Take-Two turns town EA aqusition

Apparently, it didn’t take them very long to consider Electronic Arts’ somewhat hostile buyout proposal — Take-Two’s Board of Directors just responded to the offer with a press release of their own, stating that EA CEO John Riccitiello’s proposal was “inadequate in multiple respects and not in the best interests of Take-Two’s stockholders.”

While EA’s proposal listed Grand Theft Auto IV as a primary reason for the merger, as Riccitiello claimed EA could lend their help during the game’s quickly approaching release, Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two’s executive chairman, listed GTAIV as the primary reason why they wouldn’t want to merge at this point in time, fully expecting to increase their overall value when the game hits store shelves come April 29.

Zelnick’s laundry list of reasons why the buyout wouldn’t benefit his company can be found on the press release. For now, let us rejoice in the postponement of the seemingly inevitable future where one superconglomerated gaming publisher/developer controls all game releases on the planet.

Personally, I am getting a little tired of EA simply trying to compensate for talent by buying up gaming studios that turn out some really good games. Don’t get me wrong, EA has its gems too. But year after year, they continue to produce games that are consistently mediocre. The only reasons, it seems, that EA does turn out some good games are that they 1) Produce a huge number of games every year, and a few happen to be good, and 2) They buy out studios that already are making some great games, and then rake in the cash from those franchises. I understand it is EA’s right to buy studios, that it is a free market, and that competition breeds better products-all of those things are good, but I’m just saying, Electronic Arts is a little too arrogant for my tastes.

This is Kolametal, signing off.