JoWooD to buy The Adventure Company

[Kolorabi]

This is kind of surprising news...

According to JoWooD's website, they're going to buy Dreamcatcher (and The Adventure Company, which is a part of Dreamcatcher).

http://www.jowood.com/investor/?lang=en

This acquisition will provide JoWooD with direct access to every major retailer of PC and video games in North America. In addition, JoWooD will own America's #1 publisher of Adventure games further underlining JoWooD’s commitment to strengthen and broaden its distribution capacity through a proven and established network and to deliver compelling PC and video games to consumers worldwide.

I don't know what this'll mean for American gamers (other than that JoWooD will use Dreamcatcher to publish their own games in the US, instead of using other publishers like Aspyr), but there's some good news for us Europeans:

“DreamCatcher’s strong brands and licenses such as Painkiller, Agatha Christie, and others, significantly contributed to last year’s turnover of CAD 25 million (~ € 17,5 million) respectively,” said Albert Seidl. With upcoming sequels from these brands as well as some additional new brands, JoWooD’s capacity and existing network throughout Europe allows JoWooD to immediately start marketing DreamCatcher’s titles.

Hopefully it'll be easier to get hold of TAC's games in Europe from now on.

Edit: Seems there's some good news for Americans too, as it seems JoWooD will now be able to release games simultaneously in both Europe and the US. So American gamers won't have to wait like they do now (for Gothic III, for instance).

[AFGNCAAP]

Wow. It's specifically interesting from where I'm sitting, as in Poland JoWood has been associated with the only major publisher which has been completely ignoring the genre for years. I wonder what will come of this.

[Kurufinwe]

So, erm, TellTale people, how does it feel to be the last North American publisher of adventure games?

(Not sure what smiley to put there. If any. Come to think of it, this is sort of scary.)

[RLacey]

So, erm, TellTale people, how does it feel to be the last North American publisher of adventure games?

(Not sure what smiley to put there. If any. Come to think of it, this is sort of scary.)Aren't you forgetting GotGame? And TriSynergy. And Aspyr.

Okay, so those last two don't really count. But you get my point.

[Fop]

Painkiller? God, I can't even remember when that game was released.

[aries323]

HI :)

I don't really understand this info/news sinde I know from varius European
Gothic 3 sites that Jowwod doesn't have any money - or at least not that much money....

This is why, according to the German Gothic 3 boards, that Jowood 'pressured' Piranha Bytes into releasing Gothic 3 way too early -
to get (a lot) of money.

Until further notice, I will remain skeptical of this/info news.

If it should be true, then I fear for The Adventure Company's fate (or or destiney). I hold it to be true that Jowood as a publisher for at least the last decade didn't hold any real interest in the adventure genre as such.

I just don't hope that Jowood only buys Dreamcatcher as a means to get
a profit on the bottom line, meaning that it will use Dreamcatcher's earnings
to cover is own financial losses.

From a strategic business perspective it is of course good news. This enables both Dreamcatcher as well as Jowood to release games at the same time - both in Europe and in the Northamerican market.

aries323

[Kurufinwe]

Aren't you forgetting GotGame? And TriSynergy. And Aspyr.

Okay, so those last two don't really count. But you get my point.
While my post was certainly an exaggeration, the general trend definitely goes towards having fewer and fewer adventure games publishers, as well as developers, in North America. The situation over there is really starting to look like the end of Ten Little Nig Ind And Then There Were None (damn political correctness :P). And I don't think this is a good thing. At all.

[Lucien21]

Given that the only adventure game Jowwod has ever published is Jack Orlando this notice worries me a bit.

As long as they are leaving Dreamcatcher/TAC alone then it might be ok.

I don't envision this move as being great for Adventure Games.

Maybe Anaconda can move in and take over the No1 spot.