Warren Jenson elaborates on publisher's acquisitive strategy
Electronic Arts CFO Warren Jenson has said that EA is keen to add key Take Two creative personnel – whom he terms “diamonds” – into the publisher’s global distribution system.
IGN reports that Jenson talked at length on EA’s desire to buyout Take Two whilst speaking to industry analysts at the 2008 Morgan Stanley Technology Conference.
When asked whether a number of the creative talents currently on Take-Two’s roster would want to leave the firm should EA acquire it, Jenson said: "We consider the people at Take-Two as diamonds."
He added that properties such as BioShock, Midnight Club and Max Payne wouldn’t be able to fulfill their true potential under Take-Two’s current "sub-scale" distribution operation.
Thanks to Next-Gen for spotting the story.
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Comments
Diamonds?
Take Twos staff are diamonds? so what are EA's staff then?
I wonder if Westwood and Bullfrog staff still told the same thing?
Sub-scale is surely preferable to EA's business model
I'm not so sure that churning out yearly sequels to well established franchises, as no doubt EA would like, is the right way to 'fulfill their true potential'.
EA trying to purchase every studio that makes a game they like that they don't publish is a worrying precedent. It promotes stagnancy in the industry, and a common belief that it is perfectly acceptable to make annual updates rather than promote originality and new IP's. I'd rather there still be some creativity in more studios than see it stifled under one mega-brand. There are only so many 'hip', EA Trax'ed games a man can take.
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