EA to acquire Mythic Entertainment (June 20, 2006)

[Manisch Depressiv]

i dont know who sanya is trying to convince - either herself or the daoc community.....

she has seriously got her information wrong if she thinks that all the people emplyoyed by mythic are going to keep their jobs!

"But at this point everything we know is in the press release, really and truly."

What information?

 

[DavidH]

Doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom!!!

 

[Darzil]

Why does everyone thing that EA's plan to get into SUBSCRIPTION gaming is to make a hurriedly put together game on the market to get the box cost, and then run ?

That's not the market they are trying to break into.

Darzil

 

[Iceforge]

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

I would, however much I hate EA for some points, like them using this deal to gain a business relationship to GW...

BloodBowl 2007
BloodBowl 2008
etc etc...

Now, that would be fun

 

[Ctuchik]

Mythic get the cash from the takeover plus can carry on as per normal due to the Games Workshop haveing a final say. They also get the benifit of EA's marketing dept. If they can turn SIM's into a best seller think what they could do with a game thats actually good!

really, how many games have EA poured a ton of cash into (besides NFS series, and even then the franchise went bad after NFS hot pursuit..) thats acually good? the problem with EA is that they have enough money to HYPE a game to be "good" insted of acually MAKING good games. sims were so fking hyped in the end that ppl got brainwashed into thinking it rocked fgs...

 

[Ctuchik]

I would, however much I hate EA for some points, like them using this deal to gain a business relationship to GW...

BloodBowl 2007
BloodBowl 2008
etc etc...

Now, that would be fun

not if EA is going to have anything to say about how its gonna be developed.....

 

[Lejemorder]

Warhammer will be the new WoW sadly

Retarded community, childlike graphics

Daoc will eventually die out, EA wont continue to patch old news

why should warhammer be like that?

EA got nothing to say, if gamesworkshop dont like what EA say, they just say no and ea can do nothing and i doubt any in gamesworkshop want there orcs too look like that.

for me it just sound like EA rather want an allready excisting company to make mmorpgs trough and that they let mythic do as they already do.

 

[Sharkith]

Some nice comments on VN boards ty Kishih on Prydwen.net for the link.

 

[Soulja_IA_]

Find this bit of news a bit sad to be honest.

EA was charged with another Mythic game it Hosted a few years back called Silent Death Online and EA took over it's running with a Big player database they decided to kill off Silent Death to the anger of the players who played it myself being 1 of them.

I from there have detested the way EA organise they games making the players who played SDO pay they premium service rate milking money from us then just closing a game that had a huge fan base .

So for me having EA being part of DAOC makes me very wary on how they will take the Game.

Soulja

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

http://thealguy.blogspot.com/2004/11/this-just-sucks.html

wow... that's disturbing :/

 

[Wazkyr]

Just some funny reading i dont think have been posted before. Interview with Mark Jakobs (Mythic founder/boss)
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6152975.html

Funny how they can say that shit, almost makes me sad

 

[Himse]

WTF imo.

Imo, send a letter off from the EU community saying how much we hate EA :< we dont need WAR 2007, 2008, WAR Extreme..

boring.

 

[Sentura]

Yeah it is indeed a sad day. But then again, I probably won't be playing MMOs for that long, let alone try warhammer. I do still believe that EA should crumble into pieces and implode though. Actually, I can picture the doom of EA: Anti-EA-fanatics storming EA HQ and demanding them to disband their business. In all honesty, I think that would rule.

 

[toxii]

this is best thing that could happen to mythic
a 16yo company, getting buyed-out/absorbed/whatever by a larger titan like EA, is any company's wet dream

its a bit silly to believe that mythic did this for the great good of daoc/war when its quite obvious that they did it just bcos they want to make DOLLARS

--> Adopted by the United States Congress in 1785, the U.S. dollar today is the most-used currency in the world. Several countries use the U.S. dollar as their official currency, and many others allow it to be used in a de facto capacity. In 1995, over US$380 billion were in circulation, of which two-thirds was outside the United States. By 2005 that figure had doubled to nearly $760 billion with an estimated half to two-thirds being held overseas [1], which is an annual growth of about 6.6%.

