Perception announced a few days ago that it has begun legal proceedings in a Sydney, Australia court against Austrian publisher JoWooD, seeking compensation for damages in excess of EUR 8,000,000 ($11,878,759) it received during 2005’s very public breakdown in relations between the two companies over the mis-managed development of Stargate SG1. Though the license for the Stargate title has defaulted and reverted back to its original owners, both companies are still going at it apparently, with no end in sight. Interesting is that this time around the proceedings are taking place in Australia, it doesn’t look good for JoWooD, with Perception holding the home-field advantage. Can JoWooD survive losing this suit? My money is on no.

Press release after the jump..

Read more of ”Perception sues JoWooD over Stargate fiasco, claims damages in excess of 8 Million Euro“

Sunage has gotten a new website and has released images of their US and EU boxart. Though the game, which has been in development for years in Vienna, has missed several release dates the release of box art is a positive sign that the struggling Austrian based developer is nearing a gold master. Now here’s to hoping they have some success and can continue to develop more real-time strategy titles.

Panzer Tactics DS, the lovable World War II strategy game that Europe loves to death, is close to release and with that comes the official trailer, unveiled recently that the Games Conference in Leipzig. Developed in Vienna, Austria by Sproing Interactive, Panzer Tactics DS is the first turn-based WWII strategy title for the portable console. Set in 1939, players can assume command of the German Wehrmacht, the Western Allies or the Russian Red Army. Players can also challenge friends via local or Wi-Fi matches over the Nintento Wi-Fi network.

Games That Matter, the production studio started by the ex-heads of Rockstar Vienna, has been acquired by Deep Silver. The announcement was just dropped in Leipzig, so, expect a press release soon. There have been no public updates on the two confidential “major console and PC titles” that GTM have announced their involvement in since we wrote about the company founding in January 2007.

Koch Media, a leading producer and distributor of digital entertainment products in Europe, acquires the Austrian games production company Games That Matter.

The company merges with Koch Media’s premium games label, Deep Silver. Games That Matter’s structure and goals remain the same: Deep Silver Vienna fully concentrates on high quality games, especially for consoles. In the center of all efforts are producing, successful publishing and establishing new brands.

Press release after the jump..
Read more of ”Games That Matter, ex-Rockstar Vienna production house, acquired by Deep Silver (Update 2)“

With the announcement of Nintendo’s WiiWare, indie game developers around the world felt their extremities go numb, as the creative juices started flowing at the mere thought of being able to develop a title for this generation’s breakout console. Whether Nintendo will be as indie-friendly as everyone hopes remains to be seen, but, they certainly are taking an interesting first step, by featuring Plättchen - Twist and Paint as the first official WiiWare title. Developed by a relatively unknown firm named Bplus in the outskirts of Vienna, Austria and featuring a German name which will surely confuse the hell out of many in the west, but no doubt excite the German-obsessed Japanese market, Plättchen is described as a puzzle-shooter, whose concept was approved by Nintendo in April 2007. Hopefully some screenshots or videos will appear soon and more information on the upcoming Wii and DS titles Bplus have in development will come to light, which we’ll surely post here immediately.

Read more: Bplus | Interview with Bplus at Infendo

JoWooD, Austria’s once mighty publishing label, has announced their ongoing negotiations with new developers for the creation of Gothic 4, JoWooD’s lifeline product. It appears that an unknown split has developed between previous developers Piranha Bytes / Pluto 13 and JoWooD, not a surprising occurrence with developers in a relationship with JoWooD. Gothic 4 will be developed by an unknown developer for both console (I’d assume Xbox 360) and PC release, though I find it difficult that a suitable developer could be found to carry the brightly burning torch that Piranha Bytes will be handing off.

Official statement from JoWooD by their outstanding marketing department:

JoWooD confirms having been in promising negotiatons for the development of Gothic 4 on PC and console with various prospective development studios. Releasing Gothic 4 on current-gen console is the next logical step for the Publisher’s strategy. JoWooD puts most of its focus on high quality standards as well as reacting to the communities comments and requests for the sequel to its flag-ship title.

