EA to acquire Mythic Entertainment (June 20, 2006)

[Cadiva]

57.1 million

Thats pittance compared to other companies

Not in the niche games market it isn't though

Wizards of the Coast are about the only other comparable company doing a similar kind of thing to GW and they're owned by Hasbro, a massive games (toys that is) company with much more financial clout.

An income generated of £136.6m isn't bad really considering they're catering to an incredibly small market.

 

[Thadius]

more like

True

Ive been to EA hq btw


Lovely building, had a car from Need for Speed outside

 

[Thadius]

Not in the niche games market it isn't though

Wizards of the Coast are about the only other comparable company doing a similar kind of thing to GW and they're owned by Hasbro, a massive games (toys that is) company.

Hasbro bought out Waddingtons(THE origional board game masters) and promptly fucked it up

Good British company bought out by clueless Americans

 

[Mabs]

Ive been to EA hq btw

i hope you washed yourself afterwards... with steel wool and bleach

 

[Cadiva]

Hasbro bought out Waddingtons(THE origional board game masters) and promptly fucked it up

Good British company bought out by clueless Americans

How have they fucked it up? Waddington (ie Hasbro) is still selling shitloads of Monopoly games in all the silly individual varieties as well as Cludo.

And don't they still make Subetteo as well?

I dunno that much about Waddington's really but Hasbro publishes pretty much every damn board game going these days.

 

[old.Whoodoo]

Wont be long before gates buys EA too, maybe thats going to be his retirement fund or his part time toy while he chills out from earning all that cash.

Welcome to Dark Age of Microsoft.

 

[Mabs]

Welcome to Dark Age of Monopolies Commision.

he really wouldnt be able to , thank god

 

[Blackjack]

Go away EA, no1 likes you, so there

i like em

 

[Mabs]

i like em

BURN HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Konah]

if it means bigger better mmorpgs from mythic its maybe not a bad thing, but then a company is only really its talented staff, if they all fuck off to the Bahamas with the profits then its the end of Mythic i guess.

EA wont be interested in supporting DAoC if it isnt profitable. Game still has a large enough population atm to be viable, but for how long...?

One important thing EA have that Mythic never seemed to bother with is a marketing and advertising budget

 

[Mabs]

if it means bigger better mmorpgs from mythic its maybe not a bad thing, but then a company is only really its talented staff, if they all fuck off to the Bahamas with the profits then its the end of Mythic i guess.

EA wont be interested in supporting DAoC if it isnt profitable. Game still has a large enough population atm to be viable, but for how long...?

One important thing EA have that Mythic never seemed to bother with is a marketing and advertising budget

mythic did, GOA didnt -advertise that is

(well whoever GOA got to do it did a shit job but thats splitting hairs)

 

[Arisaig]

Well, sad day for DAoC imo. The Suits get to control output & the developers get made to hurry content to a tight timeline...
Nothing new in computer gaming, seen it soo many times before. Anyone remember BlueByte? History Line was great turn-based strategy game before EA bought the Studio..

Bottom line is EA are after WaR and nothing else, so DAoC will be left to shrivel & die.

Was the likely result anyway, don't kid yourselves, Mythic were not likely to leave a large team supporting DAoC anyway.

Just a shame Mythic hadn't the conviction to stay independant, now EA will be pulling all the strings, after all He who pays the Piper calls the tunes.

RIP DAoC 2Q 2007

 

[Andrilyn]

Just think of the endless possibilities EA has to offer DAoC.
J. Madden can pop up on the screen with a chart and tell you why no one could take the keep with the 12 animists in the lord's room.

Then we get:
DAoC 2006
DAoC 2007
and ofc not to forget DAoC 2008!

 

[grizzy]

Dear Arisaig and Mabs , think about this for a sec... why wud EA want that ? If they did get rid of Mark ? GW wud pull the licence instantly cuz they just so happen to have the power of doing that and EA wud have shot themselves in the leg with alot of millions worth bullet. They wud prolly pull the licence if EA did even something to the designt they or mythic didnt like.

Also , Mark has clearly stated that thats not whats EA is there for

 

[Ryuno]

I don't like EA at all but..

Mark Jacobs isn't stupid

Will reserve my judgement till I find out some more info.

 

[Rst]

Well this sorta points out Mark Jacobs cannot be trusted.......Guess he finally sold out & sold daoc playbase worldwide down the river

https://forums.freddyshouse.com/showthread.php?t=192821&highlight=Mark+Jacobs

 

[Svartmetall]

I was going to say words cannot describe this.

Then I realised that words like 'disaster' and 'fucking', used in close proximity, would actually describe it pretty well. A company who are to artistic integrity and vision what Jeffrey Dahmer was to home cooking, taking over Mythic...?

Yep. That's a fucking disaster.


6 months until Warhammer is renamed NEON SPACE ORKBALL PRO 2007

 

[Pirkel]

Well this sorta points out Mark Jacobs cannot be trusted.......Guess he finally sold out & sold daoc playbase worldwide down the river

https://forums.freddyshouse.com/showthread.php?t=192821&highlight=Mark+Jacobs

Nothing he said in that article has turned out to be a lie.

