Third Rate Game Play: Bomberman: Act Zero

Game: Bomberman: Act Zero System: Xbox 360 Developer: Hudson Soft (Bomberman, Adventure Island, Mario Party) Publisher: Konami Player: Tony Experience: Blind

Check the article after the jump!

Hudson Entertainment to Close

In preparation for the impending acquisition of Hudson Soft, the American branch of Hudson, Hudson Entertainment, is to be closed by the end of the month, and some projects have been canceled in the process.

In a now missing blog post, Hudson Entertainment brand manager Morgan Haro stated that the company would be closed by the end of the month. The company acted as US branch for Hudson Soft, working specifically on its western releases and marketing in the same markets.

The closure of Hudson Entertainment comes as the firm became redundant in the face of pending mergers with Konami, which is set to fully acquire Hudson Soft and shift its focus in the next couple months.

Hudson Entertainment was formed in 2003, although Hudson had published games via Hudson USA beforehand. Its most recent release was Lost in Shadow, which came out early January for the Wii.

Hudson Soft is believed to be changing its focus toward social and mobile projects post-acquisition. Before the announcement, Hudson had recently announced three specific 3DS projects: Bomberman, Deca Sports, and Nikoli's Pencil Puzzle. All current projects by Hudson Entertainment have been canceled, but the fate of all currently announced products from Hudson Soft is still unknown. The projects close to completion with most likely see release under the Konami brand, while those in pre-production are probably canceled or to be reshaped.

Best of luck to the team.

SOURCE: Gamasutra

Third Rate Week: Week of January 16th, 2011

This is Third Rate Week (3RW), a usually weekly video in which we talk about the events happening on 3RM's website, what gaming news has occurred, what games we've been playing, and what we can expect in the upcoming week.

This week:

00:34 - 3RM Update (3DS Article, Setting up Third Rate Game Play)
02:06 - Game News
-- Company Closures (Bizarre Creations, Propaganda Games, Hudson)
-- Square Enix Event (FFXIII-2, FFXIII Versus, Type-0, Kingdom Hearts 3D)
-- Nintendo's 3DS Events (Launch Titles, Price Tag, Special Features)
- Games We've Played: MorphX and Hero Core
10:57 - Next Week: PSP2 Announcement and Dead Space 2 Launch

Konami to Take Over Hudson

Konami has made it official that it will be taking over Hudson Soft via stock swap this upcoming fiscal year, turning the Bomberman developer into a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company.

A Nikkei report stated that Konami had finished its preparations for a complete takeover of Hudson, which would switch over power as of the end of March. CEO Michihiro Ishizuka is expected to resign on March 31st, and the next day, Konami Digital Entertainment's Kazuhiko Uehara will replace him to control Hudson's activities.

Shifting resources, Konami states that the company will be absorbing the developer's knowledge on game distribution on mobile platforms, and it hopes it can bring Hudson's focus toward social gaming experiences. The company is still considering a complete brand change in Hudson to fit into its new direction.

Hudson Soft, formed in 1973, specialized in PC software as early as 1975. Nintendo's first third-party company, Hudson developed Bomberman and Lode Runner as its first major-selling IPs. In 1987, the developer helped create what is known in America as the TurboGrafx-16, a system known for its rare and unique games outside of the SNES and Genesis era. In the late 1990s, Hudson was best known for developing the Mario Party series in a development team set up with Nintendo (whose leads now work within Nintendo). In 2000, the company became publicly-traded, and Konami became the highest stockholder. By 2005, Konami owned 54% of the stock, thereby making Hudson a partial subsidiary. This purchase makes the company wholly-owned and completely controlled by Konami in the future.

Hudson is currently putting a large amount of support onto the Nintendo 3DS, with titles such as Bomberman, Deca Sports, and Nikoli’s Pencil Puzzle expected within the year. It recently released Lost in Shadow for the Wii this past month, and it is still developing a new Bonk title for all downloadable distribution systems on the three current consoles. Whether these projects will change as a result of the purchase has yet to be discussed.

SOURCE: Andriasang