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Potential EA buyout? Stocks jump 6% after buyout speculation
iceman00
Member Posts: 1,363
Gotta hand it to those folks at IGN. They sure know how to knock a hanging piece of traffic bait out of the park! They are getting it from Bloomberg.
Investors seems to believe such a move would help, if today's stock indications are saying anything. But the biggest of the F2P developers borgifying EA?
And what would that mean for SW:TOR?
Comments
If this ends up being true, I would not be surprised to see SWTOR going F2P (sooner rather than later) if the merge happens.
I will not play a game with a cash shop ever again. A dev job should be to make the game better not make me pay so it sucks less.
It would be interesting to know what would happen if EA was sold. I don't honestly see it as even remotely possible... but just to see the implications on products that are based on IP license... especially with an IP like Star Wars.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
Said it before and I will say it again...RIF, it really IS fundamental!
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-04-26-ea-to-be-bought-by-nexon-why-the-deal-cannot-happen-according-to-pachter
That Guild Wars 2 login screen knocked up my wife. Must be the second coming!
Lucas only gives a damn about money. As long as they promise to keep filling his coffers, and the new parent company says the (mostly) same people are in control, they'd be okay with it.
Then when the game goes F2P, they remind Lucas how he has been raping the wallets of Star wars customers for decades, and that they are merely inspired by his activities, and doing likewise with their "microtransaction" system, which promotes monetization and is ultimately "player choice" centered where you choose how much you are paying for! And Lucas will simply say "blah blah blah, how much am i going to get paid?"
EA is trolling the stock market..
They know underhand tactics when they see one and aren't afraid to deploy them..
EA is off the chain man..
PM before you report at least or you could just block.
Might be BS. But eventually these questions are going to have to be asked. EA most likely won't finish FY2012 in the red. Yes, they will pull in insane amounts of money through Madden. But they now admit Mass Effect 3 sold below expectations. TOR has the potential to not turn a real profit. (remember, they don't get 100% of box sales, they gotta pay their staff and servers, and they just shelled out a lot more on their marketing blitz, and the loss of revenue over the free month) Dragon Age 2 was basically a loss. The game didn't even last a year before any future DLC was shelved. It is the one time EA wasn't gungho about DLC. battlefield 3, while technically gorgeous, didn't sell what they thought it would. Eventually, EA is going to have to realize their pissing contest with Steam over Origin is going to have to be abandoned.
A company like EA wouldn't ever go bankrupt. But it also can't last in its current form, especially with stocks plunging the way they are.
good article, which I read - thanks for the link.
Currently bored with MMO's.
I'm guessing the guy thinks they will find some way to stop the bleeding until Madden comes out, or he likes the idea of "interconnectivity" that EA is further pondering, such as what was previewed in ME3 where how you progressed in IOS games determined how successful you were on the console/pc version of the game. (Is it safe to dispense with the idea that you could get the "best" ending and 5k GR by only doing the main campaign yet?)
MMORPG genre is dead. Long live MMOCS (Massively Multiplayer Online Cash Shop).
Remember Old School Ultima Online
Ahhhh.... the always fun "buyout rumor."
Far more often than not it turns out to be the "last chance to get out with shirt still on your back."
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Which FF Character Are You?
SOE wanted SWG to go F2P, but LA was opposed to SWG going F2P, and hence it got shut down, so I do not see it happening, especially when there is nothing in place to make it F2P. At least SWG had the TCG, so a system was already in place to work with, SWTOR does not have anything like this. Although they could get something added, as SWG did not have it before 2008, but it means more work to get done.
SWTOR will more likely shut down than go F2P, but that is only going by experience of SWG. If all servers were fullish and there was no discussion on server merges / transfers due to low populations, then LA may agree to go F2P, but in its current state I do not see them bothering with making SWTOR F2P either.
Star Trek Online - Best Free MMORPG of 2012
Well Mythic and Bioware would be dead, they pretty much have been ripped apart from the inside out by EA already, so cut your losses on that, UO and DAOC would probably get support but possibly on a timer. SWTOR would die because one its just a bad game and costs more the keep up then to just let die, and two Lucas would never let it go FTP because he's a lunatic, so they would let it die Lucas throws fit, shrug. Probably get as much talent as they could from Mythic/Origin/Bioware, whoever didn't leave for greener pastures already and begin work on UO2 which would be highly viable and not have to worry about paying royalties to Lucas.
The Sooner TOR dies the better so they can try again and not ruin it next time.
If you really want a SW game, do you really think you are going to get people to cough up money for a SW IP if TOR shut down?
You might wanna be realistic in your expectations. Much as I hate to say it, if you want a SW MMO, TOR is your last hope most likely.
What idiot would want to buy EA?
Although a ftp,play to win cash shops trying to nickle and dime you to death is still kind less scummy than a common business day at EA..
Nothing kill as much people as a bad game.
If its in the interwebz must be true. Right?
EA going belly up? Looks like an early Christmas kids
If they get it cheap enough they could gut it and piece out all those ip's?
Your talking as a dedicated gamer.
To a businessman, there's plenty of profit to be made in EA. Their sports division is super profitable. They have a lot of intellectual IP's to previous material that could be used.
Hell, if anything EA needs chapter 11, so they can reorganize a smaller company.
Although bioware might be in a bit of trouble if they did that. Their past 3 games have come in under expectations as far as sales went (DA2, TOR, and ME3).
On the other hand. Does the industry really need a big company? Big companies will try to earn money with standardized products. Do you want standardized games? Gamers are already now complaining about EA mooching as much as possible from their existing IPs.