Thursday the 13th was a good night for a party, and it seems a lot of developers had the same idea - a few companies sent their apologies, saying it was their Christmas party on that night too. Nevertheless, Polygons #9 attracted well over 60 people. It was posher looking than previous ones, on account of our new venue at Markeaton Campus, University of Derby. We're looking forward to putting on more events here.

Conversation this time included the mainstreaming of games, to the point of celebrities like William Shatner endorsing them, the tension that exists between game reviews, PR and advertising, and the effect of Wii scarcity on publishers and developers.

The buyout of UK studios such as TT Games and Evolution presented an interesting disucssion on price: TT Games recently sold to Time Warner for upwards of £100M, yet has none of its own IP, and Evolution Studios, owners of Motorstorm and Pursuit Force, went for a comparably small seeming £16M. The panel's conclusion was that the context of a sale is critical. Rare went to Microsoft for a fairly large figure, because at the time they were seen as crucial in gaining Microsoft a competitive advantage over Sony. Additionally, as non-games big media companies buy into the industry, there's a lot of dumb money moving around. Obviously, TT Games have done some great things with other people's IP, but only time will show whether Time Warner have overspent on them.

Much more was discussed, on the panel and over pies in the bar afterward - see you at the next one.