Great...

Ugh.

Man, this sucks. EA is a miserable company, and I will continue my boycott, even if it means missing out on future stuff I was interested in (GTA5 and Bioshock 2, certainly).

There is a Kung Fu panda in the story below, but I am a sad panda :(

Jump at offer, indeed.

It's game over man!

When is Pachter going to start giving out dating advice and lucky numbers Ms. Cleo style?

This is sad sad news.....

Those who think this is decent deal have never worked for EA.

Despite Take Two's inevitable assertion of autotonomy, make no mistake: EA's finger will be planted firmly in its pie. This deal is going to make a lot of people rich, but it will make even more people miserable.

If I were the talent that's left at Take Two, I'd be trying to get myself swallowed by ANOTHER big fish and let EA just swallow the parent company. Rockstar and the Bioshock team in EA's hands do not bear thinking about.

@LongDarkBlues: Just because EA makes Madden doesn't make them a bad company. Just look at Crysis, Army of Two and Burnout Paradise. How does that equal a miserable company. Yes I know they whore their sports games to death but EA has been shaping up as of late.

Way too many people worry about this stuff. EA are not the devil in disguise of the gaming industry, no matter how many things you think they do is horrible.

And that will be a monopoly in sport titles like NHL and NBA, cool...

@LongDarkBlues: Do you really think you're doing anything useful by boycotting EA? I'm not saying you shouldn't follow your gut instinct and take up your own personal crusade against them, but at the expense of playing games you really want?

I mean, they aren't killing puppies. They're just stifling the creativity of the developers that they swallow up into their endless game-creation machine.
Well, among other things. But I find that the most reprehensible.

I think you'd be more effective if you only bought the games from EA where you knew the developers hadn't been forced to churn out pointless dreck due to heavy-handed management coming from a bunch of suits upstairs.

That way EA would learn the error of their ways, perhaps loosen up their iron clad grip from around the necks of their indentured servants, and you wouldn't have to sacrifice the fun of playing games you'd really like to play.

The words "Monopoly" are starting to become synomous with EA. That and the word "craptacular".

EA isn't bad. It's just big. The bigger you are the more mistakes you make, and even if you do some amazing things people remember the crap things over the amazing things. If someone told you you were brilliant ten times then told you you were an asshole once which one would you remember?

Please let Pachter be wrong (as always)

*And God shines his light upon us*

@KaliKOtt: Go Go Gadget Shine!

If this was a retail shop the competition commission would be ALL over this.

But no, gamers can have Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft and EA-TakeTwo-Atari-Capcom-Bandai-Squeenix Corporation... and no one cares.

/exaggeration

I always wonder how many times Pachter gets things right because people made their decisions on his presumptions.

T2 people will read this and go apeshit in fear and jump ship, The almighty Pachter is all knowing!! so let's do what he says!!

I don't like this man.

I don't like this man one bit.

@GOD:

Big is bad. Read up on the history of corporate America over the last century. It's the nature of the beast, and not a "mis-perception" on the part of alarmists. I get what you're saying, but it really is a fundamentally bad thing for any industry to be controlled by too few.

@Collapse The Control: When people compare the lowest of the low they liken it to the devil, and as things stand, the shoe fits on EA.

It isn't an image that can't really change, and the same goes for the drones that like EA's titles, despite how often it is the same.

Personally, I don't like them, even if they have put out some decent titles. I've seen them eat some franchises I've liked and have only gone away. However, that doesn't matter much as long as they have their drones to support them they can do all the evil they want and nothing can stop them unless their monopoly gets large enough to either screw their fanbase with crappy repeats, or the government steps in.

I hope it never gets to that point and stops soon.

@Sherlock_the_Barbarian: Technically speaking, as you grow you get more accountants and shareholders who crave stability and profitable homogenised products. Creativity suffers because 'excess' creativity = risk.

Who flippin' cares, im so over hearing about this buy-out.

@kaitousai: If I glance through my favorite titles very few of them actually say EA on them. But what exactly is EA doing that makes a bunch of gamers so hellbent on hating a game company? The only thing that comes to mind was a DLC price or something, it didn't even effect me.

It seems to me you are all out looking for a witch to burn.

@NotAZombie: It's not so much some of the priducts they make but their completely asinine business practices. EA has a habit of being really shitty towards its developers often committing to big "rotations" in the talent. Meaning....you are now expendable if it constitutes as being "in the best interest" of the company.

They also stunt developers freedom. Gone would be the ability for R* to say "Hey, we're tired of GTA games....lets make something else!", for EA would just swoop in and say "You wont will you? Well, I guess its time we find someone who will" *swings the firey sword of pink slipness*

@Sherlock_the_Barbarian: I have, but I'm looking at it from a "quality of output" point of view. I'm not even beginning to look into the Zeitgeist or large corporate institutions. I hope it doesn't fall into the games industry just yet. At the end of the day, the creative output is decided "mostly" by the people in the workhouse making the games. A monopoly on the games industry would effect pricing, which is already too high... Maybe i'm talking bollocks. I don't know.

This is business, the market seem to feel there are too many developers for this field, and so EA pulls an MS and has to buy up everyone it sees.

I'll agree it is a matter of when, but I strongly doubt they'll do anything til after the AAA+ title. That game alone could double the stockprice with the added EA presence.

