Malice and Powerdrome find homes

Following the ho-hum sales of its critically praised SWAT: Global Strike Team, it looked like British developer Argonaut Games might have a hard time finding a publisher for its two upcoming console titles, Malice and Powerdrome. Orignally, VU Games was to publish Malice, but backed out of the deal last May following its no-show at the 2003 E3.

However, like its namesake, Argonaut searched far and wide. Today, it found not one, but two publishers. Mud Duck Productions, a subsidary of Bethesda Softworks parent ZeniMax Media, agreed to distribute Malice and Powerdrome in North America under its Mud Duck subsidiary, while the European version of the game will be published by XIM Inc. However, Argonaut pointed out that the deals were not business as usual. "The distribution agreements differ from our usual development contracts, in that they are solely royalty based," said a statement released by the company. "As the development of both titles has been completed, the distribution agreements do not involve an advance."

While Argonaut's announcement did not go into specifics, it did say Malice and Powerdrome would be released sometime in Q2 2004, presumably both for the Xbox and PlayStation 2, as previously announced.