MCV

This would be epic.

EA buying Take Two is incredibly bad for the games industry I have a hard time getting to grips that anyone would support this knowing how bad EA are at gaming in general, it will dawn the end of GTA and other great titles that come out of Take Two.

Nonsense. EA are obviously not bad at gaming as they sell so many games. Admittedly, many aren't to my taste, but equally many are. When/if EA buys Take 2 the last thing they're gonna do is mess around with the GTA team or the GTA formula.

Well if EA do get it then I'm going to be boycotting the game. I barely played San Andreas and was only going to get GTA IV as it's the first GTA game for the PS3. And as I don't want to give EA any more of my cash, I just won't buy it. Any one else care to follow my example?

Dudette, how can u say that ea are good at making games

Why does EA have to be hostile about this? I dont understand, they so desperate in acquiring a really good IP. The fact that they are showing their hostile nature like this makes them look evil, corporate and very greedy! This does not help them with their already tarnished profile.

@4

Absolutely not. That would be stupid. I want to play the game. I don't care whether Rockstar, EA, Coca Cola or Holland & Barrett publish it. Why on earth would I want to boycott EA, anyway?

I'll be buying it whatever. If I didn't want to give EA any more of my cash, then I would hardly buy any games at all; EA own stock in many companies and I'm sure other companies own stock in EA etc etc. Thing is, if the game is good and I want to play it, who cares where it is from.

@5

The Sims, Burnout, Rock Band, FIFA, Command & Conquer, Mass Effect (on PC), Battlefield, The Orange Box, Tiger Woods.

And I quite liked Army of Two and Medal of Honor: Airborne. And Spore, Dead Space, Mirros Edge and Mercenaries 2 look amazing.

That enough for you?

what a piece of **** they should just **** off and make sports games leave gta alone

Since the Activision / Vivendi deal the industry is now going through a period of consolidation.

EA admitted they made mistakes with Origin and Bullfrog - lets hope they do not stifle the Rockstar talent.

Thanks, gavnesbitt, for adding such a thought-provoking element to this debate.

Right....

EA are a publisher people, they don't make the games. Sure they have financial influence on devs, but If you're under any impression that ea are going to seize creative control of the gta franchise you're greatly mistaken...

Oh my god! I can’t believe what I’m reading! EA games are so mediocre! It won’t be the end of the GTA series, but I’m sure it will be the end of them being any good. They will probably end up making one every year and calling them ‘GTA 2009’ and ‘GTA 2010’ and so on!! This is very bad news for all GTA lovers!!

Some of you are clearly missing the point, games such as Orange box and Mass Effect will only be published by EA and won't have any negative effect on these games as a whole. The uproar is that an EA rep announced that EA can and intend to continue the GTA series without the input of developers Rockstar and this will in fact will completely change GTA completely. They also announced they intend to release a new GTA ip every two years which virtually means they will keep the same old GTA for years to come and won't add any new features whatsoever, like what is happening with The SIms. I can only speak for myself but the thing which has hyped me about each GTA release has been new added features such as helicopters in Vice city or swimming in San Andreas, if EA take over GTA will never be the same again.

My main concern with this takeover is not in regards to GTA at all. As someone has already pointed out, EA would not be foolish enough to mess with this team/game (we hope).
I think the biggest risk is in regards to the quality of sports games in the market, as this acquisition effectively removes 2K Sports as EA's main competitor - I fear innovation in the sporting genre is more at risk following this than IP such as GTA.
However, I do not think EA are as bad as people point out - did Burnout deteriorate after the acquisition of Criterion ? I think not.
Calls for a boycott are foolish - I, as someone else has already said, will be buying GTA IV on day one - regardless of who the publisher is.
I am not sure whether the total dislike of EA is really warranted - this appears to be just the usual case of people knocking down the tallest poppy (well second tallest until the acquisition goes through). I agree that some of their annual "updates" lack originality or true innovation, but many of their other IP are actually quite good, and am sure if most of us stop frothing at the mouth and pause to look at our games collections we will see that we have more than a few EA published games in there.
Happy Easter.

No thank you. It's another case of corporate monopoly. I say that EA be broken up as this hostile takeover is a bad move for the creative games industry. EA is a company only concerned with making as much money as possible and are happy to destroy the talent that has made the industry.

