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[sonycowboy]

They're signing a ton of other publishers games lately.

Burnout 3 - Taken from Accaim
Timesplitters 3 - Taken from Eidos
Stranger - Taken from Atari/Microsoft?

They seem to be awfully agressive lately.

They also signed Marvel fighting games away from Activision, right?

They will own us all!

 

[BuddyC]

meh. as long as the next SSX game rocks, I don't care.

 

[Subitai]

They got Westwood and made C&C awesome, so I always have hope they could do something great with what they buy.

 

[element]

They also signed Marvel fighting games away from Activision, right?

They didn't really sign anything away from Activision. Most of the things Activision wants is a IP based game, like a Spiderman or X-Men. EA has the ability to use any character that Activision didn't have an agreement already in place for, and the deal doesn't stop Marvel from doing an individual deal for a specific character with another publisher.

Burnout 3 - Taken from Accaim

Not really taken

Timesplitters 3 - Taken from Eidos

not really taken

Stranger - Taken from Atari/Microsoft?

this REALLY wasn't taken away from MS or Atari.

 

[sonycowboy]

They didn't really sign anything away from Activision. Most of the things Activision wants is a IP based game, like a Spiderman or X-Men. EA has the ability to use any character that Activision didn't have an agreement already in place for, and the deal doesn't stop Marvel from doing an individual deal for a specific character with another publisher.

Not really taken
not really taken
this REALLY wasn't taken away from MS or Atari.

Boy, somebody seems disagreeable. Those were taken from the above publishers.

As far as EA & Marvel fighting, here's part of the Press release and it's not limited to Marvel characters Activision hasn't signed yet.

Electronic Arts and Marvel Partner on Videogames

Electronic Arts and Marvel Enterprises, Inc. have announced that they have entered into an agreement, whereby EA will develop a new generation of fighting video games pitting Super Heroes from the Marvel Universe against a new, original set of EA heroes. Under the multi-year agreement, EA has been granted a license to develop and distribute fighting games featuring the Marvel Super Heroes. Additionally, EA has granted Marvel the exclusive rights as worldwide licensing agent for all consumer products and media licensing for the new EA heroes. Marvel will publish new comic books introducing the EA characters.

 

[GDJustin]

Element, his point is that EA is swallowing the VG industry, which is a valid statement, imo. You're arguing semantics. Those 3 titles were being published by someone else, and are now being published by MS. That's the situation

 

[sonycowboy]

Element, his point is that EA is swallowing the VG industry, which is a valid statement, imo.

It's a little tongue-in-cheek. Just showing that EA has been a busy bee lately and that they have their sites on increasing the market share beyond their already staggering 1/4 of the market.

 

[skip]

ea didn't really "take" burnout, criterion went to them.

 

[FitzOfRage]

EA has become a huge force, but I don't think these signings are representative of that. And you're kind of mischaracterizing the deals, like element said, particularly in the case of Stranger. It's is more like EA picking through MS and Atari's trash, rather than them taking it away from them.

Really, I think the problem here is you're assigning ownership to the wrong entity. These games didn't belong to those publishers, and they don't belong to EA. It's not like EA taking Turok, Tomb Raider, or Halo. And more than likely at least one of those franchises will bounce around yet again in the future.

It's more of an issue of smaller developers that control their own IP. I'm sure you could find plenty of examples of publishers other than EA doing the exact same thing.

 

[nubbe]

meh. as long as the next SSX game rocks, I don't care.

Agreed

 

[RiZ III]

Well I'll have an eternal grudge against for their lack of support for DC but I still like how they take things so seriously and are one of the most respected companies in the US.

 

[element]

Boy, somebody seems disagreeable. Those were taken from the above publishers.

They weren't taken if the original publisher dropped the game or the developer who holds the IP went to another company looking for a better deal.

Hey, if I owned a game company and owned the IP for a semi-sucessful game I'd probably go talk to EA. With EA you get lots of things, like MILESTONE PAYMENTS ON-TIME and REAL MARKETING. Just being associated with EA gives your game a better chance of selling. Not to mention things like QA, playtesting, and general support that just cost even more money that smaller publishers can't afford.

The EA/Marvel deal only applies to 'fighting' games. So if someone wanted to do an Ironman game, Marvel can go to the open market, as long as it isn't a fighting game.

 

[sonycowboy]

They weren't taken if the original publisher dropped the game or the developer who holds the IP went to another company looking for a better deal.

Hey, if I owned a game company and owned the IP for a semi-sucessful game I'd probably go talk to EA. With EA you get lots of things, like MILESTONE PAYMENTS ON-TIME and REAL MARKETING. Just being associated with EA gives your game a better chance of selling. Not to mention things like QA, playtesting, and general support that just cost even more money that smaller publishers can't afford.

You're simply arguing semantics. The publishers did not "drop" these games. They were outbid or "out imaged" by EA. EA still "took" these games away from them.

The EA/Marvel deal only applies to 'fighting' games. So if someone wanted to do an Ironman game, Marvel can go to the open market, as long as it isn't a fighting game.

Which is EXACTLY what I said in the first place.

 

[Doth Togo]

The game industry will be like the motion picture industry in a few years. Take a look at them. How many studios? Seven? Six?

Right now, there are....maybe 30 game publishers. Over the next ten years, you'll see many of the publishers be bought out by the big dogs, including EA. It's corporate Darwinism + some Borg ownage tossed in for good measure.

 

[element]

EA still "took" these games away from them.

no they didn't. they didn't take anything away from these companies, because the publisher doesn't own the IP, the developer does.
If Acclaim owned the IP for Burnout, then EA would have 'taken' the game. But Criterion shopped around after Burnout 2 was complete. I'm sure they talked to other publishers, as did Free Radical (i know for a fact they did) and figured out what was best for their company.

You are not taking into consideration that perhaps the developers who own these IP didn't WANT to work with their previous publisher. How would that be considered take, when again all the power is held by the developer who owns the IP, not the publisher.

What EA did with Origin, or Westwood. Those would be considered 'take', because EA just bought them out.

One the situation like Stranger, how can EA take something that the original publisher didn't want? MS doesn't care, hell. MS will probably get a check from OI or EA for development costs MS paid for.

EA didn't 'take' anything from the previous publishers. These are games where the developer owns the IP and can do business with whoever they want.

 

[Buck]

i'll never buy another EA game after what they did to origin,

 

[Rhindle]

It would beinteresting to know if EA is offering higher advances or royalty percentages to get franchises like Burnout and Timesplitters, or whether developers are going to them simply because they figure EA can generate higher sales for their games. I suspect it's the latter.

 

[Mama Smurf]

To be fair, EA generally make very good titles. Some poor, some excellent, most pretty good. I know people don't like what they did to Origin, but generally if a company has to swallow half the industry, I'm glad it's them.