Chazore said:
Basically a publisher buying out someone who proved what they could already do and manage with. The only pros in that documentary, were the increase in budget, but that was all set back by the rushed releases and constant shift in changing the franchise into something else. It's not just EA that does this, the same has happened with all sorts of publishers out there. I'd rather a dev team obtain the franchise and work on it themselves, maybe use a publisher just for getting it out there, but refusing any sort of buyout. |
Yea the EA buyouts never really work out in the long run. Sure the franchises might have some continued success but just look at the EA graveyard. Westwood, Bullfrog, Criterion, Maxis (I'm counting Maxis and Criterion dead because they pretty much are)
http://kotaku.com/an-updated-list-of-studios-ea-has-bought-and-then-shut-1689498614
SimCity was a great franchise but they seemed to have ran that into the ground not helping with their always online DRM with the last iteration. Seems like Cities: Skylines is now the new SimCity.
Just found a pretty nice quote from an old article.
"I think our history with acquisitions is somewhat marginal in performance," Jorgensen said when asked if EA has identified any acquisition targets in the industry. "We have some that are spectacular, and some that didn't do so well. It's a headcount business, right? You're buying headcount, and that's always difficult to manage in acquisitions. It doesn't mean we won't do them, but I think where we've been most successful is in smaller acquisitions that we've integrated very quickly."
