Did EA buy Ubisoft/Crytek?

[Ike0069]

This just makes me sad.

http://www.crysis-online.com/

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/28/ea-in...-acquisition-reports-german-newspaper/

 

[mzkhadir]

Crytek sold the publishing rights to EA for Crysis

EA and Crytek announce development of Crysis [01 Feb, 06]
Award-winning Studio to Create Original Shooter Franchise for PC
CHERTSEY, UK. ? January 23, 2006 ? Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS), the world?s leading interactive entertainment software company and award-winning developer Crytek, today announced they will bring Crysis?, an exciting new first person shooter, to gamers worldwide. Developed by Crytek, the makers of the award-winning Far Cry?, Crysis will be an original first person shooter game for PC based on new intellectual property.

?Our focus has always been on innovating gameplay and technology, and bringing new experiences to gamers through our original intellectual properties,? says Cevat Yerli, CEO & President of Crytek. ?Crysis will be a showcase for that commitment and will offer gamers from all over the world the next step in FPS gaming.?

Shooter fans will face a new kind of gameplay challenge requiring adaptive tactics and customisation of weapons and armour in dynamic, hostile environments as mankind struggles to survive in the face of a horrific alien invasion.

Crysis will bring together the creative and technical talent of Crytek with the publishing expertise and unrivalled reach of Electronic Arts. Crysis is to be published by EA following the worldwide relationship announcement between the two companies and is being developed using the leading-edge technology of Crytek?s proprietary engine CryENGINE? 2.




?We are delighted to reach the next level in our relationship with Crytek,? says Tom Frisina, Vice-President and General Manager for EA Partners. ?Nurturing creative talent and bringing original intellectual property to the world of interactive entertainment is a key focus for EA and EA Partners. Crysis will bring an entirely new FPS experience to gamers everywhere.?



About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for videogame systems, personal computers and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS?, EA?, EA SPORTS BIG? and POGO?. In fiscal 2005, EA posted revenues of $3.1 billion and had 31 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.


About Crytek
Crytek®, Best Independent European Studio 2004 and Best Independent New Studio 2004 worldwide, creator of the multiple awards winning true next generation first person shooter Far Cry is an interactive entertainment development company located in Coburg, Germany. Crytek is dedicated to create exceptionally high quality Video Games for PC and the next generation consoles, with their proprietary cutting edge 3D-Game-Technologies CryENGINE? and Polybump?.

Crysis © Crytek. All Rights Reserved. Crysis is a trademark of Crytek.

CryENGINE © Crytek. All Rights Reserved. CryENGINE is a trademark of Crytek.

Far Cry?

© Ubisoft Entertainment, All Rights Reserved. Published by Ubisoft Entertainment. Far Cry is a trademark of Ubisoft Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries. Based on Crytek?s original Far Cry, directed by Cevat Yerli. Powered by Crytek?s technology "CryEngine."

For further information please visit www.crytek.com

About EA Partners
Electronic Arts Partners (EAP) is EA's publishing studio that focuses on the development and co-publishing of 3rd party products from throughout the world. EAP titles have been critically acclaimed and commercially successful, including the popular Battlefield franchise that won many prestigious industry awards, produced in a collaboration with Digital Illusions C.E,



Electronic Arts, EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS BIG and POGO are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U. S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

 

[DannyLove]

search is your friend:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=33&threadid=1917751

 

[sswingle]

<darth vader> NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO </vader>

 

[Ike0069]

Ahh, I now see that they teamed up to make Crysis (did not know this before), but there are several reports that show they are in the process of aquiring Crytek. Does this mean they are buying Ubisoft?

 

[mzkhadir]

Originally posted by: Ike0069
Ahh, I now see that they teamed up to make Crysis (did not know this before), but there are several reports that show they are in the process of aquiring Crytek. Does this mean they are buying Ubisoft?

I think Ubi is too big to be bought. It could be just Crysis publishing rights.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: mzkhadir

Originally posted by: Ike0069
Ahh, I now see that they teamed up to make Crysis (did not know this before), but there are several reports that show they are in the process of aquiring Crytek. Does this mean they are buying Ubisoft?

I think Ubi is too big to be bought. It could be just Crysis publishing rights.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubisoft

On December 20, 2004 Electronic Arts (EA) purchased a 19.9% stake in the firm. At the time, Ubisoft released a statement saying they considered the purchase "hostile" until they had further information on EA's intent.

If you like them, pray that they dont gain more favor in EA's evil eyes. But, I for one hate Ubisoft for their use of the malware called StarForce.

 

[gorcorps]

Yeah but they've stoped using that after all the complaints.

 

[flashbacck]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: mzkhadir

Originally posted by: Ike0069
Ahh, I now see that they teamed up to make Crysis (did not know this before), but there are several reports that show they are in the process of aquiring Crytek. Does this mean they are buying Ubisoft?

I think Ubi is too big to be bought. It could be just Crysis publishing rights.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubisoft

On December 20, 2004 Electronic Arts (EA) purchased a 19.9% stake in the firm. At the time, Ubisoft released a statement saying they considered the purchase "hostile" until they had further information on EA's intent.

If you like them, pray that they dont gain more favor in EA's evil eyes. But, I for one hate Ubisoft for their use of the malware called StarForce.

I don't know... EA is several times bigger than Ubisoft and Ubisoft is publicly traded. They could easily acquire more shares over time. And who could blame them? Ubisoft has fantastic intellectual properties.

