Microsoft, Eidos and Ubi Soft are among seven companies bidding for the remains of collapsed game publisher 3DO.

JoWood Productions Software AG, Turbine Entertainment Software, Crave Entertainment and Namco Hometek are also named in papers filed with the US San Francisco Bankruptcy Court, Reuters reports.

3DO sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last May and offered to sell its assets. Which ones each bidder is interested in - or how much they are offering to pay - the filing does not reveal.

3DO is best known now for titles like Might and Magic, and Army Men, but was founded in 1993 to develop its own games console and license it to consumer electronics manufacturers. Licensees included Panasonic, Sanyo, Samsung, Goldstar, Creative Labs and Toshiba. The company was backed by the likes of Matsushita, pre-AOL Time Warner, MCA, Electronic Arts (the company 3DO founder Trip Hawkins had earlier formed) and venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Alas, it never took off, being out-evolved by Sega's Saturn and - more importantly - the Sony Playstation. Being expensive didn't help either. 3DO dropped out of the console business and remoulded itself as a games publisher. ®