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This thread has been linked to the game 'Command & Conquer'.
Excuse the pun (read up on your publishing history if you don’t understand) but it fits so well as to the events that seem to be taking place in the games industry.
Electronic Arts are taking over the videogames market.
It has been a gradual process but it seems they are taking over. They have close ties with Nintendo and Sony and are gaining the rights to everything and anything nowadays. It wouldn’t surprise me if Electronic Arts top Nintendo for the top spot in being the most profitable games company this year.
EASports
Ever since the mid 1990s, Electronic Arts have had the rights to use player names and teams in their sports games. The Fifas were their most popular sports games and were available multi-format. At the time they made the best football games, and although their sports games keep getting better, they’re now under tougher competition with top quality games by other developers such as the This is Football series, the Pro Evolution series and the new Codemasters Club Football series. So, instead of rehashing the same game with a few modifications, they’ve tried to go one step further by getting real sportsmen to feature in clips and covers of their games. Expensive but worth doing to keep the top spot. EA Sports is one of Electronic Arts biggest and most important development teams. They have more pressure put upon them than any other EA team due to the popularity of their sports games.
Movies
This is where Electronic Arts have really made some excellent investments. EA have the rights to some of the best movie titles ever! They have had the rights to Dune, The Lord of the Rings Two Towers and Return of the King and have the rights to every James Bond 007 movie since they started (does that include the movie Never Say Never Again – the one that wasn’t in the movie collection pack due to the different director?) and have already created their own stories to use for games, including casting real actors into the new game Everything or Nothing.
Electronic Arts have the potential to create over twenty games based on some of the best loved films of all time! If made well, they will sell by the truckload, and if made poorly, they will still sell well, like Agent Under Fire or Nightfire. They have the EA logo on the cover and star James Bond, the worlds most known secret agent. If they make use of the name Goldeneye, they will sell tonnes of copies, even if the game ranks as high in comparison with Universal Studios, Beybladez and Batman Dark Tomorrow.
In purchasing these licenses, and many more, Electronic Arts have already printed their own green, and with the acquisition of some Marvel licences, they have made sure their future is secure as the number one. People buy movie related games despite the stereotypical view that they’re rubbish. In some cases they are. Batman Dark Tomorrow has already been mentioned. However there are and have been some decent and some excellent movie related games released in the past. Goldeneye is the most famous, and others such as Enter the Matrix and Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II weren’t too bad either.
Self promotion through deals with console developers
Electronic Arts have done nothing but self promote in their quest for control of the videogames market. And why not? That’s what all companies try to do to rake in the profits. However, Electronic Arts have got two advantages over companies from other market sectors.
1. More effective advertising is done through talk then TV adverts, sponsorship deals, etc, in the videogame sector than any other sector.
2. Electronic Arts can afford to make a bad impression once in a while.
So in making deals with the biggest first parties in gaming, they are achieving successful advertising for themselves, whether the fans agree with their deals or not.
The most controversial deal is the Sony online deal. At present, Electronic Arts can only make online console games available for the Playstation 2. This leaves Microsoft in a state of trouble. A lack of online Fifa, online Medal of Honor and future EA games sticking to the PS2 for online play, means Microsoft have had to resort to other tactics. One in which is to arrange with Konami, a deal in getting the Pro Evolution series onto the Xbox.
EA have also come to an advertising deal with Nintendo. At the end of the majority of their adverts, they have placed the spinning GameCube logo as opposed to stills of the PS2, Xbox and GameCube logos. This wont be noticed widely by the fans of other systems but is enough to make some gamers believe that the GameCube versions of games are better.
Acquisition
Electronic Arts have been very clever recently. In knowing the Acclaim’s Burnout series and the Free Radical (the creators of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark – though were working for Rareware at the time) series of TimeSplitters are huge sellers, they have acquired the rights to publish the games with their logo on the covers.
This means that as well as Acclaim and Free Radical earning money on these games, so will Electronic Arts. Increasing their market share by a huge amount!
