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By duxup (Thu Mar 06, 2008 at 02:21:30 PM EST) (all tags)
Topics:

Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?
Video Games: EatTake2
Great Stories from Work: Customer E-mail quote


Great Stories from Work: Customer E-mail quote

FWed to me from a coworker:

IF ANSWER PROBLEM DO IT PLEASE
TEACH ME FOR A REASON

I totally know what he's asking for.

EatTake2.com

Not long ago video game publisher EA publicly proposed an unsolicited acquisition of Take 2.  Neither of these guys are what I would think of as ideal video game publishers.  EA knows how to make the money, but mostly by doing the same thing over and over.  Now that's not bad if you want their stuff and if you're a stock holder, but when they gobble up other publishers and developers they regularly hork it all up they're a less appealing to someone like me.  Meanwhile Take 2 had issues making money for a while despite being tied up with some seriously big franchises.  It was hard to get why they had such issues with turning a profit   Oh yeah their officers were busy back dating stock options and despite that the board still had to forcibly oust the previous administration, yeesh.

So they're not perfect but heck Take 2 owns some groups like Firaxis (Civ) and as far as I know Firaxis has been left to its own devices by 2K and frankly I think sometimes when you've got a good business group in your business that's the best thing to do.

EA isn't exactly known for that kind of approach.  Take the Sim City franchise.  They acquired Maxis and later released a buggy and horrendously performing Sim City 4.  It had numerous bugs (nothing new to EA) and had a pile of weird gameplay complications due to the city size limits that seemed to be introducted to improve performance for an already poorly performing game.  What was an essentially free expansion pack (they had a rebate for the retail price if you bought it within the first month), and a pile of patches later the game ran .. . well it still was hitchy and such but you could play the game.  The result?  EA executives moaned about how it didn't sell well right away ...  Later Sim City 5 was pulled from the hands of Maxis (I'm sure they're busy with Spore) and they made SimCity Societies. . . utter garbage.  There's no mystery what makes Sim City a great game but still EA horks it up and then somehow makes it worse.

So anyway along with EA's announcement that they want to acquire Take 2 came this site EaTake2.com where EA seems to be trying to make a public case to the stock holders.  Take 2 reportedly turned EA down.

Anyhow some folks came up with a nice rebuttal to the EaTake2 site.  EatTake2.com.  Nice.

Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?

That looks like a great film.

< I did not come here to suffer | BBC White season: 'Rivers of Blood' >

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A short duxup husiary | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback
EA Take2 Buyout by ks1178 (4.00 / 1) #1 Thu Mar 06, 2008 at 03:43:23 PM EST
I'm not sure exactly how I feel about it.

First off, I don't believe EA is an evil company that only buys smaller developers to destroy them.

But I also know they have done this in the past and will probably do it again.

Maxis is a horrible argument. That's one of the few companies that EA has bought and pretty much left alone. Which is why Will Wright is able to go off and do something truly innovative as spore.

Sim Societies, is no more Sim City than Streets of SimCity. And it's not like Maxis hasn't pushed out Sim Related crap themselves like SimCopter. Honestly the only 2 good games they've ever actually produced or the true SimCity games, and the Sims, which was a Post EA game. The rest have been either mediocre or pure crap.

If EA were to follow their approach with Maxis with other studios I wouldn't worry about it so much. Maxis tends to be the exception though.

At the same time, it sounds like EA is pretty much going to leave Pandemic and Bioware alone as well, so maybe they've turned a new leaf.

That said, I have a feeling that if this goes through, we won't ever see another one of Take 2's sports games again.

Rockstar will probably be left alone in regards to GTA series. But I wouldn't be suprised if EA tried to tone down, or eliminate, some of Rockstar's other franchises (Manhunt and Bully come to mind). And from the crap way it sounds like much of Rockstar is managed, I wouldn't be shocked if a lot of upper management is changed. This might be a good thing for Rockstar though.

Firaxis, will either be left alone, or they probably have a clause in thier agreement with Take2 that given a buyout, or merger, Firaxis can re-evaluate it's relationship with Take2 and leave. Sid Meier has already lost his IP from selling out, and did a lot to get most of it back. I'm sure he's much more savvy and has made sure that will never happen again.

Smaller studio's like Take2 Boston could go either way. Left relatively alone, or completly assimilated into EA.



Maxis is a great example by duxup (2.00 / 0) #2 Thu Mar 06, 2008 at 04:55:22 PM EST
They horked up one of their core franchise Sim City.  Wow, awesome that's great.  I don't care if SimCity Societies wasn't done by Maxis, that's JUST THE POINT.  The franchise was taken and tossed in the trash.    

