OT: 2k Hoops in jeopardy?

[LISTEN2JAZZ]

I know many of you - like me - love the 2k hoops games. EA just made an offer to buy out Take Two at 50% premium to the market price.

If EA owns both that game and NBA Live, what reason would they have to continue making two different games? It would be much more cost effective to just make one of the games.

I assume that if this deal goes through, one of the games will be discontinued. NBA Live has better name recognition, so I assume that game will survive as opposed to 2k. Now will EA admit that the competition's game was better, and just re-name that one, or will they continue making a crappy game and eliminate the competition?

I hope that at the very least they will give the more-talented developers at 2k new jobs over at EA Vancouver.

The video game industry is consolidating in the same way that the music industry did previously. Everything will eventually go boil down to EA/Take Two, Activision/Blizzard, Microsoft, Nintendo, and I assume Sony (though I don't know for sure if Sony makes their own games).

[Superfito]

Take Two rejected EA's takeover bid.

[LISTEN2JAZZ]

Take Two rejected EA's takeover bid.

Initial bids are almost always rejected as a formality, even if the offers are extremely generous - see Yahoo vs Microsoft. But in the end, Take Two is a money-losing company, and EA could buy the entire thing in cash.

I haven't read TTWO's annual report in a while, so I don't recall whether they have a poison pill in place, but it's possible that EA could just become TTWO's largest shareholder for $150 million on the open market, and then force out any board members who oppose a takeover.

[Superfito]

Take Two has not been very good to its shareholders over the past few years, but with 2k Sports, GTA, Bioshock, Firaxis (Sid Meyer games), and some other good looking upcoming releases, there's really no reason that Take Two can't survive on their own. Unfortunately, there's still a good chance that something will happen because their shareholders probably don't want to be patient at this point.

[LISTEN2JAZZ]

Take Two has not been very good to its shareholders over the past few years, but with 2k Sports, GTA, Bioshock, Firaxis (Sid Meyer games), and some other good looking upcoming releases, there's really no reason that Take Two can't survive on their own.

I'm not sure whether I agree or not. GTA makes a lot of money, but they lose money during any year without a release of that game. I don't think they make much money from the sports games - that's why they allowed EA to grab exclusive rights to NFL and NCAA; after paying for the rights there wasn't a lot of money left over.

[BrewCityBBQ]

Can't beat em, buy em out.

[showtimesam]

I'm not worried...
Even if nba 2k is now named live, there's no way they'd use their own engine over the one take-two has in place. Its far superior, and EA would be dumb not to use it.

It would still suck though because less competition is always bad.

[Superfito]

I'm not worried...
Even if nba 2k is now named live, there's no way they'd use their own engine over the one take-two has in place. Its far superior, and EA would be dumb not to use it.

It would still suck though because less competition is always bad.

You'd be real surprised. They would probably absorb some of 2k Sports staff though.

[LISTEN2JAZZ]

In the past when EA bought out developers, they tried to convert them to the EA way of doing things (which basically means more staff on each game, and moving through the development cycle at a quicker pace to not miss release dates). The developers from the company that got bought out then quit, and the company EA owns is not the company that they paid for. Maybe they've learned their lesson.

[Red Vines]

NBA Live is to 2K what AirTran is to Midwest.

[crackjack]

If they got rid of the 2k games, I'd be quite upset.

Then, I'd force myself to buy NBA Live, though, since I'm such a sports video game nut.

I'll still be mad as I'm paying for it, though.

[6_Rings]

classic 'if u cant beat em join em' move by EA.