 

[rampant]

Just some funny reading i dont think have been posted before. Interview with Mark Jakobs (Mythic founder/boss)
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6152975.html

Funny how they can say that shit, almost makes me sad

lol - read the last reply by MJ - yup looks like its going to be watered down for console! - so WAr is going to turn into an all-formats-one-size-fits-all approach



d0000000000000000000000000000000000000000mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm i say!

 

[Gibs]

Well look at it this way, EA wont merge/takeover Mythic until Q2 2007 by that tim WAR is probably going to be in its BETA maybe late BETA stage, which is perfect for the marketing of EA to kick in - its a good deal all around imo.

Really interested to see what EA marketing do for WAR.

Sorry to disappoint you, but theyre not taking over in Q2 2007.
Theyre taking over in Q2 of their Fiscal year of 2007, which started in April.
So EA will be in control from hmmm, about 10 days time. (July 2006 which is Q2 of EA's 2007 Fiscal year).

 

[rampant]

i was just thinking before about takeovers that i have been and lived through

well about 3 years ago the company that i was working for got bought out by an american company - we have a french bloke come and talk to all the employees (there was about 50 people in the uk) - he stated that 'there will be no mass redundancies - all is ok (in his words 'there will be no tommygun approach')'

... erm well 3 months later the marketing team went (7 ppl), admin was cut from 7 to 2 (centralisation) - 2 sales men lost their jobs (they were crap anyhow) ...

American takeovers want instant results, they talk about integration, but really its a case of 'this is our culture - take it or leave it' - it is assimilation - so i feel sorry for the people at mythic.

the way to watch these american companies are the press releases over who is taking over as head of the new division, i bet that mj will stand down within 6-12 months (with the excuse that he is going to be either 'working on a new project' or spending more time with family/kids' , and an EA head will be brought in to 'steer' the ea-mythic back to profitability! When they dont get the instant results, they change the personel. (btw a vp in american terms is like a manager in the uk )

as ive said - ive seen it all before and i know and can predict what will happen! (oh the american company who bought us out got bought out by another company last year!)

 

[Thadius]

an EA head will be brought in to 'steer' the ea-mythic back to profitability!

Meaning dropping Mythic's lovechild, DAOC!

 

[Coldbeard]

EA is shit.

 

[Thadius]

EA is shit.

O rly?

 

[Fana]

Crap

Always respected Mythic for staying their own and operating as an independent company. Megacorporations make me sad.

 

[grizzy]

U guys are just such retards... what wer the ups for EA in this deal ? get into the MMO market and a huge profit, theres no point for them to start fireing the staff and replace em with EA ppl cuz that wud severely decrease the profit

And let me say again, Paul Bernett will poon every bad decision, if EA will ever try doing something different than mythic planned

Btw if some1 missed the gamespot interview, DAoC WILL NOT BE LEFT BEHIND TO ROT AND WHATSOEVERFFS....

I'd say its mythic , thats totally ripping the shit out of EA, cuz the deal with GOA was made and prolly not declinable now and GW > EA with WAR.

 

[~Latency~]

IF EA don't change much it's for the good (loadsa cash for advertising etc)

IF EA change it in ways to make it appeal to EVERYONE (ie very young audience) it will be pretty shit like the rest of EA's stuff ;[

What does it mean for DAoC though? EA will close it without hesitation if they feel it is taking too much resources / doesn't make outstanding profiet!?

If they do we can all move to freeshards!

 

[grizzy]

Most of u ppl dont prolly even lurk in the warhammer alliance, so heres a smallroundup of facts thats Mark jacobs and Erik Morgensen(from GW) have layed out so far:


Starting out Mark Jacobs lends some insight.

