Ubisoft mulling over merger with EA
In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Ubisoft co-founder and president Yves Guillemot commented on the future of the company and a possible merger with EA. Rumors of an acquisition have been around since 2004 when EA purchased a 20% stake in the French development house.
Guillemot would not rule out a merger, although he stated that no merger is planned at this time.
We’re still considering. The first option for us is to manage our own company and grow it. The second option is to work with the movie industry, and the third is to merge. We think the market is going to grow fast, and we can take a big share of that market, so we don’t have to change the way things are done at the moment.
EA CCO Bing Gordon also commented on a possible acquisition, but neither confirmed nor denied its truth.
I think everybody is for sale. I think in general, successful intellectual properties in all media are undervalued, especially in our media.
So what would a merger mean for the average gamer? Probably what it means to consumers in other markets when big companies merge, competition falls, and corporate profits increase. Consider what happened to the Madden titles once EA gained an exclusive license on NFL games. With consumers complaining of bugs, and falling review scores, the quality of the franchise has suffered due to a lack of competition. Apply this on a industry wide scale and the implications are much more serious. While a single merger won’t destroy the market’s competitiveness overnight, it’s a step in that direction. What do you think of the possible merger?
Thanks to nofear360 for submitting.
I hope Ubi stays as it is.
As a friend of mine likes to point out, “EA ruins everything.”
Well, back in 2004, when EA bought out 20% of Ubi; the quality of Ubisoft’s games dropped 20%.
I’m still not a big fan of Ubisoft their last good game in my eyes (not yours) was the first (recent) Prince of Persia. Since then, they haven’t made anything I like to play, I HATE Tom Clancy games (even though he hates Mexicans) Far Cry blew, TMNT was crap along with King Kong…
So maybe its the French I don’t know, The French fucked up Test Drive Unlimited, just another example…
Haha, this would be the worst merger ever.
Company which champions DLC + company who loves nickel ‘n’ diming their customers for 100kb downloads = DISASTER
please god no.
No, no, no! Not Ubisoft! Take THQ instead!
ubisoft+capcom!….dang!…Splinter Cell: in Lost Planet….sweet!…
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
‘I think everybody is for sale.’
Why don’t they just buy everybody then. I’d like to see them try and buy Nintendo. That would be funny.
The Take over begins…
EA SUCKS COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCK!
You know what’s hilarious about this? Ubi was all “piss and vinegar” about the hostile stock buyout attempt or whatever a year or more ago… then I noticed they started making more and more ea style decisions… generic titles with slight updates, overpriced content etc…
Now suddenly the idea is warming up to them.
What a bunch of sellouts… I dunno when I’ll be buying another ubi game again if they go through with ANY deals with ea.
You never seem happy about anything game-related.
Don’t do it Ubi!!! I am hoping for EA to die off. Worst game company out there by far.
don’t hold your breath chief! As universally unliked as EA is, they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Yah I know. One can hope though lol.
You’re right, EA’s demise and disease and eventual death are forever in my prayers. Hey Tuberculosis guy, go visit EA studios!
Well if E.a are doing anything this year it should be creating a motocross game………
EA are just a big company. If ubi were big and EA small, roles would be revesed. In the end there all there to make money, not to make good games - thats only a secondary objective. Still, a merger would suck balls.
Ubisoft practically is the French EA.
They’ve done things just as bad as EA.
The only reason Xbots have a soft spot for them, is because during the last gen, Ubiosft favored the XBOX, as opposed to EA favoring the PS2.
Things EA did that could be seen as “bad” to the XBOX audience last gen, Ubisoft practically did the same god damned thing to people who gamed on the GameCube and PS2. Crappy ports. Sloppy efforts. Etc. Etc.
Liking Ubisoft, whilst hating EA is incredibly hypocritical. (Unless you genuinely are doing soley based on each of the two company’s games, as in, which game’s you like more and which you like less, and nothing more.
Does it help that I hate BOTH EA and Ubisoft?
Yah to be honest, not really a fan of either one. I much prefer the other smaller companies.
I like Ubisoft because of the games.
I hate EA because of the games and everything else on top.
That make me a hypocrite then?
I like and used to work for EA. They are just another big company. All big companies do naughty things (hello sony, MS, etc) its just how they make money. That said, EA do try - they had the balls to bring real RTS games to a console.
My biggest beef with EA is their stupid POS servers they make you connect to. They don’t work half the time and when they do it just takes that much longer whenever I could have already been finding a game. Then they are notorious for spitting out the same game with a few minor changes over and over. Need For Speed and Madden are 2 very good examples.
Real RTS games only exist on the PC.
Oh shut up.
You know it’s true.
ugh EA suckS
FUCK EA!
Some EA games are good.
i think so too.
yeah jmel your right! except we(not you) made them the sell outs by buying there games instead of buying the better 2k serious. And other games, the thing with EA is there marketing is far superior than others. They know how to pump a game in a commercial.
Personally I think this is the worst thing that could happen to the games market, E.A don’t care that the products they release are sub-par rubbish and just re-hashes of games they brought out 4 years ago. Ubi is an excellent company with very well made games and E.A will ruin that for everyone. They’re just like John Hammond from Jurassic Park they stand on the shoulders of giants to achieve greatness.
Gawd!….all the complaints on here.
I hate to break it to some of you guys, but video games, like hundreds of other industries are businesses. It costs money to make games. In most cases, lots of money.
Seeing that EA own 20% of Ubi already, it only makes sense that they go for the whole thing at some point. Their maket cap has dropped over the past few months, but they still have plenty of cash to burn.
mass9 says:
buy ERTS, but don’t expect too much activity until Madden 08 is released.
It only costs that much money because companies like EA make the five-million dollar budget games a standard. Game companies can survive on less than that, but few publishers want to risk it because they’re afraid of putting out something that plays well and doesn’t have fancy rendered cut-scenes.
Making comments like that you could do well to refer to the dressing down you tried to give me over the whole DLC Gears of War thread.
Hypocrite.
I actually had to go back and look at that news posting.
Lmao, and he said I complain too much.
Your not breaking down anything for us buddy. We Already know they are a business. And guess what? Bungie is a business is it not? So is EA. So is Nintendos software studio, so are a lot of the companies that EA bought out and turned into cookie cutters. You see you are not forced to make money ONLY. You can make money and good non cookie cutter games. That is why people here hate EA, and the fact that EA has dogged out Microsoft. They have made enemies and now they are HURTING unless they can get a large portion of games out on wii and 360 quick! Before it starts hitting there pocket book. And then stock price.
What i’m trying to say is if a company like ea is cookie cuttering a game and we keep buying it instead of a better effort and better quality game because of hype and loyalty then we forced them to sell out by being the first sellouts. Eventually they have to compete because ea is making games with less man hours by cookie cuttering it and there formaking more money to buy more franchises.
EA FUCK OFF, EAT SHIT AND DIE
Seconded