 

[gsellis]

It is this way, EA now is the publisher/distributor. Crytek is still a seperate company. Since Crytek is small and wants to focus on development, they can use the long arms of our EA overlords to worry about all of the post-dev stuff such as packaging, distribution, sales, etc. So, the developers can continue to write code and leave all the mondane stuff to the sales weasels at EA.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: gorcorps
Yeah but they've stoped using that after all the complaints.

Responding to their customers wants? Well, they're already head and shoulders above EA in that department then.

 

[Ike0069]

I'm guessing Crysis will be the last game Crytek produces before EA takes over.

Now I'm not a huge EA hater like many others, (I actually like BF2, and pretty much all their sports games are great) but I wish they would leave Ubisoft and Crytek alone. IMO Ubisoft produces some of the best games available and FarCry is probably my all time favorite game. I also really, really liked GRAW. I'm afraid that if EA takes over there won't be a next release from the Crytek team. Sure there will be a game that claims to be a sequel to Crysis, but it will suck.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: flashbacck

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: mzkhadir

Originally posted by: Ike0069
Ahh, I now see that they teamed up to make Crysis (did not know this before), but there are several reports that show they are in the process of aquiring Crytek. Does this mean they are buying Ubisoft?

I think Ubi is too big to be bought. It could be just Crysis publishing rights.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubisoft

On December 20, 2004 Electronic Arts (EA) purchased a 19.9% stake in the firm. At the time, Ubisoft released a statement saying they considered the purchase "hostile" until they had further information on EA's intent.

If you like them, pray that they dont gain more favor in EA's evil eyes. But, I for one hate Ubisoft for their use of the malware called StarForce.

I don't know... EA is several times bigger than Ubisoft and Ubisoft is publicly traded. They could easily acquire more shares over time. And who could blame them? Ubisoft has fantastic intellectual properties.

they won't if EA buys them

 

[jazzboy]

Originally posted by: gsellis
It is this way, EA now is the publisher/distributor. Crytek is still a seperate company. Since Crytek is small and wants to focus on development, they can use the long arms of our EA overlords to worry about all of the post-dev stuff such as packaging, distribution, sales, etc. So, the developers can continue to write code and leave all the mondane stuff to the sales weasels at EA.

But doesn't that also mean that EA could pressurise Crytek into rushing out games, making them more prone to bugs?

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: jazzboy

Originally posted by: gsellis
It is this way, EA now is the publisher/distributor. Crytek is still a seperate company. Since Crytek is small and wants to focus on development, they can use the long arms of our EA overlords to worry about all of the post-dev stuff such as packaging, distribution, sales, etc. So, the developers can continue to write code and leave all the mondane stuff to the sales weasels at EA.

But doesn't that also mean that EA could pressurise Crytek into rushing out games, making them more prone to bugs?

Exactly my concern.

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

But, I for one hate Ubisoft for their use of the malware called StarForce.

Luckily UbiSoft dropped StarForce.

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: jazzboy

Originally posted by: gsellis
It is this way, EA now is the publisher/distributor. Crytek is still a seperate company. Since Crytek is small and wants to focus on development, they can use the long arms of our EA overlords to worry about all of the post-dev stuff such as packaging, distribution, sales, etc. So, the developers can continue to write code and leave all the mondane stuff to the sales weasels at EA.

But doesn't that also mean that EA could pressurise Crytek into rushing out games, making them more prone to bugs?

They can try. Crytek can say no.

 

[TheoPetro]

Originally posted by: gsellis

Originally posted by: jazzboy

Originally posted by: gsellis
It is this way, EA now is the publisher/distributor. Crytek is still a seperate company. Since Crytek is small and wants to focus on development, they can use the long arms of our EA overlords to worry about all of the post-dev stuff such as packaging, distribution, sales, etc. So, the developers can continue to write code and leave all the mondane stuff to the sales weasels at EA.

But doesn't that also mean that EA could pressurise Crytek into rushing out games, making them more prone to bugs?

They can try. Crytek can say no.

If crytek says no then they severly jepordize the relationship they ahve with EA. EA is large enough to say "F off" and dump crytek. Once crytek begins to hurt from that happening they will be so desperate that EA may be able to outright buy them.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: TheoPetro

Originally posted by: gsellis

Originally posted by: jazzboy

Originally posted by: gsellis
It is this way, EA now is the publisher/distributor. Crytek is still a seperate company. Since Crytek is small and wants to focus on development, they can use the long arms of our EA overlords to worry about all of the post-dev stuff such as packaging, distribution, sales, etc. So, the developers can continue to write code and leave all the mondane stuff to the sales weasels at EA.

But doesn't that also mean that EA could pressurise Crytek into rushing out games, making them more prone to bugs?

They can try. Crytek can say no.

If crytek says no then they severly jepordize the relationship they ahve with EA. EA is large enough to say "F off" and dump crytek. Once crytek begins to hurt from that happening they will be so desperate that EA may be able to outright buy them.

Crytek is not desperate by any means... EA would never pass up a cash cow like Crytek and even if they did, Crytek is on solid ground. Valve would even take them on I bet. Might be humbling to their Source engine, but Valve is in it for the money just like everyone!

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

Hard to believe that this is the same company that published stuff like Bard's Tale back in the early 80's with their square, circle and triangle logo. Of course it's a completely different entity now, much like Walmart and McDonalds which started out relatively modest and innocuous, bearing no resemblance to what they are today. Corporate money can turn any business into creeping death.