Ubisoft CEO Speaks out Against EA Move

Gamespot is reporting that Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has spoken out against EA's "hostile action". From the article: "Considering the industry practice of communicating informally about such decisions, we were disappointed, to say the very least, that EA chose not to inform us of their specific plans beforehand." Further, Voodoo Extreme is reporting that a financial report may suggest the French government is going to assist Ubisoft in staying out from under EA's thumb.

Comments

Yes - the US is already upset over planes...

[lxt]

France (and the rest of the EU) are already in violating of the WTO over the massive grants they've given, and are planning to give, Airbus. The US government says it's unfair, but they too have given (and will continue to give) massive grants to Boeing. I guess that complaint has got more to do with the fact that Airbus recently moved ahead of Boeing in number of aircraft being ordered, and the US is no longer the dominant player (IMO). Oddly enough, didn't the French also give a hand out to a server manufacturer a few weeks ago to keep them in business?

Re:From the second article...

[Anonymous Coward]

EA is evil. It represents the dying of the "old guard"; I still hate that old favorites like Bullfrog and Westwood are no more. I still can't believe it--"There is no more Bullfrog."

I think they're the people behind the dumbification of some of my favorite franchises, such as SimCity, which took a turn toward the cartoonish with SimCity 3000 and pushed Maxis into a neverending development cycle of crappy Sims expansion packs (at least all was forgiven when Sims 2 ended up being interesting and creative).

EA is part of the evil over-commercialization of gaming that already happened to the movie industry decades ago. We're now seeing the beginnings in the game industry, where large conglomerates control the development companies, and where it's no longer a group of computer nerds who love games putting out classics (i.e., id Software) but a bunch of faceless, shit-on programmers being rushed to meet the Christmas deadline on the latest Dear Hunter game that marketing has decided has at least an 87% chance of surpassing expense costs.

Companies like Valve are fighting back with Steam. That's why, despite the sometimes valid criticisms of Steam, I recognize that it is the necessary and inevitable future, connecting gamers directly with the people making the games, not some giant, corporate middleman. Record companies, anyone?

Re:Article submitters and Slashdot editors, please

[I8TheWorm]

Just for clarification, you don't have to have a 50.1% or even a 50% stake to claim a takeover. Typically, anything in the 40% or greater range will give you controlling interest, as there usually isn't any one controlling interest with more.

There are quite a few companies out there who are run by a 30%(ish) controlling interest.

an explanation about France...

[St. Arbirix]

Here's what I hear has been happening in France... Every now and then some non-French company wants to buy a French company. The French government immediately steps in and makes a second French company buy the first French company the foreign company was interested in thereby creating a much larger French company which is no longer small enough for the foreign company to buy. When a German pharmaceutical company (Germany has some of the largest in the world) wanted to buy a French one the French government got a separate French pharmaceutical company to buy it instead. The intended effect of all these forced mergers seems to be to get France back into competition with other countries.

If you don't believe me look into the history of France Telecom which purchased Wanadoo, Orange, and Equant (the last two were previously foreign owned but operated in France). The thing about the purchases of these is that France Telecom now owes a billion euros back to the government for illegal subsidies.

Another classic example of Little Man's Syndrome is Vivendi Universal.

Re:French Government? Totally unnecessary!

[Lordrashmi]

Sam Fisher vs. Football players? My money is on Sam Fisher.

French Financial Systems

[MBraynard]

The French system is different from the US/UK system. In the US/UK systems, the shareholders interest come first before the law. They can lay people off, off-shore jobs, merge, etc. if they think that is what will best enhance shareholder value. This is a good thing because it makes company's more competitive and, because the guarantee of control is there, it is easier to raise funds from investors for new job-creating project/companys/IPOs.

In France, however, management has priority in the law. You might think that the shareholders control the company through a board of directors appointing the CEO and others in management, but the truth is under law the equity owners are extremely limited in making the kind of company-saving decisions that they can in the US. The result is an anemic economy.

This is a seperate issue from the French government offering to become specially involved, but is relevant to EA's ability to affect Ubisoft in the same way they would any other company in the US inwhich they owned 20% of the shares.

Re:French Financial Systems

[killbill!]

The dollar's fall is unrelated to the state of the economy. Monetary policies in both contries are controlled by the government. So why has the dollar fallen? Because interest rates are low. And interest rates are staying low - normally a falling currency results in the interest rates coming back up.

You do know that interest rates are the same, if not lower in the Euro zone than in the US?

So, why is the dollar falling?

Short answer: The dollar is falling:

• because of the huge Federal deficit
• because of the huge trade deficit
• because foreign investors are leaving the USA, lest the continuing fall of the dollar further deprecates their investments
• because America pissed off Arab and European investors, so they do not want to return to the US even if they could
• because foreign central banks are swapping dollars for euros as their reserve currency
• because Americans burn twice as much oil per capita as Europeans.
• and last but not least, because the EU seems to be trying to do something about its debt, whereas the USA does not seem to care.

