Apr 1
EA Finalizes Take-Two buyout
After weeks of back and forth between the two software giants, it seems that a deal has finally been reached under which Take-Two will be absorbed into EA. Many were certain that this wouldn’t happen, due to Take-Two’s continual rejections of Electronic Arts’ offers.
It turns out, according to a source within Take-Two (who has asked to remain anonymous), that EA made an offer that, simply put, couldn’t be refused. Things are still being finalized, but information on what will be happening to Take-Two’s biggest franchises can be yours after the jump.
First up, sadly, is an entry from the obituary page. 2K Sports and all of its many franchises are gone, now and forever. Obviously, this would create too much competition within the new mega-sized EA, and if there’s one things EA Sports hates, it’s competition. The one exception to this is Rockstar’s Table Tennis. My source within Take-Two noted that EA sports intends to turn this into an annual franchise, starting with the Table Tennis 09 iteration, as there is still “plenty of milk left in that udder” according to a conversation between some EA higher-ups that he/she overheard.
A myriad of changes are in store for the Grand Theft Auto series, as well. Perhaps most disheartening is the news that GTA IV has been pushed back to a spring 09 release. This is apparently due to EA scrapping the entire project in lieu of a different one that is being handled by the same development team that made The Godfather games. Word is that they are also aiming for a Teen rating from the ESRB both to “make sure we get all of those sugared-up little brats’ money” and “keep that power-tripping attorney off of [their] cases.”
That’s not to say that gamers won’t be seeing any GTA this year, though, as EA plans to re-release GTA: San Andreas on 360 and PS3. There won’t be any major changes, though, some texture upgrades aside. EA plans to release the game on April 29th, at the budget price of $49.99. My source did mention, however, that while Los Santos will be unlocked to gamers from the get-go, journeying to Las Venturas and San Fierro will require them to pay an unannounced amount of money and download two different premium content packs from either Xbox Live or PSN.
The final casualty of the EA buyout is, unfortunately, Bioshock. All that needs to be said about this is…hoo boy…development for the sequel to Bioshock has been wrested from the capable hands at 2K Boston/Irrational Games and given to the Medal of Honor team. I…I…have nothing else to say about this. I…just need to blog about this in my Myspace. Oh, and I’m going to blog hard, America. Surely that’ll help turn this epic fail around!
3 Comments so far
Leave a comment
:O
Re-release of San Andreas!