Legal firm solicits development and publishing community

In direct response to the increasing consolidation within the videogames industry, a national firm of solicitors is promoting its comprehensive specialist legal services to the development and publishing community.

With offices in Liverpool, London, Manchester, Leicester and Birmingham, Weightmans has 80 partners and 600 staff available to meet the legal needs of developers in the position of being targeted for acquisition, and publishers looking to bolster their internal development needs.

The company most recently handled the negotiations on behalf of Venom Games during its acquisition by Take-Two Interactive, and represented Swordfish Studios with respect to its purchase by VU Games. Weightmans has focused on the games industry developer community for the past two years, with additional clients including Juice Games, Gusto Games and Freestyle Games, amongst many others. The solicitors continue to forge informal associations with law firms in most foreign jurisdictions, in an effort to complement the legal services it provides to UK clients.

John Schorah, Weightmans' head of corporate and a legal advisor to the games industry for the past 15 years, commented: "There is no doubt that many developers' future rests solely on being adopted by the big brother publisher, but there will be others who take the consolidation route as an opportunity to realise increased shareholder values at this time. Many stakeholders in current developers have an opportunity to reap real rewards for their vision and hard work as opposed to just seeing this as an opportunity to find the nearest lifeboat."

"Being able to skilfully navigate the fine line between securing your short-term future and not selling the crown jewels in doing so can obviously have a significant impact on the value, and sometimes make the difference between a deal happening and not happening," Schorah added.