EA dropped its bid for Take-Two yesterday, ending (for now) a 7-month battle for the makers of Grand Theft Auto IV that got them absolutely nowhere. And while EA may certainly come back for another round later this year or early next year (at deflated prices), there's another possible next move for the video game giant. Instead of buying the company, best known for its Grand Theft Auto series, they could just buy Sam and Dan Houser, the guys who make Grand Theft Auto.
Why does this make sense?
- The Houser brothers would be expensive -- in 2005, they extracted $84 million from their employers, and they're only going to be more expensive this time around -- but they'll cost a whole lot less than $2 billion.
- They may be available soon: Their contract with Take-Two expires in February 2009.
Why wouldn't this make sense?
- EA wouldn't own Grand Theft Auto or any of Rockstar's (the Housers' studio within Take-Two) other IP. Take-Two would still hold the rights to those games. And while some of Rockstar's non-GTA titles have done ok, nothing has come close to the success of GTA.
- EA didn't want Take-Two solely for GTA: It was also interested in its 2K Sports sports label. Adding 2K would immediately and significantly increase EA's market share in sports like basketball, and the company wouldn't have to sign expensive exclusive deals (like they did with the NFL for the Madden games). And crucially, EA has already gotten the go-ahead from the anti-trust regulators to make the deal happen.
- Take-Two will back up a truck to keep the Housers staying put.
New report from Skillsearch found that 22% of those surveyed had been laid off within the past 12 months.
It's a step forward for Stop Killing Games.
The Callisto Protocol director thinks the solution involves the right people, the right timing, and perhaps a little bit of AI
I don't agree with that. I WISH I could agree with that. But buying habits and customer opinions prove otherwise
We've seen developers in the AAA space try new things and ideas. More often than not, the customers aren't willing to give things a chance, or not enough people buy into the project for it to grow.
Creativity works better in the indie space because the budgets, pressures, and expectations aren't the same.
it's a nice idea and it worked during the PS2/PS3-era when AAA didn't cost hundreds of millions of dollars. smaller budgets and shorter development time left room for more creativity and more risk. a game didn't need to sell 4 million+ copies to break even. things are different now.
This is the guy who bragged about crunching his staff and having them work through the night. Crunch culture has lost more talent and done more damage to the industry than any other factor. Screw him.
i rather have sony buy R*