Gaming Industry misses the point of EA

:bites tongue:

Okay - I have to speak. I've been silently watching the circus ride into town for 24 hours. "EA buys 19.9999999% of Ubi soft", "EA taking over Ubi", "EA becomes the game industry" etc etc

First, my god, do rumors get messed around with on the internet. Humorous moments include IGN's *secret source* about how much EA paid for the shares ... errr guys, the secret source was the Wall Street Journal; half the world knew this when they opened the paper.

Second,

You're all wrong - this isn't about titles.

I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start with rumor control:

1. Officially a Dutch investment company (Talpa Beheer BV) owning just under 20% of Ubi's shares contacted EA to see if they wanted to buy them for between 85 and 100 million dollars.
2. Despite being the largest block of Ubi shares it does not grant EA any management control of the company.
3. The largest amount of shares the founders own is 22.8%.
4. The FCC needs to approve the purchase.
5. Ubi's stock price jumped 24% on the news.
6. The EA bid is regarded as hostile, and apparently due to Ubi's next gen console games (or so the Ubi management theorizes).
7. EA are still trying to acquire DICE.
8. Rumors centralize around EA wanting to acquire Ubi completely.
9. Whether somebody at EA asked somebody at the Dutch investment company to approach them is another matter ... or why the shares were acquired by the Dutch company in the first place. It's the FCC's job to determine that.

Phew - are we done now?

Okay - the problem is that the press are treating this as a title acquisition programme. I suppose this is understandable as all of EAs other acquisitions have been about titles. With Ubi however, I'm unconvinced.

EA and Ubi share something in common: they are both distributors. In the games industry this is very important. As an independent developer you're at the mercy of distributors; they own all the sales channels, you simply can't promote a game or get it into shops without one. EA is the largest, and Ubi is apparently the third largest.

In short, if EA acquires Ubi,

EA controls more of the game market

not due to the games portfolio, but the new game signings. If company XYZ makes mega-blaster-six and that competes with an inferior EA title, XYZ is doomed. There are very few games distributors XYZ can peddle its wares to; you make what EA tells you to make and shut-up.

So what of the other distributors? Well most are console manufacturers. If you go to Sony they'll go, "Great, but it must be PS2 exclusive". If you're small, and your game is avantgarde you may need an all console title to survive.

If EA does acquire Ubi it will be a sorry day for the industry. Independent game development and technically superior genre games will be hurt badly.

All however is not lost, it may also transform the games industry in ways unimaginable. Not through EA, but because of EA.

I'll outline these in a follow-up article.

[EotM]

I'mafeelin: like I need to clean
I'malistinto: a pulsing HD