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Geek Culture / EA acquires Bioware and Pandemic for ~$800 million

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Jeku
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 03:19
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Your thoughts?

This completely caught me off guard when I got the email today. Almost choked on my coffee

Will this have any large implications in the industry? Is it another nail in the indie company coffin? I believe that EA, after getting the new CEO on board, is shaping up to be less license-happy and more IP-happy--- which can only be a good thing for the industry.

In any event, it'll be interesting to see what's in store with this.

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 03:21
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You work for an evil company Jeku. It's just like Wal-Mart. They're destroying free enterprise!

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Jeku
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 03:27
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Quote: "They're destroying free enterprise!"


How so? Technically EA has done this to appease their shareholders, which is very pro-free enterprise. But I'm looking at this from a third-party point of view--- no bias, in an out-of-body way. As a gamer this will have implications, for sure.

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 03:29 Edited at: 12th Oct 2007 03:29
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Dunno, they've just been slowly monopolizing the market these last few years, buying and pushing out smaller companies left and right.

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Jeku
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 03:39
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Monopolizing? Hardly. According to sales they're not even #1 anymore-- Activision has taken the lead.

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 04:51
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lets just say Jeku isnt exactly impartial on the subject.

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tha_rami
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 04:53
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Haha, well, EA does have the Microsoft syndrome if you ask me.

They do make cool games, every now and then, though.


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Agent Dink
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 04:54
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LOL.

@ Jeku, I don't claim to know any facts on the matter. You should know more than anyone on the subject of EA. I'm just saying what I've been seeing the last few years. EA seems to be expanding incredibly. Every other game in a shop seems to have their logo on it somewhere.

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 04:56
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yep, plus they alter wikis that dont favor the ceo LOL

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dark coder
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 07:22
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Another two bite the dust eh I agree with Dink, many of these companies; DICE(Digital Illusions CE) for example made Battlefield 1942 which was really amazing, especially the mod support and the community. But after the next few versions EA clearly played a larger hand in their development and they subsequently got worse in terms of what the users gets out of it. Now Battlefield 2/2142 are not bad, I play/used to play them quite a bit but it's definitely got the fun sucked out of it, replaced with fancy graphics and features that keep you hooked(ranking system) while each game they remove a team and generally cut down everything to be made as fast as possible

What happened to the days when you could just play a game for being fun eh, at least I still have CS:S. Let's hope Valve too don't get bought out

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 07:29
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Quote: "Let's hope Valve too don't get bought out "


That better not happen...

I've been ranting to everyone how awesome HL2 EP 2 is. I can't wait for EP 3 or HL3 whatever comes next. Such good, fun games.

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Junkrock
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 07:53
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Hopefully EA uses this to create some quality RPG's! Bioware made some good ones in the past and if they are keeping on some of the design staff, and they have EA pumping them with cash we could see some interesting titles.

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dark coder
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 08:01 Edited at: 12th Oct 2007 08:01
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One thing I hate about most EA games is that you can't seem to skip their splashscreens, here's the one from BF2.



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tha_rami
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 08:04
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@DC

OMFG, LOL! :p


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Agent Dink
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 08:11
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Hey, let's nitpick EA.

I don't like their logo. The only time it looks good is in their sports games. I think they designed it around them. They need a good new one for shooters and RTS's

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tha_rami
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 08:18 Edited at: 12th Oct 2007 08:19
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EA BIG is quite cool - I liked NFL Street 2 a lót. And I never played any rugby-like game before that.

EA ain't bad at all, honestly, they just have Microsoft Syndrome. Command and Conquer is quite good. I think they áre screwing up Need for Speed, though. Oh and Lost Planet was quite good too.

I like 'Acquire Everything' as slogan, though .


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Jeku
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 08:24 Edited at: 12th Oct 2007 08:25
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Lost Planet was not an EA game

And that EA Games logo is so 2005 Now they have a cool black logo thingie. Honestly, I've heard all different kinds of opinions about EA. All I know is they're heading in a great direction, in my opinion. There's all this new IP-- Army of Two, Playground, MySims, that new survival horror of which I forgot the name, Boogie (ok, Boogie kinda sucked but at least they're trying). They didn't jump into the James Bond license for a reason. New IP is good for the company and good for consumers. High cost, high risk, but potential for high "street cred".

Honestly, Burnout Revenge was awesome, so was NFS Most Wanted, and C&C3, and MySims, etc. People usually criticize them when they release sports games every year, but they do so much more than sports.

EDIT:

Oh yah, and how can I forget that EA publishes Valve games? Of course they see talent when it appears in the wild

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tha_rami
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 08:40
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Then how the heck does it shows the EA logo at boot?
Yeah, Burnout was cool. Fifa is looking good, too. Getting closer to PES every year.

And explain this, please?
http://www.electronicarts.nl/games/9224/


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Jeku
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 09:21
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Well, EA probably just distributes the game in Netherlands. But I can assure you we didn't make that game. It's Capcom.

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tha_rami
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 09:44
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EA 'acquired' that too...


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Van B
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 10:09
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EA aquired the Netherlands!!?

We're going down... in a spiral to the ground...
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Kentaree
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 11:22
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Van, yeah, they needed the produce for rewards for their staff... tulips of course!

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tha_rami
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 11:46
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Quote: "EA aquired the Netherlands!!?"

Yes. Unless utterly stoned, most of their programmers have a hard time doing anything productive.


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Digital Awakening
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 11:56
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Anyone else remember the old EOA (cube, ball & cone) logo from the Amiga days? It was kinda ugly and kinda cool at the same time but I never understood why they really added the O in the middle exept that you got the 3 shapes thing, which is kinda stupid really.

