EA trying to buy Take-Two

When I saw the headline EA makes a bid for Take-Two my reaction was probably the same as millions of gamers across the world. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. This is simply another case of EA trying to buy out the competition. It's a fact that if the buy out goes through that EA will no longer have any competition in the sports game market. Which honestly I could care less about because I don't care a single bit about sports. What does worry me however is that if EA is taking this approach in sports games they will do it with other genre's as well. And as we have all seen EA games suffer in quality and no I don't consider Burnout a EA game yes it is released by EA but Burnout was great even before EA bought Criterion.

Another thing I don't like is that EA are franchise whores and not the good kind like Square-Enix. Whereas SE will take years to get a game right and make it perfect EA spits out yearly crap piles just to make money. Just think would Bioshock be good if they released it every year? No it would get worn out and start to suck. And if EA gets their hands on Take-Two that will no doubt happen. Some will say but what about Dead Space and Army of Two those look like good original EA games. On the surface that may be true but Army of Two was delayed by a massive amount of time and a lot of rumors spread that it was because the game was so bad. As for Dead Space I simply see that as a Bioshock ripoff with a bit of Resident Evil and space thrown in just to look original. Granted that both these games could be great and prove me wrong but if that happens then they too will fall victim to being whored out year after year.

It scares me to think that in 50 years the only company in gaming would be EA. While thats a little extreme is it really that hard to imagine? If that was to happen the only good new and original games would be coming from Japan as I doubt EA could buy many companies there. The sad part is that most of these buyouts do benefit the share holders of the companies being bought and as such they could care less about the industry as long as they get paid. It's sad that if EA wants to keep doing this that there is really no way to stop them. EA CEO John Riccitiello has said it's not about killing off competition but to me thats exactly what it is. I mean look at Madden after EA bought the NFL exclusivity the Madden games have been the same old same old each year just roster updates and not much more. With the amount of money EA has why don't they just use it to make better games and prove to people they aren't trying to become a monopoly. I guess that is just wishful thinking. I guess the only thing we can hope for is that if buyouts continue like this that Microsoft and Sony get there first at least games wont fall as far that way.

UPDATE: While not much related to the purchase of Take-Two this does seem funny. As I stated in my article EA buying Take-Two would eliminate sports game competition. Not true says EA CEO John Riccitiello stating that Wii Sports and Hot Shots Golf would be there main rivals. I got a good laugh out of that. Wii sports isn't competition as everyone who owns a Wii owns Wii sports. Hot Shots Golf is a great game but in no way tries to be a Golf simulator as Tiger Woods does. Obviously John was stretching here to defend the decision to purchase Take-Two.