Electronic Arts have done this before though. They acquired the development team Westwood Studios as a second party after the successes of Command & Conquer and Command & Conquer Red Alert, and eventually dissolved the team allowing themselves to have full rights to any new Command & Conquer games (though I’d be surprised to see the series continue after their last attempt).
If Electronic Arts continue to do this, then how long until they acquire even more of the big games via publishing deals or buyouts? Will they go for Square-Enix? Or maybe Capcom? After all, EA are a western company and they’ll need an Eastern influence to continue in their expansion.
Despite their conquest at the videogames market, I don’t think we’ll be seeing an Electronic Arts console. Not unless they have a complete change of management. Consoles don’t tend to make much money, however the sale of games made by one self normally does. Electronic Arts make enough money out of PC and multiformat publishing. Sure, they wont make as much money per sale as if they did have their own console to develop for, however, the money they make in sticking to the way they are is a lot greater and allows for even more expansion.
Command & Conquer
This is why I believe Electronic Arts are going to become the Microsoft of the games market. They’re monopolising. Buying out, acquiring, making deals, all of which is benefiting number one. Their logos are getting everywhere, they have some of the best selling PC titles of all time, and they even have their own stands in stores such as Game!
EA are one company that can actually afford to take risks. They can cope with a large amount of failures but only because they are that successful. This is why I believe they have conquered the videogames market.
Love them or hate them, Electronic Arts are the best at what they do.
Note, the point of this topic is to see what your views are on EA’s status. It hasn’t lead anywhere except to show evidence of their conquering of the market. Let the arguments and fanboyish comments commence...:D
Electronic Arts are taking over the videogames market.
It has been a gradual process but it seems they are taking over. They have close ties with Nintendo and Sony and are gaining the rights to everything and anything nowadays. It wouldn’t surprise me if Electronic Arts top Nintendo for the top spot in being the most profitable games company this year.
EASports
Ever since the mid 1990s, Electronic Arts have had the rights to use player names and teams in their sports games. The Fifas were their most popular sports games and were available multi-format. At the time they made the best football games, and although their sports games keep getting better, they’re now under tougher competition with top quality games by other developers such as the This is Football series, the Pro Evolution series and the new Codemasters Club Football series. So, instead of rehashing the same game with a few modifications, they’ve tried to go one step further by getting real sportsmen to feature in clips and covers of their games. Expensive but worth doing to keep the top spot. EA Sports is one of Electronic Arts biggest and most important development teams. They have more pressure put upon them than any other EA team due to the popularity of their sports games.
Movies
This is where Electronic Arts have really made some excellent investments. EA have the rights to some of the best movie titles ever! They have had the rights to Dune, The Lord of the Rings Two Towers and Return of the King and have the rights to every James Bond 007 movie since they started (does that include the movie Never Say Never Again – the one that wasn’t in the movie collection pack due to the different director?) and have already created their own stories to use for games, including casting real actors into the new game Everything or Nothing.
Electronic Arts have the potential to create over twenty games based on some of the best loved films of all time! If made well, they will sell by the truckload, and if made poorly, they will still sell well, like Agent Under Fire or Nightfire. They have the EA logo on the cover and star James Bond, the worlds most known secret agent. If they make use of the name Goldeneye, they will sell tonnes of copies, even if the game ranks as high in comparison with Universal Studios, Beybladez and Batman Dark Tomorrow.
In purchasing these licenses, and many more, Electronic Arts have already printed their own green, and with the acquisition of some Marvel licences, they have made sure their future is secure as the number one. People buy movie related games despite the stereotypical view that they’re rubbish. In some cases they are. Batman Dark Tomorrow has already been mentioned. However there are and have been some decent and some excellent movie related games released in the past. Goldeneye is the most famous, and others such as Enter the Matrix and Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II weren’t too bad either.