That was the short answer. For a more detailed answer, read on below:

Currency fluctuations are mostly due to the balance of payments, in which the trade balance, the foreign investment balance, and the budget balance play the main roles. All of which look very bad for America at the moment.

The trade deficit is a basket case. The US industry is dead, killed by the quarterly profit craze. CEOs preferred outsourcing to competing on quality, unlike Europe (and Japan), which chose to compete on quality and features, instead of giving up on their industry.
The fact that the US is to 90% a service industry has a huge impact on the trade deficit. Indeed, international trade is mostly about the trade of goods, which are made by the industrial sector. Which America gave up on.
As a result, America is buying high-end European goods, but it has hardly anything to offer to Europe that Europe does not do better already. Which bodes ill for the dollar. Usually, a falling currency usually stabilizes as its exports get cheaper. However, this won't happen for the US, as it cannot get cheaper than China, while the quality of Chinese goods is constantly improving.
Unless American engineers somehow manage to wrestle some power back from marketers, bean counters and lawyers in corporate America, the American industry is done for.

The food industry is also traditionally a strong American export; however, it also is a strong European export. Besides, it is standardizing on GM crops, which are mostly forbidden or unwanted in Europe. So, you can also write agriculture off as far as trans-Atlantic trade is concerned.

Having already written off the trade balance, how is the budget balance looking?
To keep it short, hopelessly bad at least until 2008, that's for sure. And in 2011, the US goverment will have to start paying back the debt from the Reagan years (which I bet it'll default on).

And now, for the foreign investment balance.
Let's start with a bit of history. Back in 1999, when the Euro was introduced, it quickly fell against the dollar. Indeed, at the height of the dot-com bubble, investing in the US sounded more rewarding than in Europe. So, many European investors bought dollars to invest into American assets. However, when the bubble burst, they retreated hastily and sold whatever investment they had to cover their losses. Notice how the euro started rebounding right when the bubble burst?
Right now, European investors might look at the GDP growth figures. But they will not return to America before a long while. Given the probability that the dollar will continue its fall, no investment in the

Re:EA isn't about games

[stratjakt]

EA and UbiSoft are both mainly publishers, not developers. They do some in-house development, but their bread and butter is much like any RIAA or MPAA member, they produce and publish other peoples games, and pocket a few bucks.

Now slashdot is going to try and convince me EA=bad, UbiSoft=good, just like MS=bad, IBM=good.

It's 100% pure bullshit, and you'd have to be pretty simple-minded to think any corporate entity has your best interest as a gamer/consumer at heart.

As an aside, EA's employment practices aren't far off from anyone else in the industry, including UbiSoft.

It's all about the bottom line.

Re:WTO?

[rainman_bc]

What about Softwood Lumber? Congress has an act right now in place where they will take the tarrif's illegally collected (per WTO and NAFTA) from Canadian lumber producers and are going to turn them over to the US Softwood Lumber businesses.

Want to talk about unfair subsidy?

All that, because we don't require our lumber producers to purchase land before they log it; we simply lease crown land to them for a low price, and we get to maintain control over such land.

Re:EA isn't about games

[jedidiah]

What studios has Ubisoft destroyed?

That's a very important factor in determining the relative evils of two game publishers.

Also, consider what the talent does. Will people with 10 or 15 years at the same studio decide to flee once McGames Inc is controlling things?

Re:unexpected limelight?

[Anonymous Coward]

shame the gooks beat you good in vietnam though (though you probably won the unofficial underage girl rape contest)
fuckin' rambo wankers

Re:From the second article...

[Anonymous Coward]

No, the French people rose up and destroyed the French government that helped the US. Think about *that* the next time you pretend modern France is in any way responsible for anything positive in America.

Re:The French commitment to Afghanistan

[elecngnr]

Maybe this will help. Mine is a soldiers complaint. As I said, I was infantry. However, there were times when I was in units that were turned into glorified police units. Almost to a man, soldiers hate it when their mission changes like that. I was trained for a specific mission--in my days it was killing Soviets. Taking me out of that paradigm sucked because I was untrained for it. It is more like I am commiserating with the French grunt than bashing him.

I agree that is the situation a lot of our soldiers are in right now in Iraq. And, if you asked them off camera, they would say "this sucks" Taking fire in battle is different...it is expected. Taking fire when you are helping to build a hospital somewhere is not expected. Both suck, but I was trained to handle the first, not the second.

My use of the surrender monkey comment was out of anger over the revelations that they may have been aiding Sadaam brutalize his people. The French government was awefully self-righteous when they were proclaiming their non-support for our military action due to concerns for peace. Reading some of the things I have been reading about their actions in the Oil for Food program makes me doubt they were honest. I think they were happy with the status quo because they were making lots of money. And, who knows, maybe I was just in a bad mood yesterday and felt like ranting.

By the way, I am definitely drinking champagne tonight:) No way I am going to let a little squabble with the French interfere with that.