Digital Illusions Sells to EA

A story we have reported on frequently in the last few months comes to an end as Digital Illusions accepts EA's bid for buyout. From the article at GameGossip: "Corresponding to 32.0% of outstanding capital and votes, in addition to a further acquisition of 898,264 shares and the 18.9% already held by the company, Electronic Arts now holds a total of 6,044,720 shares, a controlling interest representing 59.8% of the outstanding capital and votes in DICE."

Tired of EA

[_RiZ_]

Im so tired of EA. They may release 1 out of every 3 or 4 games in total, but its just plain sickening. I would rather have a fewer number of good games rather than a higher number of not so good games. By them buying up all the other game dev shops around, it is pretty much going to ensure that the indie developer and the small developer either get bought up and eaten by gamezilla, or are not able to compete even with a good game. bleh.

Ah... let the cancer grow

[VoxVeritas]

Does anyone at EA realize that you can be too big? Look at Walmart. Walmart can't do anything right because every group in the world is watching them. Soon EA will have everybody watching them. You get too big, you have to keep gobbling everything up just to stay alive. Long live the indies!

Bad news for the industry...

[Jaxine]

The thing that makes me so upset about this is that it strangles creativity and innovation.

Small companies have to struggle to survive. So, these smaller game houses have to be creative and they have to find new/efficient ways of accomplishing their goals. The ones that survive are going to be able to produce quality games.

When the smaller companies get swallowed up by EA, it seems that they are basically told what to make. A sequel to a popular title that was, itself, a sequel. They are given better resources, but that only snuffs out innovation, but their creativity can still shine through. EA puts out many good games. And every so often they put out a great game. But overall, I feel it stagnates the market to have such a monopolistic market share.

There's only so far it should legally be allowed to go.

Indie Markets

[BrookHarty]

Maybe Indie markets should get together and make an association to help sell games and fight EA. An example of how this helps, IGA, Independent Grocers of Association gives supermarkets around the world have the same buying power as Walmart. They need the same buying power to compete against the larger chains. They can buy the same products and get better discounts with the associations help.

If your business is being ran out, or bought out by a larger corporation, maybe its time to form some association so you can stay independent and maintain your business presence.

It will be interesting to see how mergers and buyouts change the world in the next 10 years, and how smaller companies react.