Self promotion through deals with console developers
Electronic Arts have done nothing but self promote in their quest for control of the videogames market. And why not? That’s what all companies try to do to rake in the profits. However, Electronic Arts have got two advantages over companies from other market sectors.
1. More effective advertising is done through talk then TV adverts, sponsorship deals, etc, in the videogame sector than any other sector.
2. Electronic Arts can afford to make a bad impression once in a while.
So in making deals with the biggest first parties in gaming, they are achieving successful advertising for themselves, whether the fans agree with their deals or not.
The most controversial deal is the Sony online deal. At present, Electronic Arts can only make online console games available for the Playstation 2. This leaves Microsoft in a state of trouble. A lack of online Fifa, online Medal of Honor and future EA games sticking to the PS2 for online play, means Microsoft have had to resort to other tactics. One in which is to arrange with Konami, a deal in getting the Pro Evolution series onto the Xbox.
EA have also come to an advertising deal with Nintendo. At the end of the majority of their adverts, they have placed the spinning GameCube logo as opposed to stills of the PS2, Xbox and GameCube logos. This wont be noticed widely by the fans of other systems but is enough to make some gamers believe that the GameCube versions of games are better.
Acquisition
Electronic Arts have been very clever recently. In knowing the Acclaim’s Burnout series and the Free Radical (the creators of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark – though were working for Rareware at the time) series of TimeSplitters are huge sellers, they have acquired the rights to publish the games with their logo on the covers.
This means that as well as Acclaim and Free Radical earning money on these games, so will Electronic Arts. Increasing their market share by a huge amount!
Electronic Arts have done this before though. They acquired the development team Westwood Studios as a second party after the successes of Command & Conquer and Command & Conquer Red Alert, and eventually dissolved the team allowing themselves to have full rights to any new Command & Conquer games (though I’d be surprised to see the series continue after their last attempt).
If Electronic Arts continue to do this, then how long until they acquire even more of the big games via publishing deals or buyouts? Will they go for Square-Enix? Or maybe Capcom? After all, EA are a western company and they’ll need an Eastern influence to continue in their expansion.
Despite their conquest at the videogames market, I don’t think we’ll be seeing an Electronic Arts console. Not unless they have a complete change of management. Consoles don’t tend to make much money, however the sale of games made by one self normally does. Electronic Arts make enough money out of PC and multiformat publishing. Sure, they wont make as much money per sale as if they did have their own console to develop for, however, the money they make in sticking to the way they are is a lot greater and allows for even more expansion.
Command & Conquer
This is why I believe Electronic Arts are going to become the Microsoft of the games market. They’re monopolising. Buying out, acquiring, making deals, all of which is benefiting number one. Their logos are getting everywhere, they have some of the best selling PC titles of all time, and they even have their own stands in stores such as Game!
EA are one company that can actually afford to take risks. They can cope with a large amount of failures but only because they are that successful. This is why I believe they have conquered the videogames market.
Love them or hate them, Electronic Arts are the best at what they do.
Note, the point of this topic is to see what your views are on EA’s status. It hasn’t lead anywhere except to show evidence of their conquering of the market. Let the arguments and fanboyish comments commence...:D
EA have gotten better over time even if it's just them buying/hiring better talent rather than actually creating/nurturing it themselves.
If you'd asked me about EA's games before the Xbox was released I would have said they were mainly poor. Agent Under Fire was the last poor EA game I bought. EA can bring out some great games, Buffy was actually pretty enjoyable, Freedom Fighters was really good and the Sims was a good puzzle/time-management game even if it had no replay value (also I found Cel Damage good fun, but I only got it in swapping AUF).
EA still like to make a good game and then run it into the ground with yearly 'updates' though. Comparing the Medal of Honor games to Halo is simply laughable and it's this approach that lets EA down on the final hurdles of being a great publisher/developer/games company: once they realise they can get away with churning out any old **** for a particular licence then they will.
