EA To Destroy Video Gaming

[RickO'Connell]

Industry giant and evil overlord Electronic Arts reported this morning that it had finished its wheeling and dealing with the Federal Trade Commission concerning the takeover of Take Two Interactive.

In its regulatory filing, EA said it would not go through with the previously offered $2 billion deal (because Take Two rejected it), and would instead return to the table, presumably with hired goons, no sooner than August 21 of this year. The news apparently convinced some people that this deal will happen, as stock prices rose for both companies. We have just experienced the beginning of the end.

The average gamer knows this to be true. It was a sad day when EA acquired BioWare, and that’s just one developer. Take Two represents one of the four legs (along with EA, Ubisoft, and ActiBlizzion) that holds up the bed of videogames that we all sleep in. Combining two of those legs into one will certainly make the bed unstable, and we will most likely not have as much fun in it any more for fear that it will break and splinters will pierce our fun-parts.

The EA Sports games are a perfect example of what a lack of competition does to the quality of their products. EA just doesn’t give a ****. They know that if you want NFL-branded football, you will buy their game, so they have no motivation to make it anything other than passable. If EA acquires Take Two, all sports games will begin to suck harder.

I know the reality of a Take Two buyout is probably not as doom and gloom as I think it is. I still have faith that BioWare will continue to make great games despite being under the EA banner of *****ebaggery. The point I’m trying to make is that competition breeds innovation. The more competition EA disposes of through either acquisitions or exclusive licensing, the lower their need to focus on quality, and the ****tier the average game will end up being. Just look at the history of AT&T for a perfect example.

Hopefully, if EA continues its trend of gobbling up every other company, it will actually end up like AT&T — broke into a thousand pieces that end up giving us better choices and service. If not, I’ll just go back to boring things like spending time with my family.

http://www.ripten.com/2008/07/08/ea-to-destroy-videogaming-starting-august-21st/

 

[Raiden]

I agree, and I hope EA will not be successful in acquiring Take Two. I still wish that someday the NFL license will be given to another developer that isn't EA Sports.

 

[StrainedEyes]

It's not like EA can just do whatever the hell it wants to. Take Two turned them down at least twice now, and that was when they hadn't released a hit in awhile, now that GTA came out to the blockbuster in-take that we all knew it would, they have even less reason to give in.

I really don't know why EA is so obsessed with doing this, especially when there hasn't been the slightest interest from Take Two to the idea.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

First of all, i don´t like the idea of EA buying Take2 as much as anyone, but i think people are way overacting.
EA has changed from the dark days since Riccitiello got on board again, and Riccitello was the best thing EA ever had, he put the company on the map, and only after he left did EA closed Origin, Westwood and Bullfrog (they stupidiest move and reason of the all the hate against them).
For all i know, Riccitiello had nothing to do with it, and he wasn´t even there when EA sunk.
Since he got returned to CEO of EA (his old chair in the company) he hired Peter Moore and said that things are going to change, things will return to the good old days, he even wrote a letter to EA´s employees saying sorry for the last years, and he said that Take 2 will not change if they end on buying it.
He even said that (i think it was on Gamespot) that he knows why people don´t like EA, he his aware of the stupid moves by the company (the closing of the 3 developers) and those will never happen again.

I´m not a big fan of EA since a long time, now i´m feel that they deserve a second chance.
Once again i state that i don´t like the idea of EA buying Take2, but as things were coming, someone would buy them sooner or later, maybe being bought by EA is the best thing that can happen.

Just one more thing, i´m a gigantic fan of Bioware, they are, imo, the best developer around, so, i was devastated when they were bought by EA, but then i read why it happend and i don´t feel half as bad.
Did you knew that Bioware and Pandemic were bought by EA because they are big friends of Riccitiello? Did you knew that Bioware and Pandemic joined forces in 2005 with funds by private equity fund Elevation Partners? And Riccitiello was the CEO of Elevation Partners before returning to EA? That´s why they went there too.
And Ray Muzyka was given a place as Vice-President at EA in addition to his CEO role at BioWare.
The same for a guy (don´t remember the name) of Pandemic, he also got a job as Vice-President at EA.

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

As pc gamer rather than a console game, I like EA, it's actually kinda surprising, a big Nazi like company, that seems multiplat mad, still makes pc-exclusives, battlefield still gets it's own version to pc rather than a passed around version, we get Crysis also and I believe they were responsible for getting us the pc version of Mass Effect, it wasn't a crappy port either, they re-done the hud and optimized it we also got bring down the sky for free, were as, Microsoft would probably want to keep it for there console war I presume or try to make it Vista only.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

I say big deal. EA, imo, has taken a change for the better. I used to be a big Madden fan until it came to the next gen(and after EA gained the exclusive license). Iv hated the game ever since, yet ill still follow its development in hopes that EA will wake up. Well in my eyes they finally have. This yr they have done ALOT of community interacting through forums and what not and have even changed/added some things to the game because of the community.

I dont disagree about the competition, i mean Madden hasnt been worth a damn since they gobbled up that exclusive deal, but i think as a whole, EA is getting alot better.

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

Isn't EA also responsible for getting the ps3 the orange box as well when Valve didn't want to bother with it?