PC game publisher Activision has announced that it will acquire developer Gray Matter Interactive for US$3.2 million in stock. Several key employees at Gray Matter will continue at Activision, as well.
The game developer’s most recent accomplishment is Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the new Quake III Arena engine-based game that’s currently in development for the Mac at the studios of Westlake Interactive. Aspyr Media will publish the Mac version once it’s done.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a cutting-edge first person shooter set in World War II Europe. You assume the role of B.J. Blazkowicz, an army ranger who is tasked with overthrowing a nefarious Nazi plot crafted by Heinrich Himmler himself. Himmler is mixing genetics with the occult to produce horrific monsters in the hopes of raising an unstoppable army, and it’s up to you to save the day. It’s the latest installment of a game series that has its roots back in the Apple II days — but with amazing graphics, sound and gameplay, it’s come a long, long way.
Where is the Mac version, you ask? It was most recently spotted in Aspyr’s booth at last week’s Macworld Expo and the company said that the conversion is well underway. Aspyr hopes to ship Return to Castle Wolfenstein very soon.
Some gamers who tried the Mac public beta version of the multiplayer test have been wondering what’s causing the holdup. At the time, it seemed that Mac OS X development was happening in parallel with the Windows version. While that’s true, the Mac test version was offered for Mac OS X exclusively. In order to appeal to the widest possible range of Mac gamers, Aspyr and Westlake elected to tool Mac OS 9 support for the final game, as well. That’s taking a bit longer, but the flip side is that if you’re like the majority of Mac users and you haven’t already migrated to OS X, you’ll be able to play the game just fine.
Activision indicated that they exchanged more than 133,000 shares of common stock to complete acquisition deal. For what it’s worth, Activision’s acquisition of Gray Matter Interactive isn’t expected to have any effect on Mac development of Return to Castle Wolfenstein.