SCi Acquires Online Distribution Firm BluefishSCi Acquires Online Distribution Firm Bluefish

UK publisher SCi, owners of Eidos Interactive, has announced that the company has acquired online distribution firm Bluefish Media, just days after announcing a deal to release new and back catalog PC titles via Steam. German firm Bluefish, which specializes in casual game distribution from companies like MumboJumbo, Reflexive, and PopCap, and runs popular German casual game site Gamepueblo.com, has offices in both Bonn and Los Angeles, and will now be re-branded as an Eidos company. The Bluefish acquisition will cost SCi €3 million ($4.0m) over three years in a mixture of cash and shares, according to an official company statement. An initial cash payment of €1.25 million ($1.7m) will be made immediately. The stated goal of the acquisition is to increase sales of titles via digital download. The recent deal with Half-Life 2 developers Valve, apparently thinking along similar lines, will see “dozens of new and best-selling PC titles” appear on the PC based Steam digital download service, including franchises such as Tomb Raider, Commandos, Hitman and Championship Manager. "Bluefish is an important acquisition for Eidos," said Simon Protheroe, new media and IT director at Eidos in a statement. "We expect the digital distribution of products to become increasingly important, offering improved margins and a direct relationship with our customers."