Since Pluto 13 and JoWooD have not come to terms regarding the development of Gothic 4, the collaboration has come to an end. However, JoWooD will continue supporting the released and coming Gothic titles.

Read more: May 23rd in Austria, Gothic 4, JoWooD | Email this | 1 comment

Rumors are swirling that 10tacle, one of Europe’s fastest growing developers, is still looking to expand through Europe, building more development studios to work on their internal and licensed projects. With studios already existing in Hannover (Germany), Bratislava (Slovakia), Charleroi (Belgium), Singapore and London and 10tacle being a German-based company, the search began for clues to where in Europe 10tacle would expand. Well, a handful of Google searches later brought about the answer. Vienna, Austria, once home to Rockstar Vienna, at one point one of the largest development studios in Europe and shutdown last year by parent company Take 2.

During this handy dandy Google search, we came upon http://www.10t-vienna.com/, what appears to be the landing page for the forthcoming 10tacle Vienna. Some questions remain. Like what exactly would 10tacle Vienna be doing? If development, what projects and what platforms are they looking to target? Vienna has an abundance of console and handheld development talent thanks to the Rockstar fallout, however, what talent would back 10tacle Vienna? Vienna’s (best and) most experienced developers have already been snatched up, with the creation of Team Vienna and Games That Matter, two new studios both formed by former high-level management from Rockstar Vienna, and the small successes of smaller local independent developers such as Xendex, Sproing, Greentube and last but not least, JoWooD, who all have been recruiting lately. There is little to no studio management-level experience left in Vienna, which means 10tacle would (hopefully) bring in external studio management and begin recruiting locally in Vienna by targeting the staff of other studios, which could be a risk for 10tacle’s local image if developers begin shifting companies.

Whatever the case, if it’s true, great for Vienna, Austria, a wonderful city with a tight little game development community who could really use new blood in the scene.

Update 1: Have now heard that the studio will focus primarily on production of 10tacle projects developed elsewhere. Snore. Also, it’s teamvienna.at not teamvienna.org.

Hmm?: 10tacle Vienna | 10tacle

…or maybe not? Thanks to a to a loyal reader for kicking us in the ass by sending us a juicy photo of lots of PS3s hanging out in a Saturn in Vienna, Austria (the “Best Buy” of Austria no less). There are several such stacks throughout the store (estimated around 100 units), which begs the question, did Saturn seriously overstock (probably), are PS3 sales SO high that Saturn *needs* such a large stock or are PS3 sales in Austria seriously that disappointing (probably, again)? Regardless, for €599 ($804) I don’t foresee the PS3 flying off shelves anytime soon here.

Lighthouse Interactive and Austrian developer Vertex4 have released 2 songs from the soundtrack of their upcoming RTS SunAge free for your downloading pleasure. SunAge, an epic RTS which has been in development for over 10 years as both a hobby and professional project, is slated for release in May 2007. The title is set in a futuristic Earth and will feature some pretty intuitive formation handling and battle overviews, as is one of the best looking RTS titles we’ve seen in awhile.

Listen: Download 2 free songs from the SunAge soundtrack | SunAge

JoWooD, 4Head and Deep Silver today announced the upcoming add-on for popular European life simulator The Guild. Titled “Pirates of the European Seas”, the upcoming add on bring players to Northern Europe, sailing the seas as a mid-evil pirate or tradesman. Including 3 new maps, 10 new hours of game play, and updated buildings, ships and professions, the The Guild 2 - Pirates of the European Seas is scheduled for release in the second quarter of 2007, which means sometime by Spring 2007, a fact that would be nice to know if only JoWooD’s marketing department had any sense of writing an engaging and clear press release which doesn’t sound like it was written for a pharmaceutical company.

Read more: JoWooD announces The Guild 2 - Pirates of the European Seas