Electronic Arts buys 19% of Ubi Soft

[digitalpress]

For ou EA haters, this one is going to stick in your craw:

http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/20/technology/erts_ubisoft.reut/index.htm

[Ernster]

God there unstoppable! Maybe there will be an EA console one day, nah probably not, they have no need to. It's a shame, UBI soft have huge potential, but Im sure that potenital has been killed now.

[Oobgarm]

This is a surprise. Is EA looking to add good games to it's stable? Cause I surely think that Ubi wasn't competition in a direct manner.

If it means that more people will get their hands on the Tom Clancy games like Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon, I can't see that as a bad thing.

[The Brown Eye]

I'm not in the "EA Hater" category. I like a lot of games they put out. I also don't care for a few of them. However, I do not look forward to the day when all of the guys in the middle are gone, leaving a few large companies and a few small ones struggling to scrape by. This is one step closer to that day. :(

[Lady Jaye]

Hmm. I wonder how that will affect the EA and Ubisoft studios in Montreal. Chances are that the new EA Montreal studio (opened barely a year ago) would be more affected by this news than Ubisoft Montreal, which has gained a lot of standing in the videogame world in the past couple of years thanks to their Tom Clancy and Prince of Persia games. Even their new Myst game is supposed to be really good.

[YoshiM]

God there unstoppable! Maybe there will be an EA console one day, nah probably not, they have no need to. It's a shame, UBI soft have huge potential, but Im sure that potenital has been killed now.

Well, they kinda DO have consoles...even though they are the plug-n-play type.
Here's the TV Sports one (http://gear.ign.com/articles/573/573582p1.html)

Here's SSX plug-in-play with a snowboard control (http://www.bizrate.com/buy/products__att471516--485696-,cat_id--14010700.html)

The TV Sports is pretty much Genesis ports of Madden and NHL Hockey (to name a couple) and the SSX game doesn't look as visually appealing as the console version. However if these things sell like hot cakes one has to wonder if EA might get the bug to jump into the hardware race. Perhaps not on their own but by partnering up with a hardware company like, oh I dunno, Microsoft.

Conspiracy theorists...start your engines :D

[Berserker]

It's not so much that I don't like them because they're one of however many huge companies, I really just don't like what I've heard as to how they treat their employees.

The news doesn't really come as a big shock to me. This is just what big companies like this do. It may suck, but it's in their nature. This is not a company that's driven purely on the notion to make the best games possible. They're more about making the right kind of game, that's good enough to make them a maximum amount of profit, and all the petitions in the world aren't going to convince them that doing something that causes them to make less money is a good idea.

That's not to say that petitioning is entirely useless, though. Numbers talk, even if it isn't to the people you were intending for it to talk to. Organizing a petition where however many thousand people sign it, I'm of the mind that the people who signed it would be more inclined to stick to their guns and not buy any of their games, than if they hadn't. Not to mention the people who are swayed into a similar mind when hearing of such numbers. And when that happens, you're finally going to end up speaking to a company like that in a language that they understand.

[le geek]

God there unstoppable! Maybe there will be an EA console one day, nah probably not, they have no need to. It's a shame, UBI soft have huge potential, but Im sure that potenital has been killed now.

There was! It was called the 3DO :P

Actually the NFL deal for Madden seems bigger news, but I don't like overly realistic sports games anyway. I do hope that UBI soft doesn't lose too much of it's identity as its games have style in way EA games haven't for years. Maybe they'll throw caution to the wind and make a sequel to Beyond Good & Evil as a last hurrah? (Maybe, I'll get my Cube back from my friend and finish BG&E?)

Overall, I still like EA. they delivery quality B+ games more often than not. I do miss their "Rock Star" games of the 80s. The last one I bought was SSX, but there are a few that I am eyeing. Competition makes for better games. For example, do you think Nintendo would have made the DS if Sony hadn't announced the PSP?

[Red Shadow]

I'm pretty sure I'm an EA hater, due to the way I abhor how they treat their employees, and how everytime they respond to the press it makes my blood boil. "We believe in a franchise-driven market built on sequels to popular properties" (not an exact quote but close enough) is what I'm talking about. Madden 20XX? Need For Speed Las Vegas Howdown 27? Prince of Persia: Underground 8? This can't be good.

EA is the polar opposite of anything resembling innovation in the game industry. If they manage to aquire UbiSoft, I'm worried that we'll be seeing EA TRAX and corporate whore-dom all over some of the most beloved games of the last few years. I think EA is aiming to take over completely here, and god help us if they do.

[AFGiant]

Who ya gonna call? Trust Busters!

[autobotracing]

God there unstoppable! Maybe there will be an EA console one day, nah probably not, they have no need to. It's a shame, UBI soft have huge potential, but Im sure that potenital has been killed now.