Fantastic News!

Does this mean we can look forward to EA dumping loads of GTA 4 stock through ASDA, that retails at cost price.

£37.97 is not a sustainable price point for a PS3 game when the trade cost is £32+Vat!

Win win situation for me as both EA and Rockstar are great publishers/distributors.

Im looking forward to GTA4: 2009 street edition with EA Trax

ITS IN THE GAME!

EA is getting GTA? I guess that means we will have GTA 5 in 2009, GTA 6 in 2010, 7 in 2011, and so forth. Every game will be exactly the same, with a small tweak to the graphics and one new feature per installment. If we are lucky, they will add a new weapon and maybe a car or two each year.

I could see major players in the GTA franchise leaving if EA aquired them. Just my opinion.

Just look what happened to bullfrog... etc

If you **** with my gta, I will kick your ass.

We need another industry crash, one that wipes out EA.

Have none of you realised that Take2 aren't that far from EA? They have made the two worst GTA games ever Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories. Fair enough the games aren't too bad on the PSP but they only brought them out on PS2 to make a few $$$. EA aren't stupid and have probably learnt from their mistakes with Bullfrog as we can see with Critereon. They may bring out mini GTA games but that's no different from Take2 at the moment. As with the sports games they may become more competitive because they are only competing with themselves so if they get more people buying sports games then they will make more money whichever brand they buy.

Look... EA is not the ONLY company that wants money. I understand where everyone is coming from, and to be honest... I truly believe EA will destroy RockStar. To be completely honest, my favorite games are GTA3, Vice City, San An., Liberty CS and Vice CS. I have them on my PSP, PS2 and I have completely paid for my PS3 version of GTA4.

With that being said, once they are published on EA, which 9 times out of 10 they will. I will not buy the game until I see a user review. For the simple fact, I purchase Sony products for GTA. Not Xbox of Nintendo. Sony.

EA has an image, they don't produce games that give them bad publicity. Unlike Rockstar, who are always under the gun from critics and governments for that matter? We all also know that Rockstar spin-offs of games are just as good as the original. EA spin-offs are ****ing ***... GTA:IV Streets?!?!?!

I don’t care how any of you feel. EA will destroy Rockstar, but you can believe the employees of Rockstar will most likely go to INSOMNIAC. The reason being, Rockstar confirmed that they was make their next batch of IPs exclusively to Sony. After that, they will remake GTA into something completely better.

EA will have to bit the bullet and it will be one of them laugh now cry later kind of things. The gaming industry will be hurt for a little bit, but back and stronger for other companies, where EA will be trying to sell GTA:V, and I wont but it.

@tha_last_romeo

huh ???

@ junk

you said "As with the sports games they may become more competitive because they are only competing with themselves"

all i can say to that comment is also "huh" ? if you are competing with yourself that is a monopoly. Monopolies are generally bad for competition.

What's the fuss? Rockstar aren''t that good. Manhunt sucks. San Andreas was pretty awful, Vice City is the only GTA I could bear to play for more than sixty seconds these days.

They use the controversy with each game they make to hide the fact that really they aren't all that.

EA do publish "upgraded" games every year, they're famous for it. But so do Activision, Ubisoft, and Take 2.

GTA is a massive IP, it's not a football or racing game and therefore yearly updates would not be on the publisher's agenda. EA actually publish decent games, and that includes their yearly updates. FIFA Street 3 is pretty entertaining. Fifa 2008 was better than Pro Evo... then you've got Burnout, The Orange Box, Mass Effect, Command and Conquer...

They do some naff movie ports certainly, and even they're not as bad as Vivendi's efforts, but they're actually a really good publisher, with a lot of money and a lot of support from within the industry.

GTA will not suffer under EA.
What about the upcoming Spore?

Please god don't let EA get anything. EA is considered the worst gaming company in the world i agree. If they publish GTA omg they will just destroy the GTA game trust me. I will hack EA if they get GTA and publish the game online for free i swear.

EA just signed on with that AD company(s)( IGA and Massive)Just think of the comical aspects being thrown out the door on GTA IV like the commericals on the radio or ads on billboards. That's not even including games they make...