* There are no changes in Mythic's personnel as part of this deal, none. I'm still heading up EA Mythic but with a different title, that's all. Many companies have tried to buy Mythic over the last 2 years and all of them started the discussions with "If the founders aren't going to stay, we are not interested." Frankly, you couldn't get me out of Mythic with a crowbar.

* GW has fully blessed this agreement. They are excited about the possibilities for Warhammer going reward.

* EA, like every other publisher in the industry, has had its ups and downs with developer acquisitions. As a long-standing developer, I know most of the key people at all the companies that have been acquired by EA as well as other companies. The key for Mythic going forward is no different with EA than it was as an independent, if we do a great job everything will be great. If we don't, well, we will have no one to blame but ourselves. That is no different than it is for us as part of EA or on our own.

* Nothing is changing with WAR or the WAR design. The game's goals are the same goals as they were before.

* EA is not buying Mythic to interfere with the management or the game design of WAR.

* EA has never, ever said that they want to change the deal with GW and to the contrary have reaffirmed their commitment to the same deal that we made with them. They are incredibly excited about WAR especially after what they saw at E3.

* I know many are going to find this hard to believe but we have spent a lot of time with the key guys at EA and we find their passion for doing great games and what they think is great, dovetails nicely with our current vision. We wouldn't have done this deal if EA had said to us, we want you to turn WAR
into WoW 1.5.

Erik Morgensen from Games Workshop adds his own thoughts to the frenzy.

* GW is 100% behind this deal, and we're every bit as excited by and committed too WAR as we have been from the start. We're going to remain just as involved in the project, and our approval processes are going to work
exactly the same.

* I'll be working with the same great people at Mythic, and will continue to work with them toward our shared vision for WAR.

* I've seen loads more art and design documentation than you could possibly imagine, and the game is shaping up beautifully. E3 was but a tiny taste of what's coming.

* We now have the world's largest independent publisher throwing its weight behind this game.

* I have the advantage of having spent many days at Mythic, and have seen first hand Mark and his team's passion for WAR and Warhammer in general. I don't just believe that they won't ever allow themselves to compromise on quality, I know it.

* We at Games Workshop retain full approval over all uses Warhammer imagery, characters, etc. including everything in the game and in the marketing campaign.

* In terms of the quality of the game nothing can change except for the better. Just as before, if you guys don't like the game in the end, you'll have only Mythic and GW to blame. Someone had to publish the game, and now
that someone is EA.

 

[grizzy]

Mythic will even contiunue hosting theyr own servers in the US, not EA

 

[Pirkel]

Thanks for that Grizzly that's a lot of good news.

 

[Yeke]

Certainly dosn't seem as bad as at first, and I only think that because someone at GW said it

My only concern is ok yeah in development EA cant do a damn thing but what happens after its live and EA poke there nose in on patches etc GW can hardly pull the game then can they?

 

[Sharkith]

U guys are just such retards... what wer the ups for EA in this deal ? get into the MMO market and a huge profit, theres no point for them to start fireing the staff and replace em with EA ppl cuz that wud severely decrease the profit

And let me say again, Paul Bernett will poon every bad decision, if EA will ever try doing something different than mythic planned

Btw if some1 missed the gamespot interview, DAoC WILL NOT BE LEFT BEHIND TO ROT AND WHATSOEVERFFS....

I'd say its mythic , thats totally ripping the shit out of EA, cuz the deal with GOA was made and prolly not declinable now and GW > EA with WAR.

whats more 'retarded'

a) someone using such an offensive term to describe fellow gamers or
b) people experssing dismay and concern at an uncertain future.

grizzy if you want to waltz around like the village idiot who believes everything the high priest says then by all means fix the bells to your ankles and go do so. Please do not use offensive terms to describe people who have genuine concerns about the future.

