Valve pursued by EA for over a possible $1 billion

[thespyisdead]

You nearly destroyed Bioware.

nearly? in my eyes BioWare is DEAD! such a perfect ending can't be made by accident

OT:It'll be a cold day in hell before EA buys Valve, and if it happens anyway, i must have been accidentally referring to Finnish hell, which i hope i am not...

 

[w9496]

Look on the bright side, EA would probably release Half Life episode 3.

I don't think Valve would just hand over their company. They seem to be doing well on their own.

 

[Reaper195]

How would EA even 'nearly' buy Valve? Valve isn't owned by a bigger company, it's owned by itself. The onyl way Valve could ever be sold is if Gabe Newell (Or whoever is head of Valve) wants to sell it in the first place. And considering they[re worth more than two billion dollars, I doubt they'd ever sell for just one.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Why would EA even think Valve would sell? They have no real corporate structure and sounds like the people who worked there love it like that and plus Steam practically prints enough money for them to bailout EU countries, it is not like the people at Valve will be having money worries anytime soon.

 

[FEichinger]

You nearly destroyed Bioware.

nearly? in my eyes BioWare is DEAD! such a perfect ending can't be made by accident

OT:It'll be a cold day in hell before EA buys Valve, and if it happens anyway, i must have been accidentally referring to Finnish hell, which i hope i am not...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell,_Michigan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell,_Norway

That said ... Title is very misleading. I read about EA's offer over on GI.biz, so I knew what this was supposed to mean, but ... really now? Accusing our newsies of sensationalism and then such headlines on the forums? Disappoint, Escapist forums, disappoint.
VALVea will never happen. EA will crumble to death at some point, sure, and maybe some assets and employees are added to VALVe's roster, but no way in hell is EA gonna buy VALVe (or vice-versa, given EA's failure).

 

[Lt._nefarious]

Do you think Gabe will let that happen?

Remember Gabe don't fuck around, he'll cut EA...

So EA, can ya step it?!

 

[MetalMagpie]

Why would EA even think Valve would sell? They have no real corporate structure and sounds like the people who worked there love it like that and plus Steam practically prints enough money for them to bailout EU countries, it is not like the people at Valve will be having money worries anytime soon.

It would be up to the owners. The software company I work for is wonderful. Great people, great policies, management structure that really is there to help rather than hinder, and to top it all off we make fantastic profits. Two years ago we were bought by a soulless multinational. The guys who founded my company decided that - after ten years - they wanted to "move on to new challenges" (which is fair enough, I guess). So they sold the company.

It's still a fantastic place to work. Our new owners have been smart enough to see we're successful and (apart from some target-setting) pretty much leave us alone.

Except now we have to send a form to an office in Israel when we want to buy a new coffee machine. Grrr...

 

[Woodsey]

Well they weren't "nearly" bought by EA, were they? EA have made offers it seems (which went nowhere) and Valve's basically said fuck off. If the word from Valve is that they'd "disintegrate" sooner than be bought by EA then there was nothing "nearly" about it.

 

[Nieroshai]

On th3 plus sid3, EA s3ts d3adlin3s for proj3cts. You can s33 wh3r3 I'm going with this.

 

[Whateveralot]

You nearly destroyed Bioware.

nearly? in my eyes BioWare is DEAD! such a perfect ending can't be made by accident

OT:It'll be a cold day in hell before EA buys Valve, and if it happens anyway, i must have been accidentally referring to Finnish hell, which i hope i am not...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell,_Michigan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell,_Norway

That said ... Title is very misleading. I read about EA's offer over on GI.biz, so I knew what this was supposed to mean, but ... really now? Accusing our newsies of sensationalism and then such headlines on the forums? Disappoint, Escapist forums, disappoint.
VALVea will never happen. EA will crumble to death at some point, sure, and maybe some assets and employees are added to VALVe's roster, but no way in hell is EA gonna buy VALVe (or vice-versa, given EA's failure).

"Hell currently has a grocery store, gas station, and a retirement home."

This must be the best sentence I've ever read.

Anyway, Valve will never give in on this. EA will always keep trying. Who knows what will eventually happen, right? I just wish EA was a little bit smaller, like in the old days when they made Medal of Honour: Allied Assault. But hey, every gaming company has grown, hasn't it?

 

[gigastar]

On th3 plus sid3, EA s3ts d3adlin3s for proj3cts. You can s33 wh3r3 I'm going with this.

You're trying to say that EA produces shit games and pushes them out the door before they are ready, only to blame the developers for bad sales and close their studio afterwards?

Replace "EA" with "Activision" then youre on the right track.

But to what you actually said, Valve doesnt have deadlines. They only publish thier games when they come to an agreement that theyve made thier game or expansion as good as they can make it without community feedback, this also happens to be why Valve rarely if ever actually releases a game.

