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Turner And Metaboli Partner For Global GameTap
Posted by Mike Fahey at 2:20 AM on September 25, 2008
Turner Broadcasting and European digital distribution company Metaboli are teaming up to take GameTap global. A partnership between the two companies will eventually result in Metaboli managing the service in both the U.S. and Europe, managing the GameTap name in the U.S. while being managed under the Metaboli name across the pond. Turner Broadcasting had previously indicated plans to offload the service altogether last month, but now will remain on as an equity investor in the combined company once an initial transition period has passed.
"GameTap is a significant strategic addition to our portfolio of established online gaming services in Europe," said Pierre Gaudet, CEO of Paris-based Metaboli. "The addition of GameTap provides us a foothold in the U.S. market; valuable content and an established brand that integrate well with our existing operations; and a partner with whom we are honored to be in business."
See? All's well that ends well. Our little GameTap is just growing up and flexing its wings. Let's just hope we don't find its broken corpse at the base of the tree when this is all over.
Turner Broadcasting and Metaboli Partner To Create A Global Online Gaming Service
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.) and Metaboli, S.A. have partnered to create a global online gaming service under the GameTap brand in the U.S. and Metaboli brand in Europe, the companies announced today. GameTap will continue to offer arcade, console and PC games from a library of several hundred titles to broadband users in the U.S. The GameTap/Metaboli combination brings together two established leaders in the online gaming space that creates a global gaming brand with a presence on two continents.
"GameTap is a significant strategic addition to our portfolio of established online gaming services in Europe," said Pierre Gaudet, CEO of Paris-based Metaboli. "The addition of GameTap provides us a foothold in the U.S. market; valuable content and an established brand that integrate well with our existing operations; and a partner with whom we are honored to be in business."
"Our priority for all of our networks and businesses is growth," said Stuart Snyder, who as president and chief operating officer of Turner Broadcasting's Animation, Young Adult & Kids Media group has overseen GameTap. "Partnering with Metaboli significantly enhances GameTap's growth prospects by leveraging our respective strengths. Metaboli's recognised white label expertise, combined with GameTap's vast game library, publishing agreements and brand equity will now offer turn key solutions to ISPs, Portals, Retailers and Publishers in the United States. There's upside here for everyone, but especially for gaming enthusiasts around the world."
Under the new agreement, Turner Broadcasting will continue to manage GameTap operations and provide technical and migration support through a transition period to conclude in early 2009, at which time Metaboli will assume direct management of the GameTap business and brand. GameTap will continue to be based in Atlanta and Turner will become an equity investor in the combined entity going forward.
Launched in 2005 by Turner Broadcasting, GameTap delivers more than 1,300 authentic versions of console, computer and arcade games, including original and exclusive episodic titles such as Sam & Max, Seasons One and Two and American McGee's Grimm. Visitors to www.gametap.com can play free games on its ad-supported Web site and purchase top PC and catalog titles from its digital retail storefront. GameTap paid members receive unlimited access to its massive library of titles; community and multi-player features; and original games.
Metaboli is Europe's leading provider of platforms and websites for games digital distribution. Consumers can subscribe to its games-on-demand service at www.metaboli.com and download to own games at www.gamesplanet.com.
Through "Digital Tycoon", their business-to-business platform, Metaboli also powers the websites of more than 50 white label partners from MSN, T-Online, Orange, Virgin to Atari or Game.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Sylent
Posted 2:53 AM 25/9/08
It's a shame that GameTap still doesn't support 64-bit systems...
Sylent
SScorpio
Posted 2:49 AM 25/9/08
I wonder if there will be different tiers will Gametap now. From the UK site they appear to have a base and then premium tier. The premium tier looks like it has more recent PC releases. This could help flush out what is offered on Gametap.
The only issue is that they need to get x64 support for at least Vista. With the more recent games I'd prefer running them on my new computer, and not the old one I'm running Gametap and XP on.
