Sorry, but hear hear.
That just had to be said.
Sorry, but hear hear.
That just had to be said.
Sorry if this has been mentioned already, but Gamespot is hosting an interesting interview with the CEO of Ubisoft concerning the recent acquisitions by EA.
It’s only a matter of time before EA buys a majority share of Ubisoft’s stock if you ask me…
Unless the founders increase their own share enough to prevent this. After all, Ubisoft is a healthy company and is making a nice profit so financially they aren’t in the same situation as Sega vs Sammy. Also, the other shareholders may not be so eager to sell their shares since Ubisoft has been doing fine without EA’s “help”.
EDIT: It seems Ubisoft might get help to prevent a takeover from EA: http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/041230/323/f9e6u.html
It all depends on how much EA is willing to spend on acquiring a controlling stack in Ubisoft.
As for whether or not people are willing to sell their shares, the best time to sell shares is when a company has reached its peak.
EA bought Westwood Studios from Virgin even though Westwood was making tons of money for Virgin. That was the perfect time to sell Westwood since it was simply worth more at that time. The same holds true for Ubisoft; now is the best time to sell.
Having said that, I hope that other shareholders resist the temptation to sell their stock to EA: I have no desire to see anymore creative developers be assimilated by the EA collective. If EA does buy a controlling stack in Ubisoft I really think that someone should step in. Of course, if you think about it, there’s not much separating EA from Ubisoft. How many Tom Clancy games have we seen from Ubisoft so far, and how many more will we see?
True, but who says Ubisoft reached its peak?
But I don’t remember seeing a game like Beyond Good & Evil from EA (ironically one of the few games from Ubisoft that wasn’t successful…). Ubisoft may be making a lot of sequels, but it seems that’s the only way to survive.
Ubisoft could be more valuable now at the dawn of the next generation of consoles than ever. All the Tom Clancy and Prince of Persia games published by Ubisoft so far have been million-hit sellers; I don’t think those games can be any more popular.
As for Ubisoft being more creative than EA, I’m not convinced. You may be right though.
I didn’t see this anywhere yet but EA approched the NBA with the same type of deal that they have with the NFL. Luckly the NBA declined.
Yeah I had read that before.
[quote=“Geoffrey Duke”]Ubisoft could be more valuable now at the dawn of the next generation of consoles than ever. All the Tom Clancy and Prince of Persia games published by Ubisoft so far have been million-hit sellers; I don’t think those games can be any more popular.
As for Ubisoft being more creative than EA, I’m not convinced. You may be right though.[/quote]
I thought Prince of Persia (the original) was a flop in terms of sales…
Not a flop. Just disappointing in comparison to expectations.
Businesses have to project their expected revenues to stockholders and whatnot… and when actual sales don’t meet the business plan, the pain starts.
Well, official sales figures released by Ubisoft itself state that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time sold a combined total of 2.4 million copies world-wide.
Do correct me if I’m wrong, anyone.
[quote=“Geoffrey Duke”]Well, official sales figures released by Ubisoft itself state that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time sold a combined total of 2.4 million copies world-wide.
Do correct me if I’m wrong, anyone.[/quote]
Intresting, the magazines were always going on about how Ubisoft should improve thebrand image for 2 to stop it being another flop, but it seems it did quite well. Shame Beyond Good and Evil (definately a finacial flop) did so poorly though.
Quite possible. US sales were very close to 1 million across all three platforms (by the end of November… doubt they’ve changed much, since POP2 was just released).
So, like I said, not a flop, but from what I’ve heard, Ubi expected much more. Still, initial sales for POP were very disappointing, but word of mouth kept the sales going long enough to make up for a lot of that.
Even if EA buys Ubisoft, how long until EA gets bought out by microsoft, “Theres always a bigger fish”.
…
Well it proved that they could n’t compete with Sega’s superior sports games so they took the brand reconigtion away from them. Maybe this will
the perfect chance to bring back JOE MONTANA FOOTBALL for the new generation. EA can’t buy his name now can they…
Gamefaq’s poll today was quite enlightening. Last I looked, 43% of voters picked the option “EA is the devil and ESPN just sold their soul”.