Now if they came under EA's heel, none of that would be allowed to happen. EA knows Valve has one of the greatest collectives of developers, but i fear that EA's shareholders will not see it that way.

Also on a side note Valve is known for supporting its games post-release. EA executives have in the past often seen this as a waste of time on a completed project when a new project can be worked on.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Can EA at least wait until January to do this? I'd hate for those stuck-up Mayans to be right.

 

[flying_whimsy]

On th3 plus sid3, EA s3ts d3adlin3s for proj3cts. You can s33 wh3r3 I'm going with this.

That got a good laugh out of m3. I do ind33d s33 what you did th3r3.

OT: I actually don't think this should happen and it's not for the reason everyone else thinks: it would effectively give EA control over the majority of the digital market. Ideally, the Justice Department would step in and prevent the deal (like they did with T-Mobile and AT&T a while back), but considering no one politically takes gaming seriously unless blood and boobs are involved, I fear steam would quickly become the thing so many of us hate about origin.

Scary thought ind33d.

 

[WanderingFool]

I totally misread the title the other way around. In my defence, I missed the "by", so what I got was "Valve nearly bought EA for over $1 billion".

Lol. Same here.

Just curious, if EA did have the means to buy Valve, could Valve actually say "Fuck Off"?

 

[Woodsey]

Why is this some massive issue?

Valve make billions of dollars by being the biggest game retailer on the planet.

If EA bought them, why would EA see any reason to interfere with what is obviously very successful? Valve isn't a developer, it's a retailer.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

If this had happened (this was multiple years ago, according to said articles, maybe 5+?) Valve would right about now be producing Free2Play and Facebook games according to the "new company strategy", half their staff would have probably been laid off and Steam merged with Origin in a corporate campaign to "Streamline Digital Distribution" or something.

Hey look, yet another person holding the delusion that EA is evil and Valve is Superman, rather than the reality that both are just neutral and will follow money.

Then again, nobody ever accused gamers of being bright... or sane for that matter.

The difference being that EA are beholden unto shareholders whilst Valve aren't - and are also rich-as-fuck enough to piss about as they see fit anyway (which EA, again, aren't). And have shown they're perfectly happy to develop plentiful amounts of content for absolutely free. And I don't want to start sounding repetitive here, but EA don't, either.

Pretending they're equal is woefully more ignorant of the two companies than what he said - which, whilst probably laying it on a tad thick for the funnies, has plenty of basis in reality. He's also not the one who said a company that develops games isn't a developer.

And no, none of that is asserting them as Superman and Lex Luthor, that's just the result of having some basic knowledge of the two companies.

 

[TrevHead]

This doesn't suprise me, it's what EA does, i'm just glad Valve is a private company and while the current king is around I can't see that happening.

Besides $1 billion seems a tad on the cheap side for Valve and Steam.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Spoiler: How I would have reacted if Valve had been purchased by EA

Spoiler: How I react now

What with EA saying Steam Sales are a bad thing and remembering how Maxis, my first PC developer I fell in love with, was swallowed whole... Let us just say I am grateful this was not a reality.

 

[themilo504]

Why is this some massive issue?

Valve make billions of dollars by being the biggest game retailer on the planet.

If EA bought them, why would EA see any reason to interfere with what is obviously very successful? Valve isn't a developer, it's a retailer.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

If this had happened (this was multiple years ago, according to said articles, maybe 5+?) Valve would right about now be producing Free2Play and Facebook games according to the "new company strategy", half their staff would have probably been laid off and Steam merged with Origin in a corporate campaign to "Streamline Digital Distribution" or something.

Hey look, yet another person holding the delusion that EA is evil and Valve is Superman, rather than the reality that both are just neutral and will follow money.

Then again, nobody ever accused gamers of being bright... or sane for that matter.

I Don?t see Ea as evil(just very stupid) or valve as superman but looking at Ea past record with bought game company?s I?m a bit worried and hope they don?t get their hands on valve maybe it shall bring about a new golden age but I for one highly doubt that.

unlike a lot of people I don?t think bioware is dead and the only thing that really pissed me off about their games the mass effect 3 ending was their idea and they seem to have solved it but even with that in mind I still rather not have ea touch valve.

I?m just cautious that?s all I?m saying.

Btw if you?re the same bhaalspawn from rather vocalized illusions maybe you should make a episode about why you think the ea hate is overblown.

 

[DoPo]

Just curious, if EA did have the means to buy Valve, could Valve actually say "Fuck Off"?

Well, yes. They can. Maybe not precisely with those words but if EA (or whoever) has the money to buy Valve, that doesn't mean they can. It's up to Valve to accept or decline the offer.

 

[Spy_Guy]

Isn't this kind of anti-competitive?
*smells shenanigans*

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