New UK Publisher Ant Games Emerges

The newly-revealed Ant Games has arrived on the UK game publishing scene, with Stewart Bell, former managing director of Microprose, heading up the Oxford company. The publisher's first deals include a UK distribution agreement with Icarus Studios' Fallen Earth: Blood Sports and a four-title agreement with Thriller New Media Partners' Warbirds: Dogfights. The first games from Ant will release in June this year. Bell, who serves as operations director at Ant Games, said that the publisher will release a few "surprising" licenses in the future, and will publisher and distribute them through retail and digital channels. "The global games industry is experiencing an interesting and unique transitional phase which is throwing up some exciting opportunities for us," he said in a statement. Icarus Studios' Fallen Earth is a post-apocalyptic MMO that originally released in September 2009 in the U.S. Blood Sports is the name of a content patch that delivered PvP to the game, and at retail, Fallen Earth: Blood Sports includes the original content and the patch content. Warbirds: Dogfights comes from Thriller New Media parent iEntertainment, formerly known as Interactive Magic. iEntertainment's CEO is JW "Wild Bill" Stealey, who co-founded Microprose with Sid Meier in 1982.