Wow, there were no bids when I first posted the link and at this point you'd have to bid $48,000 to compete. There go my plans for a 1¢ bid.
I'm not surprised to see that Re-volt is among the first to receive a bid but I do wonder what the sale truly includes, according to the site you have to contact the auctioneer to find out. The heading on the auction says it's for PUBLISHING RIGHTS so perhaps that's all there is to it.
We could hope the buyer is interested in re-publishing the existing PC game as part of a collection of budget software. We could also hope they don't come bullying and complaining their way into this community when their ultimate plans are realised.
Speculation...
Despite the stated purpose, the auction may or may not include the complete source code and game assets, it may only be publishing rights, or whatever it is - somehow limited to specific platforms (PC, consoles, etc) or regions.
The buyer might only be after the name, to renew a trademark and possibly create sequels in name only (this would most likely to explain the interest in the Extreme-G and other old franchises).
Maybe the bidder with deep pockets is just wanting to have the game/name rights for no other reason than to hold them for any possible future use, as in licensing it's use to other companies like the one who made the arcade machine, or those who might wish to port the game to another system.
It's altogether confusing, who knows who owns what? A news item from a year ago described the purchase of certain Re-volt publishing rights:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache
Perhaps Manmountain is really the secret bidder and is planning to surprise us all on Christmas!
