Rumor: Activision Hungrily Eying Take Two

[Dr. Paine]

Hmm, I did hear that something is going on at 2K. Like how they changed their fiscal year, that is normally illegal without special approval after demonstrating pertinent circumstances. Usually that is only limited to bringing fiscal year in sync with another parent company.

Holy fuck.

What is Activision's Fiscal year and is it the same as 2K's new fiscal year?!?!?

That would pretty much confirm it.

That pic makes it seem like he is LITERALLY hungry to devour 2K... or at least their souls.

I mean his pupils are solid black, that's a nasty trick of the light.

Everyone has solid black pupils. I don't see what's so freaky about his eyes. -shrug- They're just a very dark brown, and dark brown eyes don't do well in photos. Well, I'm obviously blind or something, they are blue/gray. Still, further proof of just a bad picture.

 

[Milenkov]

Seems like we're getting a Pepsi-Coke scenario between EA and Activision, that's quite distilling

 

[Treblaine]

Fine, Activision is a business, we get that. The thing is, Activision isn't doing business well[l/i]. VALVe, BioWare, EA, and everyone else, they're businesses and yet they don't seem to get in this much shit as much as Activision is doing.

Which is actually a legitimate argument against Activision, probably the first I've seen in the last 20 threads about it.

Take-Two is also quite successful. So why is there so much opposition to this again? Almost all of the anti-Activision sentiments don't seem to extend beyond "BOBBY KOTICK IS TEH DEVILZ, THEY RUIN EVERYTHING THEY TOUCH" etc. The same comments were brought up when Activision merged with Blizzard, yet Blizzard is still making insane amounts of money. If Take-Two wanted to sell itself to Activision, there is almost no doubt in my mind that they would go for a similar arrangement, so I just don't get the "OMG END OF TAKE-TWO, NO MOAR GOOD GAMEZ" idea.

You also mentioned EA. Anyone remember how well THAT publisher was received two years back? Then they re-invented themselves and a new party had to become the whipping boy. Sure, Activision has made plenty of bad decisions, and they deserve flack for them. But I don't see the point of actively demonizing them, especially when they do just as much good business as the bad.

Well Blizzard has a rather special arrangement with Activision, more of a mutual Merger than one buying out and "owning" the other.

I think the worry is how much Kotick drops the ball such as oh, I don't know, not paying his employees? That's the dispute that he let get so out of control that West, Zampella and most of Infinity Ward defected BACK to EA! Also when on his watch Harmonix fled to make Rock band though thought no one would notice if he put some B-teams with zero experience in music-rhythm games to make more Guitar Hero games.

It's bonehead decisions like that.

OK, he deserves credit for CoD franchise, the annual release achived by:
-two teams in staggered development
-Each works on a game for 2 years
-builds on existing engine and gameplay concepts
-Treyarch/IW interact and help each other when they can though remain independant of each other.

That's all great, worked out to become the biggest entertainment phenomena of the decade, and Kotick deserves a lot of credit for organising that but beyond that it is a mess of mis-management. I worry that he just struck lucky with this CoD thing, million-monkeys on typewriters and still he has fucked it up with Infinity Ward imploding.

 

[Danpascooch]

A new picture of Bobby Kotick? What happened to the old when that the Escapist used for every single news story?

 

[Treblaine]

Hmm, I did hear that something is going on at 2K. Like how they changed their fiscal year, that is normally illegal without special approval after demonstrating pertinent circumstances. Usually that is only limited to bringing fiscal year in sync with another parent company.

Holy fuck.

What is Activision's Fiscal year and is it the same as 2K's new fiscal year?!?!?

That would pretty much confirm it.

That pic makes it seem like he is LITERALLY hungry to devour 2K... or at least their souls.

I mean his pupils irises are solid black, that's a nasty trick of the light.

Everyone has solid black pupils. I don't see what's so freaky about his eyes. -shrug- They're just a very dark brown, and dark brown eyes don't do well in photos.

Oh, you know what I mean, take this picture I got googling "Bobby Kotick":

Dem eyes are grey, almost blue, definitely not "very dark brown". And that was a pic from an article highly critical of Kotick, that was one of the "bad pictures" of him, but The Escapist pic is just a whole other level, makes him look like a Bond Villain and I'm not talking Sean Bean territory:

This hansom git WILL betray you.

 

[Twad]

Its likely so they can take their technology, best employees and big games then get rid of everything/everyone else a year later.

 

[Quaidis]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bzWSJG93P8

That, coupled with the picture on the first post, are all I need to express how I feel right now.


I hope no buy out happens, or even merger. Some developers need to be free. If half the game-makers of the world were sucked into the hands of a corporation that's known for not playing its people, suing left and right, and driving developers into the ground - specially one who's CEO is an all-powerful douche - then gaming is looking at very dark times indeed.


Today's Captcha is: estarge object,

 

[Quaidis]

Dem eyes are grey, almost blue, definitely not "very dark brown". And that was a pic from an article highly critical of Kotick, that was one of the "bad pictures" of him, but The Escapist pic is just a whole other level, makes him look like a Bond Villain and I'm not talking Sean Bean territory:

His eyes look green to me, on the by.

Though under times of duress, I'm sure they turn to Evil Black [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlackEyesOfEvil] for practical purposes.

 

[Veldel]

whos up for hireing a assassain to take out Kotick? We need a Dark Brotherhood >_>

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

We're doomed...

that's exactly what i was thinking !

it's a tragedy that the Hobbit of Activision wants the ring of Take Two...

 

[Omnific One]

For the love of god, Bethesda, become a legitimate publisher so we can have a good publisher in the top two, instead of EA "We make the DLC before the game and force you to preorder for it" and Activision "Ah, we love milking and murdering franchises."

 

[MercurySteam]

If Take Two goes what's next? Valve? Double Fine? Bioware?

Oh hell no.....

 

[wizard_joe88]

I read the headline, and I died a little inside.....
I honestly hope something happens that gets Bobby Kotick fired as CEO, before it's too late for us all

 

[unacomn]

Quick, someone photoshop Kotick with a Hungry Hungry Hippo. I have a plan, in involves a demotivational poster.

 

[Branches]

This is the part where EA declares "scorched industry" and sells themselves to Take-Two. and then Bobby Kotick becomes a walking Dragon. And then an explosion.

 

[BabyRaptor]

I thought that was just to help marketing/promotion of games.

I thought EA handled the physical retailing of Valve's games. Maybe I misunderstood?

 

[Traun]

Hmmm...I am still mad about Civ 5 and the tears running down the streets of the internet would be glorious. Hmmm...

 

[mjc0961]

Oh fuck no. I thought this was over when EA gave up on trying to buy Take Two. Now Activision might buy them? Great. That's just as bad as EA trying to buy them. I can't believe we have to go through this all over again. I just hope Activision doesn't succeed where EA failed.

*snip*
The blame does not solely lie on the shoulders of Activision, I'm afraid.

Well yeah. The developer was United Front Games, the guys who made ModNation Racers. I don't think I have to say anything else.

 

[Jumwa]

Ugh, look at his soulless eyes.

But seriously, I really hope that this is all false. Less competition is NEVER good for consumers, and Take Two is doing some very nice things for gamers. Being bought out by the Activision behemoth would be awful.

It's bad enough the big guys buy out all the little developers, but when they cannibalize each other it's just lousy.