Let me spell just some of the implications of this out to you
a) EA games are basically a company that uses exploitative labour practices on its workforce.
b) They have had a negative impact on the gaming environment an environment that many of us left to join MMPORG's like DaoC

By crossing the boundary Mythic are effectively shaking confidence in their product. Mixing exploitation with their product and threatening us with a future that might well see the MMPORG we love disappear.

I actually work in a sector and a job where the exploitative practices of companies like EA are suppoed to be a professional concern. This kind of thing is actually quite serious and I am afraid I have some serious thinking to do about it.

With all the good intentions of Mark Jacobs (and it is reassuring to read what he has said) we have no certainly that in the future things will be very very different. So please stop being so offensive and perhaps just sit back and think. When a group expresses their dismay you should listen rather than call them retarded.



Sharkith

 

[grizzy]

whats more 'retarded'

a) someone using such an offensive term to describe fellow gamers or
b) people experssing dismay and concern at an uncertain future.

grizzy if you want to waltz around like the village idiot who believes everything the high priest says then by all means fix the bells to your ankles and go do so. Please do not use offensive terms to describe people who have genuine concerns about the future.

Let me spell just some of the implications of this out to you
a) EA games are basically a company that uses exploitative labour practices on its workforce.
b) They have had a negative impact on the gaming environment an environment that many of us left to join MMPORG's like DaoC

By crossing the boundary Mythic are effectively shaking confidence in their product. Mixing exploitation with their product and threatening us with a future that might well see the MMPORG we love disappear.

I actually work in a sector and a job where the exploitative practices of companies like EA are suppoed to be a professional concern. This kind of thing is actually quite serious and I am afraid I have some serious thinking to do about it.

With all the good intentions of Mark Jacobs (and it is reassuring to read what he has said) we have no certainly that in the future things will be very very different. So please stop being so offensive and perhaps just sit back and think. When a group expresses their dismay you should listen rather than call them retarded.



Sharkith

Fine, ill tell u sorry, but what ill also tell u is ... worry on ... worry on (Its fun isnt it?!?!!)

U have trusted Mythic by playing DAoC so far, whats wrong now ? maybe they war abducted by aliens and theyr brains wer replaced with monkey brains ? Better trust em again and move on...

If u want me to I will say it again... mythic is developing WAR, ''NOT'' EA

And dont even start to think that Mythic didnt need something like this, WAR is going to be huge, prolly bigger than they can handle at start and prolly impossible w/o such a deal. Blizzard cudnt handle WoW and they messed up , they messed up badly actually(prolly cuz of lack of experiance). Mythic has experiance and with the extra handful of dollahs from EA, it might come out better than any of us expected ?

 

[Thadius]

whats more 'retarded'

a) someone using such an offensive term to describe fellow gamers or
b) people experssing dismay and concern at an uncertain future.

grizzy if you want to waltz around like the village idiot who believes everything the high priest says then by all means fix the bells to your ankles and go do so. Please do not use offensive terms to describe people who have genuine concerns about the future.

Let me spell just some of the implications of this out to you
a) EA games are basically a company that uses exploitative labour practices on its workforce.
b) They have had a negative impact on the gaming environment an environment that many of us left to join MMPORG's like DaoC

By crossing the boundary Mythic are effectively shaking confidence in their product. Mixing exploitation with their product and threatening us with a future that might well see the MMPORG we love disappear.

I actually work in a sector and a job where the exploitative practices of companies like EA are suppoed to be a professional concern. This kind of thing is actually quite serious and I am afraid I have some serious thinking to do about it.

With all the good intentions of Mark Jacobs (and it is reassuring to read what he has said) we have no certainly that in the future things will be very very different. So please stop being so offensive and perhaps just sit back and think. When a group expresses their dismay you should listen rather than call them retarded.



Sharkith

Well said

People are stating thier views and seeing the way EA has bastardised some great series of games, they are worried about the future.

Im sure the same was said when EA bought Bullfrog/Westwood and look who had the last laugh doing that