Electronic Arts Buys Criterion, RenderWare

CFresquet writes "Gamesindustry.biz reports that Electronic Arts has purchased developer Criterion Software. Criterion is the game developer behind Burnout 3 and 'anticipated first person shooter Black', but also makes RenderWare, arguably the most popular 3rd party game engine solution used in PC, console, and hand-held game development. With this purchase, EA now suddenly has its fingers in the development of many of its competitor's games. Formerly independent studios now find themselves unexpectedly partnered with the gorilla of the industry, and EA could be in a position to leverage its ownership of this technology when negotiating with publishing agreements with studios." Intriguingly, this means that the engine technology powering Grand Theft Auto 3/Vice City (and GTA: San Andreas?) is now EA-owned, though Criterion's David Lau-Kee claims "a win for everybody", arguing the takeover gives RenderWare "the capability to step up today and say to the entire industry, you know, 'We'll help you out?'"

Comments

Re:I see no alarm.

[Daetrin]

Its not like they have any control over the companies using it. They can't exactly say 'Stop developing a competing product or we will pull the plug.'

The problem is that i'm pretty sure RenderWare is a licensed product. They probably can't revoke the license for any current games, but they can certainly refuse to renew it for any upcoming games. So yes, they can in fact threaten to pull the plug.

And even if i'm wrong about the licensing bit, they can always just refuse to release any new updates publically and keep them for themselves (and any companies who choose to cooperate with them) instead, which would be almost as bad.

Re:Will there be "secret" features inthe game engi

[Graelin]

...which would clearly fall into the realm of an antitrust lawsuit should it carry on long enough for evidence to mount.