Rumor: Microsoft to buy out.........

[Isildur´s Heir]

EPIC!

Now, what´s for for news
It´s only a rumor, it might not happen or be true, but if it is and if it happens.....God damn it!!
GamePro magazine lastest issue say that "Microsoft will buy Epic Games for $1 billion this summer."

Well, let´s stay tuned for GDC, because if that happens, it will be announced there.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

a billion...well they are worth it. Although Alot of companies to dont to be bought out M$,look at the yahoo scandal.

 

[Havok83]

I really cant see Epic selling

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

I don´t know if that´s going to happen, or just a dumb rumor, but one thing i´m almost positive, Microsoft is going to announce a couple of things in GDC, one of them being new studios and partnerships.
I say that because they said, back in January, that they were annoucing new studios.
I thought they were going to say which on CES, but it didn´t happen.
Second, they lost Bungie and Bizarre, they need to fill in the gap.

 

[Havok83]

Im not sure if Epic would do it though bc of the restrictions MS has. They have gone on record as saying they prefer the PS3 when it came to making Unreal Tournament 3. MS's Live system limits some of the stuff developers can do which is one thing Epic didnt like. User created content and mods are stuff they cant get away with there and Epic has been promoting that stuff with its games for years. But then again money talks and for the right price, almost anyone can be bought. What active IPs does Epic even have besides Gears (which MS already has) and Unreal? I dont see why MS would buy them. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

[Nightmare]

Wow, Epic to be bought by Microsoft would be huge. We'll wait to see if its true though

 

[Electro UK]

Meh, the next EPIC game'll be Gears of War 2 and exclusive to 360 anyways. It would be 100% dependant on their next game to see if I cared.

 

[hippie_hunter]

While buying Epic would be a good move for Microsoft, I just don't see it happening. Epic seems to be more favorable to the Playstation 3 over the Xbox 360. I see them buying a studio like Remedy or Silicon Knights over Epic.

Also it's not like Microsoft is losing studios left and right.

They really didn't let Bungie go. They just let them do their own thing and be independent but in return, they still have to make games for Microsoft exclusively. We're not going to see a Bungie-made game for the Playstation 3 or Wii anytime in the near future.

And Bizarre was independent from the get-go. Microsoft just let them do their Project Gotham Racing series for a while. But they still made games for other systems (though few).

The only true loss I see is Bioware, but that too was independent. I'm actually downright surprised that Microsoft didn't try to acquire them and Pandemic.

Overall Microsoft still has a rather good first party development studios with Lionhead, Ensemble, and if they can get their s**t together, Rare. While not as good as Nintendo's, it beat the hell out of Sony's first party efforts.

 

[Timstuff]

Epic is too independent to be bought out, especially not by MS. Epic has already decried MS for using a closed platform for Xbox Live (meaning no mods and more MS restrictions), and they've been doing good stuff with PS3 lately as well. When Epic was unhappy about how things were going at Atari, they dumped them like a bad habit and went to Midway. What would happen if they're unhappy with how things are at MS? If they were MS owned, it's not like they could just go find someone better.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

Here is the response by Epic:

Epic VP Mark Rein, while refusing to rule the possibility out, gets his not-really-serious bargaining boots on and says $1 billion is totally unacceptable:
I have not seen the actual GamePro article but if they're going to make predictions about us selling Epic we would prefer if they started at $2 billion. Because we don't want anyone thinking that we're cheap.

By the look of it, the rumor is BS, but, Mark Rein didn´t ruled out the possibility either.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I don't think that anyone would buy a developer for $2 billion

 

[Fran]

Please let this happen.

 

[artist71]

Its funny how rumors get started. Bahahahah