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 15:29
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Yeah, they had that logo on the Sega as well. It was worse!

I will admit. I do like what EA did with CnC3. It turned out good. There are so many bad things they could have done like get rid of the live action cutscenes. I would have been angry. LOL.

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Raven
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 15:53
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Quote: " I think they áre screwing up Need for Speed, though."


Until Underground, the NFS series was practically dead.
I think they realised after Carbon that they were moving too far from the Underground forumla that made it so freaking awesome.

ProStreet looks like it's back on par, but they better have put the drift system back to the way it was; cause in Carbon it was just retarded. No sodding skill, just flick the direction from left to right and boom you have a ridiculous score.

Love the look, the new damage model, and the new upgrade options are pretty cool Although not too sure about the whole community driven aspect. I mean it'll only work if the community don't end up being retarded monkeys which unfortunately all EA games online THEY ARE.

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Zerk
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 19:52
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EA is an evil empire and must be crushed.

EA = Evil Alliance

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Jeku
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 20:19
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How did I know what this thread would turn into

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Jeku
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 20:33
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Double post:

From everything I've seen, this was not a hostile takeover. Pandemic and Bioware were driving this acquisition themselves. People just assume EA is in the market to buy everyone out, but it's just not true.

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hessiess
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 20:45
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ea has NEVER made anything ramotly good, its all just damn remakes

learn blender, you will never regret it.

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Sopo the tocho
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 20:58
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Quote: "ea has NEVER made anything ramotly good, its all just damn remakes
"


FIFA? Need for speed?


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Ron Erickson
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 21:21
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Quote: "ea has NEVER made anything ramotly good, its all just damn remakes"


Remakes of good games. They are in the dominant position that they are in for a reason.


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Nemesis_0_
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 21:54
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Quote: "From everything I've seen, this was not a hostile takeover. Pandemic and Bioware were driving this acquisition themselves. People just assume EA is in the market to buy everyone out, but it's just not true."
i can see how 8 hundred million could do that :p



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tha_rami
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 23:34
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EA = Evochron Alliance

Well, posting about EA is kind of like posting about Microsoft, or PS3 vs XBOX360. No matter how serious you start, it always ends up in flaming.

On the same subject, EA makes so many games it's a mathematic certainty that a lot of it is average/bad and that a lot of it is good/enjoyable.


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DrewG
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Posted: 13th Oct 2007 02:52
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Jeku, look, the reason why you're being so defensive if because you post that stuff at work, and they read what you type. Trust, they gotta make sure you aren't giving out secrets.. I would know. But look, it's cool if you're an EA fanboy, as I'm a Ubisoft fanboy.

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Jeku
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Posted: 13th Oct 2007 02:56
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@DrewG - Most of the time I don't post stuff at work as it is. And I'm far from being an EA fanboy

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Dr Manette
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Posted: 13th Oct 2007 09:24
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EA sucks.... Biofox rules!..... who said that?

EA seems to be a decent company, I don't play too many of their games, but they have so many in an array of genres that it's hard not to play at least one EA game. Good for them acquiring some solid groups, hopefully this means more better games for us all.


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Deathead
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Posted: 13th Oct 2007 14:51
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EA is good. But I hate their lack of gameplay on all of their games.
Burnout is good. MOH was good but of-course EA bought out MOH from 2015 so then it went from hero to zero and straight back to hero with airbourne. James bond games by EA now don't get me started out of their massive range of James bond games 1 was the best, the rest just sucked.

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Samoz83
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Posted: 13th Oct 2007 15:06
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also EA killed bullfrog

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Jeku
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 10:57
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Quote: "EA bought out MOH from 2015"


I'm pretty sure MOH is an EA-created IP. No?

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Mr Makealotofsmoke
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 11:02
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Quote: "ea has NEVER made anything ramotly good, its all just damn remakes"


Battlefield series? (mostly DICE tho...)

Were is Our Music BOARD??????? can i be mod

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dark coder
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 12:38 Edited at: 14th Oct 2007 12:47
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Quote: "I'm pretty sure MOH is an EA-created IP. No?"


No, that too was acquired

Quote: "Battlefield series? (mostly DICE tho...)"


The first Battlefield(1942) as I said earlier was a very good game as went for the community / mod support however after BFV this generally went down the crapper as you required Maya or 3DS Max to create any 3D content. Also there was no bundlemesh importer(at the time of release) which made mini-mods rather limited as adding new weapons to vehicles and such generally required that you make it from scratch(the whole vehicle) however this may have changed, as I haven't been following the community for a while now.

The general lack of content in the later releases is what annoyed me most however, after BFV all naval warefare was removed(other than rubber speedboats) plus the removal of artillery tanks and in 2142 you lose a country to play as and they attempt to disguise the lack of content with 'weapon addons' which for the most part are just code changes to the weapons rather than actually giving you any new weapons. Plus the RPG system they added to get weapons and some pre-order people get an extra unlock no-one else can get(though I believe it was very similar to the other rifles).

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Insert Name Here
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 12:45
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The EA killing off Bullfrog irritated me as well. Bullfrog made some fun games, now they don't even seem to exist any more.


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Deathead
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I really enjoyed playing Theme Hospital.
Quote: "I'm pretty sure MOH is an EA-created IP. No?"

Nope. EA bought MOH off 2015. And also the only game 2015 made after that was Men of Valor: vietnam. Which never sold as much money then MOH and EA was there making very rushed and un-fun MOH games for moneylol

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