As for Spore.. yeah let's hold off on the praise until the game actually comes out, is playable, and see if EA ever lets that stretched out of a development cycle happen again?

So we've got a trashed franchise and a game that still hasn't come out.  YAY Maxis and EA!
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[ Parent ]

Please explain to me by ks1178 (4.00 / 1) #3 Thu Mar 06, 2008 at 05:52:03 PM EST
How sim city societies is any different than any of the other sim offshootes?

Until a sim city 5 comes out that sucks, they haven't done any worse to the franchise than maxis has done with other sim offshoots.

And I didn't say spore was going to be any good. Like you said we need to wait to see till it actually comes out. But the concept is innovative, and not "safe" in the traditional sense.

If you want to point to development studio's that EA has truly hurt, point out studios like Origin or Bullfrog.


[ Parent ]

Um by duxup (2.00 / 0) #4 Thu Mar 06, 2008 at 05:59:46 PM EST
It sucks?

If you think SC4 and SC Societies were just fine I don't think I need to go into detail for you.  You just need to play those games, maybe play some good video games or maybe go work for EA.  I'm sure they'd be reassured that just tossing in some of the basic concepts (hey its no different than the other games!) in a buggy mess should be good enough, and they can just toss the franchise aside for a while, had it off to some crap developer, or just give up on it.
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[ Parent ]

I'm not trying to fight by ks1178 (4.00 / 1) #5 Thu Mar 06, 2008 at 06:34:57 PM EST
I don't think SC4 is that much worse than SC3000. Sim City 2000 was my favorite, but the other 2 aren't horrible. And most reviews agree with me.

My point is that, I don't think EA, has affected Maxis' all that much. In general EA has pretty much left Maxis alone to do as they want, for good or bad.

And Sim City societies, while not a great game, is no worse than other games in the Sim's line that Maxis has put out. Such as: SimCopter, Streets of SimCity, SimTower, SimHealth to name a few that were pre-EA sim games, that I've unfortunately played, and know are not very good.

So basically as I said in my original post, EA has not affected Maxis too much with the buyout. IT produces some great games (The sims) and some crap games.

If anything, since the EA buyout, less Sim games have been released to water down the IP and the franchise.

So pointing out Maxis as a development house that EA has affected in a negative way, is a poor choice.

Had EA not bought them out. Maxis was going to go out of business.

[ Parent ]

SC societies by MillMan (4.00 / 1) #6 Thu Mar 06, 2008 at 08:09:54 PM EST
played it twice. Threw it in the trash. Loved the previous four versions.

When I'm imprisoned as an enemy combatant, will you blog about it?
[ Parent ]

Oh well I do! by duxup (2.00 / 0) #7 Thu Mar 06, 2008 at 09:45:18 PM EST
Don't make me come over there!

I thought Sim Tower while very "light" worked well.  Heck I still play it every few years.

Some of the other Sim tittles didn't work out well but Sim City, that was a jewel and tossing it aside and tainting it with the societies game isn't doing anything for a video game landmark franchise. 
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[ Parent ]

Well I still stand by my statement by ks1178 (2.00 / 0) #8 Thu Mar 06, 2008 at 11:34:05 PM EST
That EA was good for Maxis.

Pre EA Maxis had 1 good game with a sequal, some decent ones, and a bunch of crap ones, and almost ran themselves into the ground.

Post EA buyout, Maxis is alive, has had a new good same with a sequal (sims, sims 2), has produced some medoicre games, and allowed some crap sims games.

EA did not gut Maxis, has mostly left them alone to do what they want. Is allowing them to at least try something completly new (Spore) which is something people always critize EA for.

The past year EA has gone into super acquisition mode again. I see various posts all over the place about how EA screwed up Maxis, and are going to do it to what ever company is in their sights. Maxis is a bad example for the reasons listed above.

Good examples of EA destroying a company and their IP is Origin Systems.

Now, as I tried to bring out in my original post, I doubt EA is going to mess with most of the big franchises (GTA), I doubt they will be able to mess with Firaxis.

The Take 2 sports games however, unfortunatley will probably go bye bye if EA buys take 2. This is the real reason I think EA is doing this. Not to get the money from GTA (that's just a bonus).

I'm also concerned about what EA might do with some of the smaller studios that have a hot IP (such as take2 boston with Bioshock).

[ Parent ]

Take2 by jimgon (4.00 / 1) #9 Mon Mar 17, 2008 at 07:38:47 PM EST
The new CIO at my company is  the old CIO of Take2.  He arrived at our doorstep in middle January.  Interesting timing that.



Go with god by duxup (2.00 / 0) #10 Mon Mar 17, 2008 at 08:27:47 PM EST
n/t
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[ Parent ]

A short duxup husiary | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

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