I guess where I'm coming from is that I've often heard such positive things about working with Activision on the developer side and conversely I hear a lot of complaining from devs that have worked with EA.

Though I don't mean to defend Activision.. I just mean to point out that whatever EA gets their hands on seems to be dealt with in a manner that is to get the biggest buck out of it pronto with no regard to the long term effect.

Tony Hawk has certainly grown stale.. and more recently there have been a few bum versions churned out. But I think that pales in comparison to what EA has done with other "once-great" franchises.

Between killing off studios (or at least any of the original development staff) and forever shelving well loved IPs they tend to also be quite fond of shoveling out horrible products that are victim of too much market research long before they are polished up and fully functional. Then they fail to provide any support before moving on to the next iteration.

Even products of their "new vision" like 'skate.' end up like everything else. That game had huge potential, major hype and was very well received.. but sorry, that game is still broken over 7 months after release, not once patched.. and now who the hell is playing it or talking about it anymore?

Other horrible and evil greedy companies like Activision aren't saints within the industry or anything.. but there are far fewer examples of them destroying their own IPs or souring developer relations than EA provides time and time again.

As for Harmonix's love for EA.. well this is still a young relationship and EA is all high on trying out being the good guy. We'll see how long it lasts before they start cranking out Rock Band products by all sorts of various internal teams.

They managed to talk Valve into letting them internally develop a PS3 build of Orange Box (probably because Gabe hates the PS3 so much) and now that piece of trash port will forever be a stain on Valve's reputation.

Bastard11

Spiderbait

Oh wait, that's why Take 2 and Rockstar are doing right now. I guess EA will have to up their game to out do the numerous cash in rehashes by TT/RS in regards to the GTA franchise.

Hmm, maybe they could release "side stories" on the PSP! Oh wait. Damn, already done. Port those to the PS2 or whatever dominant platform available! Um, nevermind, scratch that. I know, I know! We'll port it to other systems after the exclusivity contract is up! They did that? Damn.

GTA 3
GTA Vice City
GTA San Andreas
GTA 4
GTA Liberty City Stories
GTA Vice City Stories

GTA 3 came out in 2001. They've almost had a new one out every single year since then. EA will not have any impact on how "Madden"-like this franchise already is.

Get off your fucking high horses. If EA buys Take Two, nothing will change unless every single dev walks out of Rock Star that day to form a new company. Even then, it's not hard to rehash a GTA game with the groundwork already laid with GTA4. Hell, Rockstar already has micro transactions added to GTA4, not like EA can even add that to its yearly recycle fest.

KirbyMorph

If you really want to boycott all of a company's products because they harm other human beings, put shit into your toothpaste, or support child labor, you're a hero.

If you support a boycott of a company's present and future products because this one time they put Lara Croft's tits on backwards or cancelled your Dreamcast port of Touch-Yourself-Fun 2K5, then I'm sorry. I have your test results right here and they say you're an idiot.

It's just a hobby. Fanatics like you make us all look bad.

wild homes

Ghede

MikeA

jayntampa

Brocklesocks

Tenth

I forgot how fun it was to watch the stock price change in (almost) real-time. $26, no wait, $25.98, wait, $25.94, no wait...well, at least I find it fun XD

SpishackCola

SpishackCola

Gam3r

axman304

You'd be better off comparing, say, how Activision treats id vs. how EA treats Valve. Or, alternatively, Activision's purchasing of Vicarious Visions vs. EA's acquisition of Critereon. (Shockingly, they both ended up making lots of sequels)

KingSnorky

Xerxes3rd

Tenth

grangerfx

wild homes

Until Zelnick actually MAKES this company a non-risk, then the risk-adjusted value is the correct one.