SScorpio
Meldy
Posted 2:36 AM 25/9/08
Been a Metaboli user for about 6 months now - really impressed (discounting a few troubles when they redid their website and for a week or so I had to sneak in through Eurogamer). It always seemed to have a better selection with regards to PC than Gametap offered. Hopefully this means us Europeans will get some of the extras that Gametap offered.
Meldy
endaround
Posted 2:29 AM 25/9/08
Didn't Turner just announce that GameTap was up for sale?
endaround
Clockw0rk
Posted 3:12 AM 25/9/08
@Sylent: Agreed. There's a thread in the support forum from September of last year with over 12 pages of users complaining about a lack of 64bit support. And there's still no significant announcements from Gametap support on the matter, not even an ETA.
I can't see how they intend to 'go global' in the marketplace when they're dropping subscriptions and ignoring customers on the 64bit issue. The thread on Gametap's support board has a resounding echo of every new system builder going 64bit.. and canceling their account when they discover that Gametap doesn't support their new OS of choice.
Clockw0rk
vid
Posted 3:36 AM 25/9/08
So, what does this mean for the deals between GameTap and Cyan Worlds?
vid
gblock
Posted 5:35 AM 25/9/08
GIVE US EUROPEAN SUBSCRIPTIONS ALREADY, YOU IDIOTS.
Europeans have credit cards. We pay for things. On occasion, we even buy subscription services.
GameTap, strapped for cash, never managed to figure that out.
You can't fix stupid.
gblock
Stinkfinger
Posted 5:27 AM 25/9/08
Thatsa spicy metaboli!
Stinkfinger
infestedDemon
Posted 5:07 AM 25/9/08
I dl'd Gametap a few days ago, actually. Its pretty cool =] Got Psychonauts and Second sight for free as well as street fighter 2: Mega super duper cooper floor new challenger deluxe version 5.1 part 2.1 or whatever its called and that Mega Man Fighting game... This is an intresting article to read!
infestedDemon
Dave Silva
Posted 6:02 AM 25/9/08
How about letting Mexicans in on this too?
There's TONS of games on the system I'd pay for. And those morons won't let me because I'm three blocks away from the US. Dammit! They're just as bad as Ubisoft!
Dave Silva
Protector one
Posted 6:01 AM 25/9/08
Isn't Metaboli a virus that attacks the digestive system? Weird name.
Protector one
bonaparte
Posted 10:33 AM 25/9/08
Metaboli looks OK but it's more than twice the price I'd be prepared to pay for such a service. There are no free games and the base pack which is missing the best games at 84 GBP (154 USD!) per year. The ultimate pack will all their games is 155 GBP (287 USD!!) per year.
For £155 I'd be better off just buying budget or second hand titles on ebay, amazon or my local gamestation (2-3 titles a month at £5 to £10 each) Plus I can sell the games on or keep them around for future replay without further outlay.
Gametap in the US offers a much larger selection of games for 60 USD (30 GBP) per year. That's the correct price level.
bonaparte
develin
Posted 10:22 AM 25/9/08
@Protector One: What you might mean is "Metabolism" which is (quoted from Wikipedia) "the set of chemical reactions that occur in living organisms in order to maintain life. ". So in short NO.
Metaboli is actually great, the real problem is that they are incapable of keeping up with patches. It takes them 3-6 month to patch a popular game, which basically excludes you from any online gaming. Similar they take pride in offering ArchLord as MMO ... just ArchLord is free to play anyways, which makes it so wrong. For singleplayer it is fun though.
Another sad thing are the extreme differences between the different Metaboli versions. I'd prefer they'd just offer the english version, if there are games that they don't have a local version yet. Would make patching faster as well.
develin
bonaparte
Posted 10:47 AM 25/9/08
@gblock: I think gametap don't offer non-US subscriptions due to licensing issues. If the price of metaboli is any indication I'd guess that the publishers, used as they are to ripping off us Europeans, were just too greedy.
Gametap has their pricing right at $60/year, would you still be interested at $280/year (the cost of the equivalent metaboli subscription)?
bonaparte