Mac Gaming News - Infogrames Sells MacSoft To Destineer, Peter Tamte Once Again In Charge Of Mac Gaming Publisher

by , 8:00 AM EST, January 31st, 2003

The popular, and venerable Mac game developer MacSoft has been sold by its parent company, Infogrames, to Destineer, Inc. Destineer will gain all rights to the MacSoft name, future and past MacSoft titles, and the rights to publish Macintosh versions of future Infogrames software titles.

The marks the umpteemth time that MacSoft has traded hands, as the publisher has been a part of many other companies changing hands during the consolidation of the 1990s.

Peter Tamte is the president of Destineer, and many will remember him as either the Executive Vice President of Publishing for former Mac gaming powerhouse Bungie Software, the founder of MacSoft, or a former Apple executive. All three would be correct. Sometime after Bungie was sold to Microsoft, Peter Tamte formed Destineer as a new Mac gaming publishing company. Since that time, Destineer has leveraged Mr. Tamte's Microsoft connections to bring many of Microsoft's gaming titles to the Mac market.

In many ways, the tale of MacSoft is coming back to where it started.

From Infogrames:

Infogrames, Inc. announced today that it has sold its Macintosh publishing operations, MacSoft(R), to Destineer, Inc. Under the terms of the deal, Destineer(TM) has acquired from Infogrames all rights to the MacSoft brand and all MacSoft-branded existing products and products under development, as well as first rights to publish Macintosh versions of future Infogrames' products. The majority of Infogrames' MacSoft employees will join Destineer immediately. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

"We are focusing our attention on our biggest growth areas: PC and video games," said Paul Rinde, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Infogrames' Minneapolis studio, which included the MacSoft label. "Destineer's excellent track record in publishing Macintosh games makes it an ideal company to publish current and future Infogrames' titles for Macintosh systems."

You can get more information on Destineer at the company's limited Web site.

The Mac Observer Spin:

We consider this to be a fantastic development for the Mac gaming market. Infogrames never cared much for the Mac market, and MacSoft didn't get the resources it needed. MacSoft is one of the most celebrated names in Mac gaming, having been a Mac publisher for at least 9 years, and in the hands of Destineer, will hopefully be able to thrive.

We aren't sure which of MacSoft's employees will be making the transition, as referenced in the press release, but we wish any that are not being brought good fortune.

Destineer