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Infogrames Could Help Ubisoft vs. EA
GamesIndustry.biz iz reporting that in a show of European solidarity publisher Infogrames may assist Ubisoft (with the blessings of the French Government) if EA attempts a hostile takeover of the Prince of Persia developer. From the article: "Speaking to news agency Reuters, Bonnell expressed his hope that Ubisoft will remain independent - and rubbished EA's claim that its recent purchase of almost 20 per cent of the firm's stock was merely an investment." Further details on Greg Costikyan's Blog. All this is follow up to year-end shenanigans from EA.
Who the hell is Greg Costikyan and why is his blog a good source of information? It's called "context", folks. Before I read any of the linked text, I should know the basics about what's going on, who Ubisoft is, and who Costikyan is.
I'm getting sick and tired of reading writeups and being left to discern all of the information on my own. If you're going to claim to post news articles with information in them, you're going to have to actually provide some information.
Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
Didn't Infogrames change their name to Atari? http://www.atari.com/
Insert Pithy Quote here.
These constant anti-French comments are pathetic. One of your country's oldest allies is hestitant about giving you carte blanche to invade other sovereign states and all of a sudden it's open season on France?
The whole "let's declare war on anything associated with the word 'french' in it" is just pathetic. Really, it just is so petty and ridiculous that it borders on infantile: are freedom fries any tastier than french fries? No? I didn't think so.
Grow up. It's shit like this that has cost you the almost all of international support and goodwill that was apparent in the aftermath of September 11th.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
When I go to a restaurant that has freedom fries on the menu I typically ask them, "Could I have French fries instead of the freedom fries? Freedom fries leave a bad taste in my mouth."
I do the same thing for French toast also.
END OF LINE
Our secondary education system, as a whole, leaves much to be desired. Most Americans know less of American history than recent immigrants. Forgive the ignorant, for they know not what they post to slashdot.
Let's get drunk and delete production data!
why so many people seem to be happy that EA may not get Ubisoft. If it's because you think EA makes crappy games, and will make Ubisoft make crappy games, then ok I get it.
But there are you others. You seem to be assigning a sense of romanticism here, as though EA were attempting to defile the virtue of Ubisoft. What the hell is wrong with you people?
German law prohibits any foreign entity from gaining a controlling interest in Volkswagen.
Foreign airlines are prohibited from flying between US cities.
Japan makes bogus claims to turn away shipments of US vehicles.
It's not just France.
-mkb
I love how everything that is critical (no matter how just the claims are and how well they are written) gets modded down here. And then we get +5 funny "in soviet korea" garbage. :P
When you look at the state of the world, how can you not become a radical, liberal anarchist?
A little Googling shows that Ubisoft has facilities in several countries and actually purchased two U.S. studios (RedStorm and Game Studio) in 2000-01.
It appears that they've been a part of the general consolidation in the games industry as well.
I also have to wonder whether the Feds and/or the EU would allow an outright takeover in the first place, given the antitrust implications.
There is no mention anywhere of subsidizing Infogrames. Anyway each and every government on earth "subsidizes" various economic sectors and corporations as they see fit. Direct subsidies are outlawed by various trade pacts and international treaties, but there are many holes in those and many other indirect ways for a government to weight in on an economic sector if it think this is strategically useful.
The US federal government does a lot of this, sometimes directly through subsidies (for example, the agriculture), through pork barrel programs, often of military nature (how many billions have the useless NMD poured into Boeing's and Lockheed's R&D depts ?), often through corporate wellfare, such as the Foreign Sales tax breaks that have been recently outlawed by the WTO, sometimes through tarriffs, for example on steel, which were also outlawed by the WTO, but lasted just enough for the American mills to restructure and survive until the explosion of Asian demand for steel, or the on Canadian lumber. The tax deduction of mortgage interest and the "soft sponsoring" of Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac correspond to an effective subsidizing of the residential real-estate sector, etc...
Your US Airways example is bad, because the US has precisely massively, if indirectly, subsidized airlines after 9/11, in a manner that has drawn numerous complaints from Europe.
Well, they stood up to America on that Iraq thing..
EA has the money to "invest" in Ubisoft because they are STEALING from their employees. Uncompensated work is criminal.
Fuck EA.
They helped us start our country. We saved their hindparts in WWII. What we need is mutual respect and support.
"Sometimes it takes more than an axe and a busload of strangers to work through your anger." -Rikk Estoban