If you'd asked me about EA's games before the Xbox was released I would have said they were mainly poor. Agent Under Fire was the last poor EA game I bought. EA can bring out some great games, Buffy was actually pretty enjoyable, Freedom Fighters was really good and the Sims was a good puzzle/time-management game even if it had no replay value (also I found Cel Damage good fun, but I only got it in swapping AUF).
EA still like to make a good game and then run it into the ground with yearly 'updates' though. Comparing the Medal of Honor games to Halo is simply laughable and it's this approach that lets EA down on the final hurdles of being a great publisher/developer/games company: once they realise they can get away with churning out any old **** for a particular licence then they will.
The director for Never Say Never Again was different, however it was still MGM who have the publishing rights to the DVDs (As they do all other James Bond movies).
As far as Square-Enix are concerned, they were just an example. EA couldn't harm themselves by integrating a few asian developers into their company, like they originally did with Westwood Studios (creators of Command & Conquer).
Lets hope that if they do, they don't take over the franchises, make the development team redundant, and make a pigs ear out of the next in the series - as is what happened with Command & Conquer Generals.
As far as Square-Enix are concerned, they were just an example. EA couldn't harm themselves by integrating a few asian developers into their company, like they originally did with Westwood Studios (creators of Command & Conquer).
Lets hope that if they do, they don't take over the franchises, make the development team redundant, and make a pigs ear out of the next in the series - as is what happened with Command & Conquer Generals.
You are spot on, they are huge, and yes they already make more money than Nintendo.
What I don't like is the way they do it. It would be different if the FIFA games were something special, which they could be. But too often EA have just made soulless, bland sequels.
They have stifled creativity and innovation, only ever following trends, never starting them. I'm worried what will become of some franchises, like Command & Conquer and Burnout. Bond games have been improving recently though, from the abomination that was Tomorrow Never Dies to T.W.I.N.E. was an improvement. Nightfire was an improvement on Agent Under Fire and Everything Or Nothing was an improvement on Nightfire.
But these are small improvements, not through a big increase in skill, just through realising what they did wrong with previous games. Side point about Never Say Never: different studio, hence they won't have the rights.
Where they go from here is a good question. They can't really string out the Lord Of The Rings franchise much more as the movies have all been released now and they hype will die down.
I think EA would like a better Eastern presence, but I don't see that being at the hands of Square, who knocked back a billion pound bid from Microsoft. In the end I think they will be frustrated in their attempts and just try and win control of Grand Theft Auto, probably the biggest selling game franchise not owned by EA.
EA aren't stupid either, they have had talks with MS about Live, now that they managed to pressure MS a bit.
But for all EA's faults, as long as I get more Command & Conquers, I'll not complain. Even if most of their games are rather uninspiring, EA are still the biggest embassadors there are for video games.
What I don't like is the way they do it. It would be different if the FIFA games were something special, which they could be. But too often EA have just made soulless, bland sequels.
They have stifled creativity and innovation, only ever following trends, never starting them. I'm worried what will become of some franchises, like Command & Conquer and Burnout. Bond games have been improving recently though, from the abomination that was Tomorrow Never Dies to T.W.I.N.E. was an improvement. Nightfire was an improvement on Agent Under Fire and Everything Or Nothing was an improvement on Nightfire.
But these are small improvements, not through a big increase in skill, just through realising what they did wrong with previous games. Side point about Never Say Never: different studio, hence they won't have the rights.
Where they go from here is a good question. They can't really string out the Lord Of The Rings franchise much more as the movies have all been released now and they hype will die down.
I think EA would like a better Eastern presence, but I don't see that being at the hands of Square, who knocked back a billion pound bid from Microsoft. In the end I think they will be frustrated in their attempts and just try and win control of Grand Theft Auto, probably the biggest selling game franchise not owned by EA.
EA aren't stupid either, they have had talks with MS about Live, now that they managed to pressure MS a bit.
But for all EA's faults, as long as I get more Command & Conquers, I'll not complain. Even if most of their games are rather uninspiring, EA are still the biggest embassadors there are for video games.
