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madskillz on 08 February 2009
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De85 said:
dbot said:

 

Let's look at business, EA buys developers that have good IPs and don't have the resources to publish on multiple platforms. EA inflates the price of the purchase of said developer and books a rather large number in Good Will on their balance sheet to justify the amount of money they overpaid for the developer. That number represents a value that EA thinks they will be able to add to the developer's bottom line by giving it the resources to port the game to multiple platforms, and access to their distribution channels. If EA is unable able to leverage Bioware's IPs it will have to write-off the purchase for a loss. This wouldn't make EA's investors very happy. While I appreciate your argument, it is highly doubtful that the agreement with MS for PC publishing allowed MS any control over future installments of Mass Effect. If such an agreement existed, EA would deny the PS3 version which they are unwilling to do.

 

Then what do you think MS did get out of the deal allowing EA to publish ME on the PC? I guarantee you they didn't just give the rights away, and MS doesn't need money from EA. I think Madskillz' argument is more likely than any other alternative.

Thanks for the props. Right now, Sony needs more than a big event to stop the bleeding. This would be great for Sony, but in the grand scheme, it won't have folks running the streets, proclaiming they are getting a PS3 to play ME 2.

At best, MS loses the next two installments to EA's pimp ideology, but guess what? MS has the trump card. They will definitely tout the complete trilogy on their console. I recently picked up the game again and played it for a few. It ended with Shephard ready to deal out mo' punishment.

Still, publishers have rights, and I can bet you cash $$$ MS had some kind of deal with Bioware. Of course I could be wrong, but after seeing EA have to strike a deal with MS to publish it on PC makes me think there's a lot going on under the surface.