May 6th, 2009 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Brand Licensing | 5 Comments »
It seems Glu is getting a new kick toward the it's grave as one of it's biggest partners, SEGA, seems to be switching to it's number 1 competitor Gameloft!
Through their new deal, Gameloft will be entitled to develop, publish and distribute mobile games based on the brands of SEGA. If Glu is totally exit is unknown, but since it's a multi-title deal we do expect that's the case.
We wonder what the impact will be on Glu's shares since Glu has also lost the valuable Hasbro license to competitor EA Mobile last year.
The first game to be released under the new deal is Sonic Unleashed. That game is currently under development at Gameloft and expected to be released next month.
“We are confident this agreement will be the first step towards a long term partnership between Gameloft and SEGA,” said Michel Guillemot, president, Gameloft. “SEGA’s great brands coupled with Gameloft’s long standing history of excellence in mobile game development can only result in an extraordinary mobile experience for consumers.”
“With so much entertainment on the go, it seems natural to provide fans with a mobile game based on the much loved Sonic brand,” said Gary Rowe, A&R Director, SEGA Europe Ltd. “Gameloft’s unwavering commitment to quality mobile games combined with a successful track record of bestsellers and unmatched worldwide distribution make them uniquely qualified to develop Sonic Unleashed for mobile.”
Tags: Brand Licensing . Ditching . Gameloft . Glu . SEGA . Shares
Permalink: https://www.mobilegamesblog.com/sega-ditches-glu-for-gameloft/
Read more about: Brand Licensing or go back Home
Share SEGA Ditches Glu for Gameloft?
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 8:28 pm and is filed under Brand Licensing.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Glu will not make it in 2010 – they are now at the top of the pile of a long list of companies that will not make it through this crisis.
Who will be next….it looks like Palyer X got bailed out – but surely no one else would be stupid enough to repeat Zed’s mistake…..
Don’t be alarmed if GLFT is “in play” soon. Look for M&A activity by late 2009. Likely suitors? Big media companies, maybe AAPL or Mr. Softie. Oh, and don’t count out EA.
Don’t see any of those players comming in for Glu. EA would make more sense for Apple – as they would aquire totally new business lines that will suppliment their hardware business. Mac for once could really become a serous challenger to PC’s for gaming….. this could help drive mass market volumes. As for EA – why would they acquire Glu? They don’t need additional infrastructure and what IP does Glu have that EA would be interested in? Msoft – don’t see that either…..Google could be a more likely bet – but even then it’s a long shot.
In my opinion SEGA is the looser not Glu. SEGA would have the real power to be a big player in mobile space but they never had the power or the right personal to be it. So now they are just licensing the brands to Gameloft. It doesnt make real sense.
Echo those sentiments Rob-I… and Glu is certainly now on borrowed time. Maybe they will get a similar bail out deal from Zed? Or even the sly old Fox…