I think the sports games is where the real money is.
They made so much in the 90's from making sports games as there where no real contenders.
Even now the annual release of a Fifa or a Tiger Woods, on all formats just boosts them more and more.
The only danger being that just like the fifa series, EA keep updating and don't really improve on the current gameplay ect. Which is why PES is lucky in it's success as the leading Football game series on the PS2.
But, like you said if all else fails they always get the lisences for the movie games, which will always be a profitable welcome.
They made so much in the 90's from making sports games as there where no real contenders.
Even now the annual release of a Fifa or a Tiger Woods, on all formats just boosts them more and more.
The only danger being that just like the fifa series, EA keep updating and don't really improve on the current gameplay ect. Which is why PES is lucky in it's success as the leading Football game series on the PS2.
But, like you said if all else fails they always get the lisences for the movie games, which will always be a profitable welcome.
Excuse the pun (read up on your publishing history if you don’t understand) but it fits so well as to the events that seem to be taking place in the games industry.
Electronic Arts are taking over the videogames market.
It has been a gradual process but it seems they are taking over. They have close ties with Nintendo and Sony and are gaining the rights to everything and anything nowadays. It wouldn’t surprise me if Electronic Arts top Nintendo for the top spot in being the most profitable games company this year.
EASports
Ever since the mid 1990s, Electronic Arts have had the rights to use player names and teams in their sports games. The Fifas were their most popular sports games and were available multi-format. At the time they made the best football games, and although their sports games keep getting better, they’re now under tougher competition with top quality games by other developers such as the This is Football series, the Pro Evolution series and the new Codemasters Club Football series. So, instead of rehashing the same game with a few modifications, they’ve tried to go one step further by getting real sportsmen to feature in clips and covers of their games. Expensive but worth doing to keep the top spot. EA Sports is one of Electronic Arts biggest and most important development teams. They have more pressure put upon them than any other EA team due to the popularity of their sports games.
Movies
This is where Electronic Arts have really made some excellent investments. EA have the rights to some of the best movie titles ever! They have had the rights to Dune, The Lord of the Rings Two Towers and Return of the King and have the rights to every James Bond 007 movie since they started (does that include the movie Never Say Never Again – the one that wasn’t in the movie collection pack due to the different director?) and have already created their own stories to use for games, including casting real actors into the new game Everything or Nothing.
Electronic Arts have the potential to create over twenty games based on some of the best loved films of all time! If made well, they will sell by the truckload, and if made poorly, they will still sell well, like Agent Under Fire or Nightfire. They have the EA logo on the cover and star James Bond, the worlds most known secret agent. If they make use of the name Goldeneye, they will sell tonnes of copies, even if the game ranks as high in comparison with Universal Studios, Beybladez and Batman Dark Tomorrow.
In purchasing these licenses, and many more, Electronic Arts have already printed their own green, and with the acquisition of some Marvel licences, they have made sure their future is secure as the number one. People buy movie related games despite the stereotypical view that they’re rubbish. In some cases they are. Batman Dark Tomorrow has already been mentioned. However there are and have been some decent and some excellent movie related games released in the past. Goldeneye is the most famous, and others such as Enter the Matrix and Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II weren’t too bad either.
Self promotion through deals with console developers
Electronic Arts have done nothing but self promote in their quest for control of the videogames market. And why not? That’s what all companies try to do to rake in the profits. However, Electronic Arts have got two advantages over companies from other market sectors.
1. More effective advertising is done through talk then TV adverts, sponsorship deals, etc, in the videogame sector than any other sector.
2. Electronic Arts can afford to make a bad impression once in a while.
So in making deals with the biggest first parties in gaming, they are achieving successful advertising for themselves, whether the fans agree with their deals or not.
