Catalis Group Acquires Curve Digital To Create "Major New British Games Publisher"

Eidos... One evil company that I'm happy is gone (ruined Tomb Raider). Can't say I'm too excited about this tbh. Poor Curve.

@Moon I doubt it's a poor Curve situation as they would have agreed to by the buy out. Plus probably got a huge amount of money too.

They say this will create a major new British publisher, but from what I gather The Catalis Group aren't British. So how does that work?

No more curve games for Nintendo eshop then!

@Moon This was a strategic decision by Curve and can only be a good thing for them.

Curve is my favorite indie publisher on the Wii U. Curious to see were this will lead.

@Moon Eidos has nothing to do with this. Alse they aren't gone, they are owned by Square.

Well that's an oxymoron. Indies as part of a powerhouse that serves publishing duties.

That is the exact description of non-indie.

Hopefully this doesn't lead to them moving away from Nintendo.With all the games they release on the Eshop they must be doing alright at least so hopefully not.

@Xilef Eidos exist in name, but they aren't operating like they used to, thankfully.

And that guy from catalis group used to run Eidos...
Eidos were about to go bust in the 90s before they signed Core Design, who were working on Tomb Raider at the time. Tomb Raider saved Eidos - how did they repay Core? By forcing them to release a sequel every year and then taking Tomb Raider off them and running them in to the ground.

Fair enough, times have changed, but if I were a British developer, I'd be concerned about signing up to a company headed by someone from Eidos.

@Moon You make it sound like Eidos were the only major publisher to do this. EA were just as bad in the day and yet developers still sold themselves to them.

@Moon Funny how if I want to be happy about SEGA going away is a bad thing and yet for something like Eidos to suffer the same fate is somehow fine for everyone here......

Love the hidden image caption!

@Socar because Sega were a house hold name at one point, and credit to them, have made good games (and consoles) in the past. No one cares about Eidos because they were detrimental to the industry. Just like no one would care if EA were to go bankrupt.

@FragRed I don't condone that sort of behaviour from anyone - certainly not EA.

I hope curve still supports nintendo after this, i've bought plenty of their eshop releaes and I think they do a fine job.

@Moon
Like you're one to talk, those poor people of termina...

Somehow this seems like a very large overreach. Curve Digital did some interesting indie titles, but their bread and butter is porting PC indie games to consoles. That doesn't sound like someone capable of being a major studio force.

This sounds like a mutually beneficial situation. Catalis has the money and the man power, Curve has the existing network and the experience.
The inclusion of Wheatley's name seems to inforce the decidedly negative tone of the final paragraph. I can guarantee you it means EXACTLY what you're subtly suggesting: no more Curve on the eShop.

I don't get why people would be upset about this.

Headstrong have had a fine relationship with Nintendo despite being part of this group for the past years.

Why get upset @Pod?
Hmm, let's see.
Kuju, parent of Zoe Mode and Headstrong, hasn't exactly been a 2K (the biggest games developer in NA).
They made some decent games during the Gamecube generation (nothing Nintendo enthusiasts would have played) and never really moved on.
Unless you're one of those gamers that enjoys Art Academy, kitchsy dance games and shovelware.
How is this bad for Curve on the eShop? The eShop makes next to nothing for Curve as is. When Curve is part of a bigger, more financially sound entity, supporting a money pit no longer takes precedence.
Consider how quickly we saw the 'exclusive' Clone 2 on other platforms.
The thing is, the games only just break even of Nintendo systems. Despite less competition. Despite Nintendo be bending over backwards to get them.
On Wii U, Clone 2 looked like an awesome game, even at 10-12$ (not 15, which is why I never bought it).
On PS4, it was an afterthought at 3$.
That's right. I passed on Clone 2 at 3$.
So how sad is it that the eShop's indie games have no competition and still can't make Curve money?
Catalis can probably see this (hopefully see this) and will have Curve making better games that PS4, XB1 and PC gamers will have to acknowledge.

Best of luck to all from Curve.

@SahashraLA Whoa, I just looked at your comment history!

Hmm, hopefully the quality won't go down!

@SahashraLA
I do like Art Academy, very much so.
But what you're saying is that you assume Curve to really only have released on Wii U to get noticed, and now that they have been bought out, they won't support the system anymore? Because it isn't finacially sound?

Might be the case, which would be unfortunate, but the alternative might have been their closure, as they apparently weren't making the kind of money they had hoped for with Stealth Inc. 2.

In terms on their genre variety, though, I don't think Wheatley and company wouldn't have been looking to buy out Curve, just to order them to make or publish shovelware.
Headstrong, who were the original bearers of the name Kuju, have been making great stuff like House of the Dead Overkill and the Battallion Wars games, before getting caught in the Art Academy gig with Nintendo, which I'm assuming to be over now anyway, unless they're working on an NX version, or an Animal Crossing Art Academy for 3DS.

When Catalis Group announce that they're forming a "massive new force in British game publishing," I'm pretty sure they're aiming to take over some publishing business from core developers that have otherwise had to look to the US or Japan for the past handful of years.

If not, they really can sod off.

@Moon Go home, you drunk LOL