The danger in this? EA ever decides to make a console for it self, we're all doomed.

Oh c'mon. When the hell is Patcher ever right? I've said it once and I'll say it again:

Analyst is a fancy word for "guy what makes stuff up".

you know, Sony should buy Take-Two. EA is a miserable company and Activision-Blizzara is on its way to becoming one.

@RobTheBuilder: I don't think creativity is something big companies shy away from. In the current climate of gaming, the Wiis a fine example of this, creativity is a must have. EA has the financial backing to support "mistakes"

Not only will EA have the monopoly on sports games, but they will probably start releasing GTA every year with little "tweeks" added. (See: Madden).

I will be passing out free RAZOR-BLADES and GRAIN ALCOHOL on the day EA gobbles up Take-Two!

"EA has the financial backing to support 'mistakes'"

Not the case with BF2:MC. The BF2 community has been trying for years to get EA to fix the server glitch on BF2:MC (360 version). It is possible to crash any server on MP games buy using a glitch with one of the kits. I can't go into any further explanation for fear more people will use it. EA keeps saying they can't find anything wrong, even though they have been sent visual proof of this glitch.

@GOD: EA doesn't support mistakes though. Case an point Def Jam Icon. EA took it upon themselves, in a fit of greed, to guy AKI out of the development of the Def Jam Vendetta and use their own team. All they did was palette swap Fight Night with rappers and the game failed. What does EA do, close down the whole EA Chicago studio that was responsible for the Fight Night series, which was pretty high selling.

You get that and add in the killing of decent development studios, with crap like their ridiculous DLC schemes, terrible licenses games and you see why people hate them.

@Aurvant: Do you really think Rockstar have the choice under Take2 to stop making GTA? If so you're sorely mistaken.

This is not news, this is opinion. Professional opinion, yes, but still nothing more than "if's" and "but's".

Either that or I'm in denial :(

You know what scares me about EA taking over R*. R* makes one of my favourite games, being GTA. I will say, that the gameplay of GTA is what I like the most, and I don't think that will change. What I am concerned with, is that EA will tone down the language and mature subject matter, to make it more accessible to EVERYONE. More accessible, means more money to be had, and EA is a money driven machine.

If this change occurs, GTA may never be the same again.

@AnonymousFinger: I don't think you understood what i was on about. I mean "creative mistakes". Like a new genre that sounded good, but was a flop.
ok?

Not a bug in a run of the mill online FPS

Ummmm - - R* aint exactly a box of birds to work for either.

@HurricaneDave: I must have written my post like a drunk fool. Fair enough, You make a good point, but as i said earlier it's easier to bring up a bunch of bad ideas made by EA than to give merit to the good ones. Rock Band anyone?

its pathetic that take two hasnt ported a ps2 gta game to wii yet. its a huge waste of potential easy ass money.

the fact that other companies have been riding the gravy train releasing games from in many cases years ago, while take two has done close to nothing on the wii. the current lack of mature titles on wii, and the sales of the re 4 port, say that releasing a gta port on wii should have happened by now.

actually, in response to my other post, take two has released a port of table tennis, port of bully, and carnival games. however its clear that porting a gta game is a far superior option.

@sitsalot: Maybe they are testing the waters...

Well, I'll boycott Civ then. Civ IV was a good ending to that series. I don't need to be giving EA any of my money when there's more deserving companies out there.

Sorry- I just don't buy it. IF they sell it's going to be after GTA IV hits. Maybe I'm plain wrong here but my gut tells me that the majority of the shareholders at Take Two have a pretty good handle on what that release means to their stock price.

The only good thing that could happen is that EA gives Take-2 Madden to push some life into that miserable series.

@NotAZombie: Nothing to do with Madden (don't think I've ever played one) - in specific I'm boycotting over the Rock Band fuck up, but they've got a lengthy history of dicking over both gamers and developers alike.

as an avid sports gamer, and not much of a GTA player, i will comment only on the sports aspect. Us sports gamers have found how exclusivity has messed up the sports games.
Madden is a good example, with no gameplay upgrades in the past few years.
but so is 2K's baseball series, full of bugs, and which was surpassed by Sony's The Show.
I can see the possibility and benefits of combining the positives of both companies' IPs, building a better sports title for each sport.
but for EA, what's the incentive? if they're the only show in the market, there's no reason to put big bucks in R&D, just add 1-2 new useless "features", roster updates, and it's an easy 40-60 bucks. If i was an investor, i wouldn't want to waste $$$ more than i need to, when I know the sales won't be effected all that much.
and if u hear Peter Moore, head of EA's sports division, he wants his games more geared toward the "casual" fans, which is the death word for us hardcore gamers who seek more realism in our sports games.
it's a sad day for sports gamers when this happens.

Sorry but the analyst's theory is weak.

A bout of weak releases for a year is a silly reason to sell off the company, considering the production time of even low budget titles. I wouldn't be surprised that Wedbush under-estimated the Take Two/Rockstar's vested interest of downloadable content. The long-term sales of GTA and it's downloadable content is a perfect oppertunity to leverage more high-risk ventures in search of more sustainable franchises.

I'm not saying EA couldn't buy TakeTwo out; to be honest I don't know the motives of TakeTwo's stakeholders. But the idea of a major publisher being bought simply because they have no releases for a year sounds stupid.