Rumor word coming from Game Guru is that Electronic Arts is in the market, not only for a developer, but also for a gaming engine. Believe it or not, EA is said to be looking to purchase Epic Games and the Unreal Engine. Gasp!Game Guru claims that EA is looking to gobble up developers of established franchises and quality lineups, which Epic Games fits the bill with Gears of War and Unreal Tournament as well as the added bonus of the Unreal Engine. Seeing that EA's attempt at purchasing Take-Two ended in failure, it wouldn't be entirely out of the realm of possibility that EA would ponder the acquisition of a company who's engine (Unreal Engine 3) powers a good chunk of the industry's titles. Just think, the future could see EA owning exclusive rights to Unreal Engine 4 and somehow involved in GoW ... maybe? ... meh!
[Via Game Stooge]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
10-03-2008 @ 2:37PM
hrolf said...
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooo!!
seriously WTF, does anyone else think of them as a monopoly yet? seems like their gonna try to pwn everything they can till its ll cookie cutter crap.
Reply
10-03-2008 @ 2:46PM
LiqwidZero said...
It's more anti-trust in the works rather than a monopolization.
10-03-2008 @ 3:27PM
vanhelsingh said...
please let them make Gears 3 before EA takes over.
10-04-2008 @ 9:27AM
Urza said...
Relax, Tim Sweeney loves what he does too much to sell Epic to EA.
10-03-2008 @ 2:40PM
Mazrael said...
EA destroys games!
Bill Gates will need to get there first if it gets close to happening - and still leave them they're independance..
Mass Effect 2 has less appeal now EA own Bioware.. I'm even a little interested in Dead Space.. but that EA logo on the box would surely be a sign of crapness..
Reply
10-03-2008 @ 2:49PM
Cole Mullenbach said...
Dead space got a 91% in the first review... EA has been making decent games as of late, as long as they arent movie based. Im more worried about the quality of other company's games if this were to happen
10-03-2008 @ 4:34PM
Wii60 said...
Cole,
EA will make a great original game once every 3 years or so. That 91% will get a sequel that earns an 80%. It will still sell a ton of copies. Everything, and I do mean everything, EA is involved with somehow devolves into mediocrity. Furthermore, whenever they get the chance, they will buy another company to either kill competition (NFL 2k) or get a good franchise and cut the budget on the next iteration for a quick buck.
Then there's the DRM schemes....
10-03-2008 @ 2:43PM
LiqwidZero said...
It won't happen.
Reply
10-03-2008 @ 2:45PM
Cole Mullenbach said...
This would be one of the worst things that could happen to video games. The unreal engine powers a good percent of games that are on the market now. EA would then have a monopoly on games now. I could see them not selling the rights to the engine to Activision or Ubisoft because they are afraid of competition
Reply
10-04-2008 @ 10:11AM
L4MB said...
i dunno about that. if you buy a commodity, the whole idea behind it is to sell it to make a profit. and that's true everywhere. i could see them raising the price on using the engine, but to cut out certain publishers? i would doubt it.
but maybe this isn't such a bad thing? maybe somebody builds a new engine...and it's better than what EA currently owns...and then everybody uses that engine...and EA is left holding that multimillion dollar bag and nobody is looking to buy what's in it.
10-03-2008 @ 2:45PM
Carbonize said...
Makes you wonder how many engines EA wishes to own. I mean they already own the CoD engine and the Frostbite engine used in Battlefield: Bad Company.
Reply
10-03-2008 @ 3:34PM
Jez said...
Activision would own the engine to Call of Duty, seeing as they publish it?
10-03-2008 @ 3:37PM
Carbonize said...
Yeah god knows why I said EA. Need to get some sleep I think.
10-03-2008 @ 2:51PM
mike said...
this rumor has to be true, EA would love nothing more than to steal a Huge developer and make gears 3 multi plat, this will be a done deal soon enough.
Reply
10-03-2008 @ 2:55PM
SadisticHam said...
As far as i know Microsoft own the rights.
10-03-2008 @ 3:17PM
{@} said...
Last I checked, they never did, SadisticHam.
10-03-2008 @ 3:46PM
David Kendall said...
If MS don't own the rights to the game, i'm sure they have in a contract to publish gears of war exclusively on the xbox 360 and or pc for 3 titles (gears 1, 2 and 3 for silly people). Personally, I think MS have the same deal with Bioware for Mass Effect. I'm sure MS's lawyers have thought of everything
10-03-2008 @ 11:20PM
Zeus.:God said...
Microsoft DOES own the rights to Gears of War. After all, Microsoft is the one who urged Epic Games to make them an EXCLUSIVE game- Gears of War.
10-03-2008 @ 2:57PM
Steven M said...
noooooooooooooooooo.......if ea actually tries this shit I pray microsoft buys epic to keep the games from becoming yearly gears of war games with only minor graphical and gameplay improvements
Reply
10-03-2008 @ 10:45PM
jarhead906 said...
Isn't that what Gears of War 2 is going to be?
I don't really mean that, but the only real improvement in the game's quality that I can see becoming a reality is the inclusion of an ACTUAL PLOT, even a good one in comparison to other titles.