 12 months".