Softbank Corp and Microsoft Corp are scrapping a joint venture created to develop and market game software, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The venture, Gamebank Corp, has suffered slow sales as personal computer shipments to the consumer market have fallen while game machine sales have swelled. Within this calendar year, Softbank will likely buy Microsoft’s 40% stake in Gamebank and reconstruct the company on a smaller scale. Softbank has made an offer to Microsoft believed to have been around 180m yen, sources said. Gamebank, which was formed in Tokyo in 1995, sells roughly 2bn yen worth of software annually. But its cumulative losses total about 700m yen, mainly from ballooning advertising costs for Windows 95-based games. The two companies won’t exactly be parting ways after breaking up the joint venture, as Softbank has proposed a new partnership on software distribution.