Well they do make EA controllers so I guess that was a start to thier evil plan. :evil: :angry: :roll: ;)

[dethink]

WOO WOO!

monopoly, here we come! :D

seriously, though, i really don't have a problem with EA. sure they've released some stinkers, but for the most part, their stuff is decent. NBA street vol. 2 probably has more playtime on it for me than any other game this generation, even more than GT3 and SSB: Melee.

i'd really like to see some of the EA properties of yore come out to play again (general chaos, mutant league, etc.).

[LiquidX01]

I dont know what EA is trying to do...

I just wonder whats next.


However if these things sell like hot cakes one has to wonder if EA might get the bug to jump into the hardware race. Perhaps not on their own but by partnering up with a hardware company like, oh I dunno, Microsoft.


That seems very plausible. But that would be like Satan and Hitler joining forces and ruling the world. LOL

[Mr.FoodMonster]

Maybe they are trying to become the ONLY videogame publisher....

[JJNova]

or Maybe they are just trying to become the largest that they can, and expand beyond their most famous sports title, and snatch up some smaller eveloping teams that are making a big splash. Late the new RayMan game has been popping up all over the place again. What I really think EA is doing, is trying to get UbiSoft for it's handheld division.
Ubi has a much more recongnizable name when you think about handhelds, and the handheld market is geared up right now to take off the gloves. The DS sold well, but it sold well because Nintendo (As Sony will do) didn't ship a lot of DS' because , "No product on the shelf is better for the company than too much product collecting dust. It then looks like the devices wont sell."

Yes, I just quoted myself above.

My points is just simply, "What's your favorite EA hanheld title? Now, What's your favorite Ubi handheld?









(You better answer RayMan)

[Richter]

so, who's next?

Atari?

[joshnickerson]

monopoly, here we come!

This just in... EA just bought the rights to the word "Monopoly". Parker Brothers is also ordered to pay a steep fine to EA for every copy of the board game "Monopoly" it has sold over the past century. Also, EA's bought the rights to World Wars I and II, as well as the Vietnam conflict. And they also bought the moon. It will be carved into the EA logo, which will be seen from all over the earth, so that everyone will know that EA is watching you and all resistance will be crushed swiftly and harshly.

[calthaer]

Run for the hills, everyone! Now the only question is: would it be better to stop buying Ubisoft games now, or to buy and hope that they can buy their stock back from EA and prevent a hostile takeover?

Maybe EA is trying to buy out some halfway-decent video game characters to put in their Marvel vs. EA thing. Jade vs. Spider-Man?

[DigitalSpace]

Hey, if this means we'll be seeing more Rayman and less of Ty The Tasmanian Tiger, then it can't be that bad.

We can only hope. LOL

[Psycho Mantis]

Nooo! Not Ubisoft! well, i'll be saying goodbye to my hopes of a
beyond good and evil 2. :(

[WiseSalesman]

Nooo! Not Ubisoft! well, i'll be saying goodbye to my hopes of a
beyond good and evil 2. :(

Ditto.

[lendelin]

For ou EA haters, this one is going to stick in your craw:

http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/20/technology/erts_ubisoft.reut/index.htm

:)

well, I'm not a EA hater, I think EA is probably the most reliable game developer today; there are two things which really bother me, though:

First, they follow for my taste too much the 'what's hot, what's not' approach, and don't show any courage for edgy or risky innovative games. They play it safe, too safe for a company which is the biggest and most profitable game developer.

Second, they are getting TOO big. First Nascar, then PGA, then NFL; it's not good for competition if one company dominates so much. and less competition means in the long run as a general rule less innovation.

[Jasoco]

This is teh suck. :(

[Joelius]

Time to start buying some EA stock...seeing as it will probably just skyrocket. Too bad I hate EA enough not to buy any stock in them.

[Richter Belmount]

God another one? Theyre everywhere like starbucks

[Captain Wrong]

I do not look forward to the day when all of the guys in the middle are gone, leaving a few large companies and a few small ones struggling to scrape by. This is one step closer to that day. :(

Exactly. I'm a firm believer that less competetion is bad. Even though I'll probably never play much of either of their libraries, the fact that they're out there seperate is better to me than them being one.

I think that's something all the fanboys (of all stripes) tend to miss. Personally, I can't see myself buying another Nintendo console unless they radically change their lineup, but I'm glad they're still out there giving people a choice.

OK, now a question, and this is an honest one, for all you "I'm only opposed to EA because of what I've heard about how they treat their employees" people. Who out there, at least among American dev houses, is doing things any better than EA? I ask this because from the handfull of people I've know who have actually worked "in the industry," EA's practices seem to be the rule, not the exception. Not to defend them but, I think it's easy to target EA because they're the biggest and there's a lot of ill will towards them from the |33t anyway. I'm just saying I haven't run into many stories of things being too much different anywhere else in the industry right now.