On Friday Ubisoft hosted its annual shareholders meeting without incident, getting shareholder approval for the expansion of its board of directors and reconfirming a number of boardmembers’ positions.

After the shareholders meeting, Vivendi chief operating officer Stephane Roussel reportedly told Bloomberg that the French conglomerate (which owns a roughly 26 percent stake in Ubisoft) hasn’t yet decided whether it will attempt a Ubisoft takeover or simply sell off its stock in the company.

This is important because Ubisoft has long been under threat of hostile takeover by Vivendi, which could take advantage of the annual shareholders meeting by, say, calling for a shareholder vote to give itself a seat on the board.

According to Roussel, Vivendi has previously requested a seat on the board but was rejected by Ubisoft management. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot further told Bloomberg that he did not believe Vivendi would be successful if it did try to get itself onto the board via shareholder vote, because “our shareholders don’t want creeping control.” 

However, things may come to a head later this year, as Bloomberg reports that Vivendi will see its stake in Ubisoft increase automatically this November due to a provision for double voting rights (which, in an effort to encourage shareholder loyalty, typically allows shareholders to exercise double voting rights for shares they have registered and held for a certain amount of time.) 

That increase will reportedly bring Vivendi very close to owning 30 percent of Ubisoft. French accounting law requires Vivendi to make a takeover bid once it owns more than a 30 percent stake, which is exactly how it wound up (successfully) initiating a mandatory takeover of French game company Gameloft last year. 

New Developer Interview: Learn how Super Metroid was created!

The Super NES™ system was home to many beloved titles like Super Mario Kart™ and Star Fox™. Now you can discover the origin of another classic game, Super Metroid, with this in-depth interview with members of the original development team. Read all about the challenges this group faced in bringing Samus into the 16-bit era here.

To play the Super Metroid game and many more classic titles, check out the Super NES Classic Edition system, available on Sept. 29, 2017 for a suggested retail price of just $79.99. This miniaturized version of the original system lets you plug-and-play 21 classic Super NES games.

Learn more on the official site at http://www.nintendo.com/super-nes-classic.

ESRB for Super NES Classic Edition:

Suggestive Themes
Violence

When you mention Spelunker to someone they likely think you mean Spelunkey and got confused, but Square Enix has released its underground puzzle platform game in various guises in the past. In April it released Minna de Wai Wai! Spelunker at retail in Japan; now it’s being localised to the West.

In the West it’ll be called Spelunker Party!, riffing on the puzzle platformer’s emphasis on co-op play – which was both online and offline in Japan. It’s been confirmed for the Switch eShop and Steam with a new trailer, giving a release date of 19th October. [Update: The UK eShop shows that it’ll cost £24.99 in the country]

As it’s a rather short trailer, below is a longer video from the Japanese release.

Let us know if you plan to dig into this one on the Switch next month.

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is Now Available on Steam!

A new cast of 16 characters find themselves kidnapped and imprisoned in a school. Inside, some will kill, some will die, and some will be punished. Reimagine what you thought high-stakes, fast-paced investigation was as you investigate twisted murder cases and condemn your new friends to death.