April 1, 1999 - Issue 21

Gremlin Swallowed

Infogrames acquire Sheffield-based Actua outfit

The super publisher model takes another step closer to reality as French giants Infogrames acquire rival publishers Gremlin in a deal worth close to £23 million.

Gremlin, publishers of the popular and successful Actua range of sports games, among others, have long been rumoured to be open to takeover offers, and Infogrames have beaten several other publishers to secure the deal. The takeover is reported to be friendly, with disruption and job losses at Gremlin kept to a minimum.

Gremlin acquired high-profile developers DMA Design (Body Harvest, Wild Metal Country, GTA) a couple of years ago and their future now looks uncertain. Whether DMA wish to remain under the Infogrames umbrella or break clear is undecided, though it would seem unlikely that Infogrames would want to let such a high profile and talented development house slip from their grasp. More news on DMA when we get it.

Despite this issue of Future Gamer being delivered on April Fool's Day, we managed to avoid any tedious gags in the issue. Also this week, Electronics Boutique announced that they were joining the growing list of free ISPs - we were beginning to think this Internet lark was going to take off...