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..

Koch Media, a leading producer and distributor of digital entertainment products in Europe, acquires the Austrian games production company Games That Matter. Founded in 2006 by games industry veterans Hannes Seifert and Niki Laber, 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.

“With Koch Media, we found a strong partner who excellently complements our long-time experience and our new and innovative business model. Now we can fully concentrate on our core competences.” said Niki Laber, Managing Director of Games That Matter.

For Koch Media, the formation of Deep Silver Vienna means the achievement of a major strategic goal. With the seamless integration of the founding members of the legendary Rockstar Vienna team (among others “GTA” and “Max Payne”), the company expands its future product portfolio and also strengthens its leading market position as an independent games publisher in Europe and around the world.

Klemens Kundratitz, General Manager of Koch Media, added: “With the integration of Games That Matter, we enter a new era for Deep Silver. Deep Silver Vienna will massively push our reputation as an independent publisher. The former Rockstar Vienna team brings along the experience that is needed for building long-term, globally strong and successful video game brands. Games That Matter developed a cutting-edge production model and we believe in their approach. Deep Silver Vienna will play a decisive role in our strategy of becoming even more international, focusing more on the console business and establishing our own brands.”

Update 2
deepsilvervienna.com registered as of August 10, 2007

DOMAIN: DEEPSILVERVIENNA.COM

created-date: 2007-08-10
updated-date: 2007-08-10
registration-expiration-date: 2008-08-10

Read more: Games That Matter | Deep Silver

Nearing a year after the closure of Rockstar Vienna, who was rumored to be developing Manhunt 2 for the PS2 before their sudden closure, Rockstar Games has announced Manhunt 2 for the PS2, PSP and (shock!) Wii! Not that anyone still cares about the Manhunt license or anything, the exciting news here is that Rockstar is making a go at a Nintendo Wii title! If anyone was doubting that the big N was trying to attract the 3rd parties, eat up a bit of that piping hot crow. Granted, I’d rather have a GTA Wii or Max Payne Wii, but who knows, if things work out well for Manhunt 2 Wii, guaranteed we’ll see more Rockstar titles appearing on the platform. Rockstar Games also went on to say that Rockstar London is developing the PS2 version, Rockstar Leeds the PSP and Rockstar Toronto the Wii version, with of course, Rockstar North overseeing all three. Look for all 3 versions appearing this Summer.

Read more: Manhunt 2 announced for PS2, PSP and Wii

At a press conference hosted yesterday afternoon in Vienna, Austria by the founders of Games That Matter, Ex-directors of Rockstar Vienna, Hannes Seifert and Niki Laber, along with partner Jürgen Goeldner, presented their business model and goals for the newly formed independent games production company.

With the intention of purchasing, developing and licensing game concepts internally, Games That Matter plans to offer publishers and potential investors the ability to, according to Managing Director Niki Laber, “participate in the actual IP without being forced to bear operative costs of a studio beyond the project.” Games That Matter’s small team, consisting primarily of ex-Rockstar Vienna staff, will be performing all aspects of the initial production for their titles, from scheduling and design to branding and vision, with content creation and development responsibilities being outsourced to strategic partners around the World.

The “visionary” business model behind Games That Matter closely mirrors that of the movie industry, with every project being spun off into its own individual corporation, allowing for a wide-range of investment opportunities with little risk for both Games That Matter and potential investors by keeping team sizes and potential overhead as low as possible. Games That Matter then sells or licenses the finished titles directly to publisher or distributors.

“In my 20 years in this crazy industry I worked on original IP as well as licensed properties,” said Hannes Seifert, managing director and executive producer of Games That Matter. “With our new approach to game production we bring together ideas, investors and developers and help companies of all sizes to work with us on breathtaking titles without forcing them to grow to death.” Explaining further, Seifert adds “We will be able to offer publishers a finished game at a specific point in time without the risk of financing. And we offer investors a high return and long life cycle of their investment. We do not see investors as necessary evil, but as vital partners in production. And as such partners they deserve a fair share of a game’s success.”

No announcements regarding projects or publishing partners have been made, though it was revealed that the team is currently working on one “AAA console and PC” project and discussions with major investors and publishers are on-going.

