Nice viral ad March 4, 2008
I didn’t realize it was an ad until the end. Even if the ball is CG, it’s still cool.
(Thanks, Cyberwoo!)
Electronic Arts Makes Bid For Take-Two February 24, 2008
Read all about it. I hear some people slitting their wrists.
Wait, wasn’t EA never going to release a game like GTA, ever? Because their role model is Disney? Tisk.
Probably inspired by the Blizzard, sorry, Vivendi - Activision deal, which was announced while I was in Lyon and I completely forgot to mention here. Because you never would have found out otherwise.
Update: N’Gai Croal over at Newsweek has posted some info about how Take-Two executives are trying to enrich themselves through this deal.
Spore is coming to the Mac January 18, 2008
I realize this may not interest a lot of people, but I am glad to read that
Spore will be released for the Mac. Oh, and Call of Duty 4, but I’ll just play that on an Xbox 360 if I’ll play it at all. (Maybe I really should give one of them new-fangled World War II shooters that the kids are raving about a go… I hear good things about some game called Medal of something.)
Now let’s hope Spore works on my old dual G5 PowerMac. Maybe I should get a new iMac? Or a MacBook Air? Gah.
(Via Slashdot: Games.)
Rockstar Games lacking sense of humor? October 15, 2007
According to this article, someone from Rockstar Games objected to the ‘Grand Theft Scratchy’ posters for EA’s upcoming Simpsons game that were displayed at the Games Convention in Leipzig this year. I kind of find that hard to believe. First of all, GTA has been parodied a billion times already. Second, Rockstar Games generally does have a sense of humor. Third, it would be uncool to actually show annoyance. So maybe it’s just EA FUD. But on the other hand, Rockstar Games hates EA’s guts. So who knows?
(Via Alice.)
Electronic Arts buys Bioware / Pandemic for $800 million October 11, 2007
Reuters says Electronic Arts is buying Bioware / Pandemic for $800 million.
I think many people saw the Bioware / Pandemic merger, with support from private equity firm Elevation Partners, as a bold move to create a large-scale independent developer.
With this news, it looks more like a fancy move by John Riccitiello, who worked at Electronic Arts, left to co-found Elevation Partners, came back to EA as CEO, and now this.
As usual, it is a bold move that makes sense for EA. I wonder how long it takes them to crush the soul of those two companies.
(Thanks, Mark!)
Update: Greg has some more in-depth analysis.