wild homes

stereoa

Bastard11

LowNemesis

Take-Two shares fall after analyst downgrade
SAN FRANCISCO, May 1 (Reuters) - Shares in Take-Two
Interactive Software Inc fell nearly 1 percent on
Thursday after an analyst downgraded the publisher of the
blockbuster video game "Grand Theft Auto 4" on concerns that a
buyout offer could fall through.
Kaufman Brothers analyst Todd Mitchell downgraded the stock
to "hold" from "buy," saying Electronic Arts Inc ,
which is trying to buy Take-Two for $2 billion, was unlikely to
raise its bid by more than a few dollars per share.
If Electronic Arts walked away from the deal, Take-Two
shares could fall as much as $7, Mitchell wrote in a report.
"Impressions from conversations (EA) management has had
recently with people with better access than us are that they
are pretty adamant about the value of Take-Two, and appear to
be conditioning investors to be prepared for them to walk away
if its offer is not accepted," Mitchell wrote.
Mitchell said his downgrade had nothing to do with sales of
"Grand Theft Auto 4," which hit store shelves on Tuesday and is
expected to rake in up to $400 million in first-week sales.
Buzz around the launch of the critically acclaimed title
pushed Take-Two stock to more than $27 a share on Monday, the
highest level since EA went public with its bid in late
February.
Some analysts had said the strong initial performance of
"Grand Theft Auto 4" could pressure EA to raise its bid, which
values Take-Two at $25.74 per share.

dubz

dubz

Rurik

hollowfreak

Take-Two, remember, is coming off of a massive accounting/management scandal (the reason Zelnick's group staged a shareholder coup and bought the company). That depressed the risk tolerance for investors with respect to the stock, because it became "shady", i.e. not a reputable, reliable company. Hence, its trading value, calculated as a multiple of earnings/sales/whatever metric you want to use, was slashed with respect to its peers in the industry. For example, using the forward P/E (price to earnings) ratio, which is one of the more basic ratios used to compare relative valuation, TTWO trades at about 16 times projected future earnings. ERTS -- a solid, reputable, more reliable company -- trades, however, at over 30x projected future earnings.

Zelnick's point is that if TTWO were valued using ratios more in line with its industry peers -- i.e. if the market were to believe that Zelnick and his group had rid the company of its demons and were poised to provide steadier product and profit streams in the future -- it would be reasonably be trading at around $45-50. THAT is why he insists that the stock is undervalued.

Were ERTS to purchase TTWO right now, the value of TTWO's assets would almost double in ERTS hands, solely because of the way ERTS is valued by the market. (This is the "accretive" value of the transaction to ERTS - the amount by which the acquired assets will jump in value because of the acquiror's more favorable ratios.) Hence, Zelnick is reluctant to advise shareholders to sell TTWO at fifty cents on the dollar.

A Pimp Named DaveR

Then again i may be totally wrong and is the end of gta as we know it. Either way my point is that time will tell whether this bodes ill or well for our games.

smuckersisgood

They don't have enough outside of GTA to keep going, and they know it. At this point this isn't even about saying yes or no, it's haggling over price. I would say this is done and over with by June 1st.

mva5580

StarStabbedMoon

jarjarwang

Spoony Bard

Argyle

nintend0nick

As for their stock value, the market isn't adjusted, we are in approaching the middle of 2nd qtr, fed's dropped interest rate yesterday, barrel of oil still climbing, ... catch my point.

We are seeing one company try to acquire another, and not easily. Suits by a shareholder (tool of greed), EA's expansion, ... nothing new.

I'm more concerned over price of console games (STILL at list of $59.99) and price of gas. Let EA take over. What is the worst they can do, ruin gaming for us? Doubtful...

SigmundTheSeaMonster

DARTH_TIGRIS

At this point, something extraordinary will need to occur to keep elevating the stock, something the market did not account for. For example, if Take Two said that GTA IV only cost $1 million to make or every single copy on every single store shelf was sold out, then the market would react.

Zelnick's statements definitely follow generally accepted PR-speak, but the more I hear come out of his mouth, the more I wonder if Take Two succeeds in spite of his management.

code.monkey

Sadly. the market doesn't look into what effect transactions will have on quality or consumer satisfaction. It's all about making money. The fact that Zelnick has managed to stall the sale for this long is impressive, but in the end will probably be futile.

He convinced shareholders that they could get more after GTA4 was released and if EA ups their bid just a few cents, consider this a done deal. Some may even go for it at the current offer.

Hooray capitalism...

egyptomix

sitsalot

exstrat