Slashdot Mirror
EA in Takeover Talks with Ubisoft
Voodoo Extreme has the word that EA and Ubisoft are in talks regarding a possible takover price for the French company. From the article: " The talks are still preliminary and running parallel with other approaches that family-run Ubisoft is making to broker solutions that might shake off a bid from EA but they could be the beginning of an eventual agreement between the two, the paper said, citing people familiar with the situation." Gamespot states that EA denies the topic of takeover is on the block during the talks. No word on what such a development would have on Ubisoft's relationship with the Canadian government.
...is here:
1 0/ 1747259&tid=187&tid=10
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/
Yes they develop here but they're a French company.
When that happens (not *if*, but *when*, because it will happen), then the game industry will be rotten to the core.
This is really sad. I used to work at Ubisoft Montréal, and I was given an offer for a decent programming job there. That was in january 2004. I refused it and decided to leave the game industry for a while, because of what it was becoming and because I didn't want to become a slave to the big corps. I am now developing office utilities application for a small business in downtown Montréal, in a much much better working environment (the complete opposite of the "EA Spouse" story), with a much higher salary. I decided I'd give the game industry 10 years to stabilize and give them a second chance in 2015, if it's worth it (that is, if something else than EA exists). In the meantime, I'll keep working on my GPL'd game(s) in my spare time. They won't be as good or as flashy as a commercial game (you can only get so much quality with a team of 3 people), but at least I'll have fun doing it (contrary to being whipped by EA while I have to code for 16 hours a day).
It is sad though for people who either didn't see it coming, or have no other skill and are "forced" to stay in the industry and be exploited by EA.
After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless
- The Tao of Programming
Bullfrog and Origin made great games. Then again, they were mostly centered around great, known, personnaes (Richard Garriot, Peter Molineux...). So, when they realized what their studio became, they just left and joined or created other companies (NCsoft, Lionhead...).
A creative industry is bound to keep smaller, more "indy" studios. They will go through editors for distribution, but the games and creative direction should stay with the studios...
In industries/companies where "Project Management" is a punchine to some joke, it is usually the norm to work insane hours, make lots of mistakes, and waste time & money. Oh, and have "deadlines" that are fantasy at best.
Yeah, right.