The most controversial deal is the Sony online deal. At present, Electronic Arts can only make online console games available for the Playstation 2. This leaves Microsoft in a state of trouble. A lack of online Fifa, online Medal of Honor and future EA games sticking to the PS2 for online play, means Microsoft have had to resort to other tactics. One in which is to arrange with Konami, a deal in getting the Pro Evolution series onto the Xbox.
EA have also come to an advertising deal with Nintendo. At the end of the majority of their adverts, they have placed the spinning GameCube logo as opposed to stills of the PS2, Xbox and GameCube logos. This wont be noticed widely by the fans of other systems but is enough to make some gamers believe that the GameCube versions of games are better.
Acquisition
Electronic Arts have been very clever recently. In knowing the Acclaim’s Burnout series and the Free Radical (the creators of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark – though were working for Rareware at the time) series of TimeSplitters are huge sellers, they have acquired the rights to publish the games with their logo on the covers.
This means that as well as Acclaim and Free Radical earning money on these games, so will Electronic Arts. Increasing their market share by a huge amount!
Electronic Arts have done this before though. They acquired the development team Westwood Studios as a second party after the successes of Command & Conquer and Command & Conquer Red Alert, and eventually dissolved the team allowing themselves to have full rights to any new Command & Conquer games (though I’d be surprised to see the series continue after their last attempt).
If Electronic Arts continue to do this, then how long until they acquire even more of the big games via publishing deals or buyouts? Will they go for Square-Enix? Or maybe Capcom? After all, EA are a western company and they’ll need an Eastern influence to continue in their expansion.
Despite their conquest at the videogames market, I don’t think we’ll be seeing an Electronic Arts console. Not unless they have a complete change of management. Consoles don’t tend to make much money, however the sale of games made by one self normally does. Electronic Arts make enough money out of PC and multiformat publishing. Sure, they wont make as much money per sale as if they did have their own console to develop for, however, the money they make in sticking to the way they are is a lot greater and allows for even more expansion.
Command & Conquer
This is why I believe Electronic Arts are going to become the Microsoft of the games market. They’re monopolising. Buying out, acquiring, making deals, all of which is benefiting number one. Their logos are getting everywhere, they have some of the best selling PC titles of all time, and they even have their own stands in stores such as Game!
EA are one company that can actually afford to take risks. They can cope with a large amount of failures but only because they are that successful. This is why I believe they have conquered the videogames market.
Love them or hate them, Electronic Arts are the best at what they do.
Note, the point of this topic is to see what your views are on EA’s status. It hasn’t lead anywhere except to show evidence of their conquering of the market. Let the arguments and fanboyish comments commence...:D
Electronic Arts are taking over the videogames market.
It has been a gradual process but it seems they are taking over. They have close ties with Nintendo and Sony and are gaining the rights to everything and anything nowadays. It wouldn’t surprise me if Electronic Arts top Nintendo for the top spot in being the most profitable games company this year.
EASports
Ever since the mid 1990s, Electronic Arts have had the rights to use player names and teams in their sports games. The Fifas were their most popular sports games and were available multi-format. At the time they made the best football games, and although their sports games keep getting better, they’re now under tougher competition with top quality games by other developers such as the This is Football series, the Pro Evolution series and the new Codemasters Club Football series. So, instead of rehashing the same game with a few modifications, they’ve tried to go one step further by getting real sportsmen to feature in clips and covers of their games. Expensive but worth doing to keep the top spot. EA Sports is one of Electronic Arts biggest and most important development teams. They have more pressure put upon them than any other EA team due to the popularity of their sports games.
Movies
This is where Electronic Arts have really made some excellent investments. EA have the rights to some of the best movie titles ever! They have had the rights to Dune, The Lord of the Rings Two Towers and Return of the King and have the rights to every James Bond 007 movie since they started (does that include the movie Never Say Never Again – the one that wasn’t in the movie collection pack due to the different director?) and have already created their own stories to use for games, including casting real actors into the new game Everything or Nothing.
