In a move definitely counter to the latest trends of big game companies merging to become even bigger, Heroes of Might and Magic fansite Celestial Heavens posts a link to this press release from Nival Interactive stating that the developer has split with the large holding company Ener1:

Sergey Orlovskiy regains full control of Nival Interactive
Moscow, November 30, 2007

Nival Interactive is pleased to announce the signing of an agreement between the technology holding company Ener1 Group, and the founder of Nival Interactive, Sergey Orlovskiy, that returns full control of Nival Interactive to Mr. Orlovskiy. As a result, the U.S. office in Los Angeles will be closed and the company’s headquarters will return to Moscow.

Details and financial terms of the agreement are unavailable.

About Nival Interactive

Nival Interactive was founded in 1996, and is now a leading international game developer. It has developed many popular game series including Rage of Mages, Evil Islands, Etherlords, Blitzkrieg, Silent Storm and Heroes of Might and Magic V. More Information can be found at www.nival.com

FiringSquad is reporting that Nival's push into into the next-gen console market has so far failed and they have closed the US office, with owner Ener1 restructuring the company.

That puts a close to the second failed project for CEO Kevin Bachus, who was formerly the CEO for Infinium Labs and Phantom Game Service.