 

[Cadiva]

Well this sorta points out Mark Jacobs cannot be trusted.......Guess he finally sold out & sold daoc playbase worldwide down the river

https://forums.freddyshouse.com/showthread.php?t=192821&highlight=Mark+Jacobs

How does that prove anything? In April he wasn't talking to EA, he's said before they've made offers and he's turned them down, that doesn't mean he's not going to listen to any new offer they might come up with.

Also, as he said he wasn't going to go for any deal that sold his staff down the river, doesn't it rather imply that this current deal won't do that?

Or am I the only person not sailing down the Doooooooooooooom River?

And, as has been said before, Games Workshop are the ones with the string pulling power here, you think they won't pull the plug if they don't like what's being done with Warhammer? Why won't they, they've done it once already when Climax had already put loads of work into it.

 

[Svartmetall]

they've done it once already when Climax had already put loads of work into it.

It wasn't that they weren't happy with the game Climax were making, there were...fiscal situations with Climax.

 

[Commandment]

if they stay at the marketing end of the building, then i dont see the problem!

advertising + daoc = a new life for this game!

Which would rox imo

 

[Watchh]

owned by teh dollar

 

[Yeke]

Now I'm in a dillema I've never bought a game made by EA and always said I never would support that company but now it looks like im gonna have too :/

EA disgust me they are everything that is wrong with todays gaming industry it is however GW that own the license and I suspect that if EA tries poking around with the game too much they will get told to FO.

EA =

 

[Helme]

EA =

Yet EA are wankers with alot of money. The reason I think most of EA's games are hated is because they are all the same shit, an MMORPG is totally different from singleplayer games and I think with the newfound sponsor Mythic will have, DAoC and Warhammer will see more success then they have now, because let's face it. WoW's success comes from largerly a well planned advertisement plan that made the people who really didn't know what MMORPG's was go "oh, I want to try that", and Mythic lacked that sort of funding when they made DAoC else I think its success would be alot bigger then it is/was.

 

[old.Whoodoo]

EA are just jumping on the bandwagon of popular gaming that has constant revenue, unlike their other games, unless you want to count the relentless "Jism Buscuit 200X" games that are revamped on a yearly basis, sooner or later the players get bored with rehashes and look to games that auto update.

This means now EA has a constant cash cow, its stocks will refelect this and prolly go up by 20% or more when they stick the first label on an MMO.

As for Jacobs, at the end of the day hes human, greedy self loving and wont look a giant spotted pony in the gob when its got a bag marked "swag" or a cheque with lots of zeros. He can try and wangle out of the bits he said about the UB40 river by saying "its in the best interests of the employers..", a speach which anyone whos been made redundant after a company merger has heard.

So the question remains, will EA embrace the already traditional MMO, or will they try and EA it, with 200X, long tiring intros, cash for sale on their sites and more security leaks than the titanic. Time will tell.

 

[Gahn]

Erm they should have opened Eu Office and they would have never sold to EA:

http://img157.imageshack.us/my.php?image=iraqiministermbj1lc.gif

 

[Phoebee-v-]

As for Jacobs, at the end of the day hes human, greedy self loving and wont look a giant spotted pony in the gob when its got a bag marked "swag" or a cheque with lots of zeros. He can try and wangle out of the bits he said about the UB40 river by saying "its in the best interests of the employers..", a speach which anyone whos been made redundant after a company merger has heard.

LMFAO

:worthy:

 

[Thorwyn]

Take a look at the brighter side guys...

EA wants a piece from the pie. They wanted to pick up the Gauntlet dropped by Blizzard. Mythic was the best "free" MMO studio available, they have proven that they´re able to design MMOs with PvP content (yes yes.. I know.. cut the OP classes whine for a second). For us, the community, this is about the BEST thing that could have happened if they keep their hands out of the actual game! EA stands for one thing: money. They will dump enough money into WH to make it big and give Mythic enough resources to work on the game.

Get me right here, I hate EA with a passion. They´ve poisoned and spoiled the industry for years and I myself have been on the receiving end of EAs wrath in a lawsuit between EA and my company. I`m in no way "happy" about the news, because I want to see EA bite the dust. However, as I said, for the game and the players, this *could* mean a bright future in Warhammer online.

 

[Vintersorg]

I don't like EA either, but still...I'd rather have them buy out Mythic than SOE, because those guys are way worse IMHO...
This buyout might actually help Warhammer pwn WoW...

I just hope that EA won't interfere in Mythic's creative job

 

[old.Whoodoo]

I don't like EA either, but still...I'd rather have them buy out Mythic than SOE, because those guys are way worse IMHO...
This buyout might actually help Warhammer pwn WoW...

I just hope that EA won't interfere in Mythic's creative job

Totally agree, funding WHO and DAoC is one thing thats great, coating them in EA's bling with little refence to gameplay is another. The only one between the two is Jacobs, is he going to keep his word and look after his chums, or has he just bought a hawian island to hide on?