Activision/Vivendi to set an industry trend?
- Posted December 4th, 2007 at 08:28 EDT by
- 19 Comments
Most people are probably still stunned over the recent Activision and Vivendi merger, either in a positive or negative way. This deal has taken away the glory spot from Electronic Arts as the largest videogame publisher in the world. More than that however, is the fact that this deal could create a trend for future publishers to consider in the future.
"We believe the deal could have significant repercussions in the VG industry - forcing accelerated consolidation potentially with other publishers." Says Ben Feder, Take-Two CEO, "Videogame development is not getting any cheaper. It's a capital-intensive business, and I don't see that going away. That will drive some of the smaller competitors out [...] I do believe that consolidation ultimately is inevitable."
So what does this mean exactly? Well to summarize, the videogame industry is becoming substantially larger than it once was, bearing far more resemblance to the music and film industry, which are run predominately by large corporations. The gaming industry has historically been known for being comprised of smaller business, but due to growth of the years, these smaller companies face the only option of merging or being bought out for the simple fact that they cannot adapt.
This could become a trend that we will see in the years to come as before this merger, EA bought out the holding group that owns Pandemic and Bioware, which was just as equally large.
We will keep you updated on anything else that comes from the Activision and Vivendi merger.
Source: IGN
Comments
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Untildeath89 |
willmakenewonesoon- 8:38am GMT - December 4th, 2007
- 2
yup i believe it 2, since 20mill isnt easy money and if company like EA creating so many sh** games have done good fo the few games they made, smaller groups in bigger companies can live safe by the reputation of their owners
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PS3-The Ultimate Machine
- 8:39am GMT - December 4th, 2007
- 3
Why doesn't EA just merge with Ubi,it already holds some substantial shares in it.
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RichMacca
- 12:28pm GMT - December 4th, 2007
- 10
Oligopoly of 3rd Publishers is the future, think EA, Activision/Blizzard, Ubisoft owning everything, with new studios starting up then getting bought out to work under one of the big companys unmbrella.
Games are to expensive nowadys for small independent devs or pubisher to make any serious money without help of the big guy behind them
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KingOfNorCal
- 3:12pm GMT - December 4th, 2007
- 14
Well I for one am scared on this whole topic. Games like Call of Duty and Guitar Hero (my two most potent addictions I might add,) take much longer than a year to design, build, test and ship so this could be a detriment to quality. I am sure hoping not. Well for now, let us enjoy what is still some of the best gaming to be found.,, On all systems.
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parker
- 4:46pm GMT - December 4th, 2007
- 15
I cannot believe more people aren’t concerned/scared as to what this trend of mergers means for the industry. More independent companies translates to more diversity and innovation. Having 3 or 4 mega corporations controlling everything is bad for the industry and ultimately us. We are going to get less of the (risky) truly original games and more of the (safe) same old rehashed garbage. I think we are looking at the beginnings of a dark time for the game industry.
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Naucious23 |
Naucious- 10:37pm GMT - December 4th, 2007
- 17
@ deldwen
yeah ive been thinking the same thing as well but your right the industry is becoming so massive that it's going to be hard to get your game developed unless you have the mulah to produce it. As for me I have a ton of ideas for gaming namely ones for rpg and fps but difficult to see if my game became a reality with the industry growing so big.
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MatrixSixaxis
- 4:09am GMT - December 5th, 2007
- 19
Well, I guess anything is almost possible these days! Imagine a joint venture between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray...well, actually there was already a past opportunity for that! Years ago the possibility of Sega and also Sony joining with Nintendo didn't happen!?! Car companies aren't much different either though.
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