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Here's a little interesting tidbit that was mentioned in a recent Eurogamer article on digital distribution. Amongst the very interesting points of interest in the article, one particular item stuck out and it concerns Zenimax, GameStop, and Valve.
Rumors (remember folks, this is a rumor) are going around that both Zenimax, parent company of Bethesda Softworks, and GameStop have been eyeing up Valve in a possible acquisition move.
It's going to be very interesting to see how this pans out if any of it comes to fruition. Let's not forget that this is a rumor and nothing at all may come from this. I have to put this warning here for those who may not get that, for the time being, this is a rumor.
Rumors (remember folks, this is a rumor) are going around that both Zenimax, parent company of Bethesda Softworks, and GameStop have been eyeing up Valve in a possible acquisition move.
GameStop, probably the biggest games retail brand on earth, is presently in the market for a digital distribution acquisition. Despite the powerful positioning of brands like IGN's Direct2Drive and Valve's Steam, digital distribution is still an open market - a solid service carrying the GameStop brand could take a major foothold.
The companys acquisition options, however, aren’t quite as extensive as one might expect. In fact, there aren't that many major players in the digital distribution space - not least because at present, it's limited to the PC, with other platforms catered for by first-party stores. Direct2Drive is part of IGN, and as such, belongs to media conglomerate News Corp and is not for sale. Smaller players like Stardock/s Impulse could be of interest, but would require that GameStop effectively build a large part of the content catalogue from scratch - I suspect they'd rather hit the ground running.
That effectively leaves two contenders - Valve's Steam and Metaboli, a French service which bought GameTap from TBS last year and operates a variety of branded outlets on the web.
If you wanted to place a bet, my tip would be that we’ll see an acquisition deal between GameStop and Metaboli in the coming months, which will finally give the retail chain a major footprint in the digital distribution market. It'll also serve as a boost to GameStop’s European ambitions, which have plodded along at a rather slower pace than everyone expected when they first set sights on these shores a few years ago.
However, it's also worth watching closely what happens to Steam in the coming months. Unconfirmed industry scuttlebutt suggests that Zenimax - the parent company of Bethesda, which made headlines back in June when it acquired legendary PC studio id Software - is still on the acquisition trail, and has been making eyes at Half-Life creators Valve across the bar.
Whether Bethesda, a hybrid developer/publisher itself, would want to keep Steam on board, or spin it out to a third party, is unclear - as are many other aspects of a potential deal which would once again raise the awkward question of who, exactly, owns which parts of the Half-Life and Counter-Strike IPs.
The companys acquisition options, however, aren’t quite as extensive as one might expect. In fact, there aren't that many major players in the digital distribution space - not least because at present, it's limited to the PC, with other platforms catered for by first-party stores. Direct2Drive is part of IGN, and as such, belongs to media conglomerate News Corp and is not for sale. Smaller players like Stardock/s Impulse could be of interest, but would require that GameStop effectively build a large part of the content catalogue from scratch - I suspect they'd rather hit the ground running.
That effectively leaves two contenders - Valve's Steam and Metaboli, a French service which bought GameTap from TBS last year and operates a variety of branded outlets on the web.
If you wanted to place a bet, my tip would be that we’ll see an acquisition deal between GameStop and Metaboli in the coming months, which will finally give the retail chain a major footprint in the digital distribution market. It'll also serve as a boost to GameStop’s European ambitions, which have plodded along at a rather slower pace than everyone expected when they first set sights on these shores a few years ago.
However, it's also worth watching closely what happens to Steam in the coming months. Unconfirmed industry scuttlebutt suggests that Zenimax - the parent company of Bethesda, which made headlines back in June when it acquired legendary PC studio id Software - is still on the acquisition trail, and has been making eyes at Half-Life creators Valve across the bar.
Whether Bethesda, a hybrid developer/publisher itself, would want to keep Steam on board, or spin it out to a third party, is unclear - as are many other aspects of a potential deal which would once again raise the awkward question of who, exactly, owns which parts of the Half-Life and Counter-Strike IPs.
It's going to be very interesting to see how this pans out if any of it comes to fruition. Let's not forget that this is a rumor and nothing at all may come from this. I have to put this warning here for those who may not get that, for the time being, this is a rumor.
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