MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
As part of its freshly announced intentions to snap up Rockstar (and thus Grand Theft Auto) owner Take 2, EA has launched a new website dedicated exclusively to the news. The main text of the open letter from EA CEO John Riccitillo can be found here. Elsewhere on the site, …
Read More »EA offers to buy Take Two for $2bn
Electronic Arts has made public an offer to acquire rival publisher Take Two for around $2bn, revealing that the two have been in talks to merge, although the GTA publisher has so far spurned EA’s advances. The all cash merger has been proposed by EA CEO John Riccitiello at $26 …
Read More »Riccitiello to Zelnick – that letter in full
Following on from the news that EA would like to buy Take Two, we’re publishing in full the letter from Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello to Take Two exec chairman Strauss Zelnick outlining why the merger would be beneficial to all: February 19, 2008 Mr. Strauss ZelnickExecutive Chairman of the …
Read More »Riccitiello: EAs review scores are unacceptable
In a recent meeting with Wall Street analysts, EA boss John Riccitiello has stated that the company’s dropping average review score is the most important problem facing the firm. Reuters reports much of Ricitiello’s presentation concerned review aggregation site Metacritic, whose average score for EA’s software in 2007 fell from …
Read More »‘Centralising tools and creative management doesn’t work’ – Riccitiello
More talk from EA CEO on how publisher is changing its approach to development
Read More »Spore also heading to next-gen consoles
With a European release date of September 5th being set for EA’s massively hyped Spore on PC, Mac and DS just hours ago, talk has already shifted to the possibility of Will Wright’s epic arriving on other platforms. Spanish site Revogamers quotes an EA rep as saying that the Wii …
Read More »Pandemic working on LOTR title?
A recent analyst report from EA has let slip that recently-acquired development studio Pandemic is working on a Lord of the Rings title, according to Kotaku . Pandemic rose to fame following its sterling work on war zone sandbox title Mercenaries and multiplayer shooter Star Wars: Battlefront. Nothing is known …
Read More »European Spore release date announced
One of the most highly anticipated PC games of all time, Will Wright’s Spore, will be released in Europe on September 5th – and the shock news is that the DS incarnation will arrive alongside the PC and Mac releases. Also surprising is the fact that European gamers will be …
Read More »Riccitiello: EA made mistakes with studio acquisitions
Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello has admitted the company made mistakes when it acquired well-known developers. Speak at DICE last week, he said that integrating the teams at independents such as Bullfrog, Westwood and Origin ultimately stifled the creative talent there: "We at EA blew it, and to a degree …
Read More »EA CEO: “We blew it,” when it came to acquisitions
Riccitiello admits to DICE audience that publisher fumbled integrating the likes of Bullfrog, Westwood and Origin
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