Electronic Arts have the potential to create over twenty games based on some of the best loved films of all time! If made well, they will sell by the truckload, and if made poorly, they will still sell well, like Agent Under Fire or Nightfire. They have the EA logo on the cover and star James Bond, the worlds most known secret agent. If they make use of the name Goldeneye, they will sell tonnes of copies, even if the game ranks as high in comparison with Universal Studios, Beybladez and Batman Dark Tomorrow.
In purchasing these licenses, and many more, Electronic Arts have already printed their own green, and with the acquisition of some Marvel licences, they have made sure their future is secure as the number one. People buy movie related games despite the stereotypical view that they’re rubbish. In some cases they are. Batman Dark Tomorrow has already been mentioned. However there are and have been some decent and some excellent movie related games released in the past. Goldeneye is the most famous, and others such as Enter the Matrix and Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II weren’t too bad either.
Self promotion through deals with console developers
Electronic Arts have done nothing but self promote in their quest for control of the videogames market. And why not? That’s what all companies try to do to rake in the profits. However, Electronic Arts have got two advantages over companies from other market sectors.
1. More effective advertising is done through talk then TV adverts, sponsorship deals, etc, in the videogame sector than any other sector.
2. Electronic Arts can afford to make a bad impression once in a while.
So in making deals with the biggest first parties in gaming, they are achieving successful advertising for themselves, whether the fans agree with their deals or not.
The most controversial deal is the Sony online deal. At present, Electronic Arts can only make online console games available for the Playstation 2. This leaves Microsoft in a state of trouble. A lack of online Fifa, online Medal of Honor and future EA games sticking to the PS2 for online play, means Microsoft have had to resort to other tactics. One in which is to arrange with Konami, a deal in getting the Pro Evolution series onto the Xbox.
EA have also come to an advertising deal with Nintendo. At the end of the majority of their adverts, they have placed the spinning GameCube logo as opposed to stills of the PS2, Xbox and GameCube logos. This wont be noticed widely by the fans of other systems but is enough to make some gamers believe that the GameCube versions of games are better.
Acquisition
Electronic Arts have been very clever recently. In knowing the Acclaim’s Burnout series and the Free Radical (the creators of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark – though were working for Rareware at the time) series of TimeSplitters are huge sellers, they have acquired the rights to publish the games with their logo on the covers.
This means that as well as Acclaim and Free Radical earning money on these games, so will Electronic Arts. Increasing their market share by a huge amount!
Electronic Arts have done this before though. They acquired the development team Westwood Studios as a second party after the successes of Command & Conquer and Command & Conquer Red Alert, and eventually dissolved the team allowing themselves to have full rights to any new Command & Conquer games (though I’d be surprised to see the series continue after their last attempt).
If Electronic Arts continue to do this, then how long until they acquire even more of the big games via publishing deals or buyouts? Will they go for Square-Enix? Or maybe Capcom? After all, EA are a western company and they’ll need an Eastern influence to continue in their expansion.
Despite their conquest at the videogames market, I don’t think we’ll be seeing an Electronic Arts console. Not unless they have a complete change of management. Consoles don’t tend to make much money, however the sale of games made by one self normally does. Electronic Arts make enough money out of PC and multiformat publishing. Sure, they wont make as much money per sale as if they did have their own console to develop for, however, the money they make in sticking to the way they are is a lot greater and allows for even more expansion.
Command & Conquer
This is why I believe Electronic Arts are going to become the Microsoft of the games market. They’re monopolising. Buying out, acquiring, making deals, all of which is benefiting number one. Their logos are getting everywhere, they have some of the best selling PC titles of all time, and they even have their own stands in stores such as Game!
EA are one company that can actually afford to take risks. They can cope with a large amount of failures but only because they are that successful. This is why I believe they have conquered the videogames market.
Love them or hate them, Electronic Arts are the best at what they do.
Note, the point of this topic is to see what your views are on EA’s status. It hasn’t lead anywhere except to show evidence of their conquering of the market. Let the arguments and fanboyish comments commence...:D