Read more: Games That Matter

7 months after the closure of Rockstar Vienna by Take-two, former founders Hannes Seifert and Niki Laber have announced the formation of their new company, Games That Matter. Working together with Jürgen Goeldner, founder of Funsoft, later acquired by THQ and mobile developer Mobile Scope, later acquired by IN-FUSIO, their team will present a “visionary game production business model” to the industry. What that visionary model will be or why exactly it’s visionary in the first place hasn’t been announced yet, but founder Hannes Seifert has held talks in Vienna discussing the shift towards “movie industry style” production methods in the past. One would assume that would involve a small core team focusing on production and design aspects, while outsourcing whenever and wherever possible for content, development and testing. The official press conference for Games That Matter takes place on the 25th of January where more information will be presented to the gaming press, possibly including information on their first title.

Read more: Games That Matter | Rockstar Vienna entry @ Wikipedia

In a further sign of Take Two solidifying their hold over Rockstar Games, the company has appointed industry veteran Gary Dale as Chief Operating Officer of the famed GTA developer. Most recently European managing director of Capcom, Dale was previously the president of games at BMG until Take-Two acquired them in 1998. What this means for Sam Houser’s control over the company remains to be seen but if any of the gossip is to be believed, around the time of the closure of Rockstar Vienna in May, a behind the scenes power struggle has ensued, resulting in a small exodus from the company. In other news, a games analyst has gone on record questioning the success of Rockstar’s recent media storm, Bully, estimating it to see less than a million sell-through worldwide, not exactly a hit (but also not really that bad). But taking into consideration the title took more than 5 years to get out of the door, it doesn’t exactly look promising that a Bully 2 would be coming out anytime soon, if at all.

Read more: Bully 2 not gonna happen according to analyst

ML Enterprises, an up and coming games industry consultancy startup from Munich, Germany, has announced their assumption of production for Replay Studios’ upcoming PC title, Sabotage. The interesting part of the announcement is the mention of ex members of Rockstar Vienna, Rockstar’s European development studio which was axed in May of this year, being involved in not only their own startups but also involved in work that actually gains them a little bit of credit. Good luck guys…

A Strong Partnership: ML Enterprises takes over producing for “Sabotage” by Replay Studios
Press release supplied by Games Press 17:36 17/11/2006

Munich – 11/17/2006 – ML Enterprises takes over producing for the third person action game “Sabotage” by Replay Studios in Hamburg, Germany.

Players will perform acts of sabotage all across Europe when they play the role of Violette Summer, a allied secret operative in the Second World War.

In this case producing to ML Enterprises means the conversion of meaningful and holistic strategies to successfully connect creative work and organisational challenges in a target-oriented way.

Jurie Horneman will help as a producer from ML Enterprises to handle the different challenges and questions in Hamburg. He has been working in different positions in the industry for 15 years (project manager, game designer, lead programmer), amongst others for Rockstar Vienna and JoWood Productions.

Horneman sees this constellation as a golden opportunity: “I am really content with the productive cooperation with ML Enterprises. It will be very satisfying to be a part of this interesting and ambitious project.”

Managing Director Hendrik Lesser explains: “Sabotage is a bang for the buck! The game has a unique look and drags the player into a thrilling and fascinating world. That is why we are so looking forward to cooperate with Replay Studios.”

Creative Director Sascha Jungnickel holds: “We are glad to have the backup from ML. They can help us to remedy some structural and communication problems, and this will be the beginning for long lasting partnership.”

About ML Enterprises

ML Enterprises GmbH is a production and licensing agency for the entertainment industry.

Its founders have been active in management positions in the industry for over 14 years. ML Enterprises GmbH was established in 2005 and is guided by the vision of offering classic consulting services, business management, project and resource brokering, licensing, financing and also producing and content consulting from a single source. Applying this concept throughout the entire life cycle of a product has proven to be successful, and we continually and persistently work to optimize and expand on our efforts.

About Jurie Horneman

Since 1991 Jurie Horneman has been working in various positions and countries on games. Now he labours as a free lance game designer and producer. More information and his blog can be found at his website: www.intelligent-artifice.com.

Read more: Replay Studios | ML Enterprises