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That would be awful...

http://slashdot.org/articles/03/01/22/22...ml?tid=127
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/r/?..._story.php(que)id=85976
http://www.ve3d.com/Comments.aspx?ID=2217&contenttype=1

Oh, if you don't know, Vivendi Games includes Sierra and Blizzard primarially. As well as Universal Games, and maybe one or two other ones...

I really hope this doesn't happen, but given how the rumors have been around for months (Vivendi Games has been rumored to be on the sales block since last summer, when Vivendi was revealed to be losing a lot of money), they're getting a lot worse now... :(

I bet if this does happen Starcraft Ghost will suddenly go X-Box only... and who know about Blizz's GBA titles... This is not good!

Oh, I did first see this a few days ago, but now the news has spread a lot more and seems to be growing in credibility... :(

Edit: The only reason I doubt this is that last I heard the Vivendi CEO said he wasn't selling the games division -- just other stuff. However, if someone offered enough money, I'd think he might change his mind...

Oh, one more thing. In those reports of this, a lot of them seem to have the mistaken idea that Vivendi owns Valve (you know, they made Half-Life). They don't... they only publish Valve games. They do own the Half-Life name, I think, but not Valve...
The name is all they would need to secure sales for the game, though. :) Besides, Valve would have a contractual agreement to make games for Sierra, which if Sierra were bought (through Vivendi) would have to be carried over to the new company, no?

This would be good for Microsoft, particularly in say... Korea :D

But I don't think even Microsoft would be willing to spend the 1.5 - 2 billion $$$$$ for Vivendi.

Although to add fuel to the fire, almost all of Vivendi's PS2 and GCN games have been cancelled (according to EBGames.com). Including Starcraft: Ghost.

Hmm..
*is one step closer to buying X-Box*
*another reason to hate Microsoft*

Ugh... I don't want to think about what Blizzard will be like under new Microsoft management. I've read now that its official that Vivendi will sell Blizzard, but all the suitors (which I believe Nintendo is not one of them), are not the ones I would like to see Blizzard work under. I can imagine how a rushed Warcraft or Starcraft game would be... and thats given that Blizzard delays games even worst than Nintendo does - anywhere up to 2 years for every title they've worked on, and thats not a whole lot of titles they've worked on.

Well if you ask me, Nintendo got a lot of money from selling RARE, why not try it here ? Of course, Nintendo would be the last company I'd expect to make a move like this anyhow.
I'd say that Nintendo should jump in and try to buy them, but they simply don't have that kind of money to shell out. MS on the other hand does.
Nintendo have about 8 Billion dollars sitting in the bank..

They could shell it out if they wanted.
I think it's closer to 6 billion.

They COULD spend that kind of money, but throwing out almost a third of your money isn't the smartest thing you could do. Smart for the long term maybe.
bill gates has more than 6 billion in his personal bank account...
Quote:Originally posted by big guy
bill gates has more than 6 billion in his personal bank account...


How do you know that?

I'd say he'd have way more than six billion in assets, and invested (way more), but actually IN his bank account?
Hmm maybe if MS buys them out they will still be allowed to make PC games for windows only but not Mac
Yeah, PC development would certainly continue. MS already makes a lot of PC games, so I just don't understand why anyone would think that those games would go console-only... sure, it makes them more likely to get later console ports, but console-only? Not when they are games that CLEARLY belong primarially on PCs! MS knows this, and releases PC games on PCs and console games on consoles... except for Halo, but that game worked well on consoles too. Warcraft/Starcraft don't, as the PSX and N64 ports prove quite conclusively.

Oh, and Nintendo wouldn't buy a primarially PC developer. They've never made a PC game before so I don't think they'd consider starting now... unfortunately. I bet that Nintendo PC ports would be VERY successful, even more than Sega's... Sega obviously makes money off them because they keep porting some games to PC (some Dreamcast ones included... I recently saw Crazy Taxi's PC version for under $20 in Gamestop, and those Genesis collections are cheap too.. not to mention several Sonic Genesis, Sega CD, and Saturn games...). Capcom, too, ports some games to PC...

Anyway, Nintendo hasn't done that before and isn't a PC publisher so I'd say they are out.

No, it'll either be MS, EA, or Sony... those are really the only ones with the cash and the will to buy it. None of those are good choices... two are competing consoles I don't have, and the other has a TERRIBLE history with buying and gutting great developers (See: Bullfrog and Origin, for starters...). Sure, Maxis is currently OK under EA control, but Origin and Bullfrog were for the first few years too... :(
I know! The same thing happened with Bungie! I would go into a rant about this but I already did it at Nintendophiles so instead of forcing you to read my rant I'll just give you a <a href=http://forums.n-philes.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7383&perpage=15&pagenumber=3>link</a> to the thread I posted about this in.
Thought of another one... Psygnosis. They've been completely dissasembled by Sony. Anyone remember when in the '80s and well into the '90s Psygnosis was a PC developer first and console second? They were... then Sony came in and started taking over. The last PC games Sony allowed them to publish came out several years ago -- Lemmings Revolution and Death Track Racing (the renamed version of Rollcage Stage 2). Since then? PSX/2 only...

I bet that in a few years Maxis might come apart. (by that I mean Will Wright might leave... he really IS Maxis...) Richard Garriott left Origin after a while under EA control. Same with Chris Roberts (Origin's Wing Commander) and Peter Molyneux with Bullfrog... or Sid Meier when Microprose was bought...

The only good sign for that kind of thing is Blizz has some big names but not one single person considered a clearly top member... Also, they've been owned by corporations for years. Davidson bought them years ago... then Havas, then CUC, now Vivendi. And Blizz hasn't changed. However, none of those were really gaming companies... Davidson was closest and it was mostly productivity/educational products. A MS or EA is different... they are gaming-focused. Still... all we can do is hope that either this fails, isn't true, or if it does happen that Blizz won't become the next Origin or Bullfrog or Microprose.

Oh, and other than Ghost being cancelled for Cube and PS2, the other immediate MS thing would almost certainly be the removal of Mac versions of any future Blizz games.
Seriously, if Vivendi was bought by MS and Blizzard didn't make any more Mac games I would be incredibly pissed off. Looks like I going to go into my rant despite myself. Bungie was an awesome supporter of Macs. They started out producing games soley for Macs. Pathways Into Darkness was their first popular game and it was Mac-only (for a while at least, not sure if it ever made it to the PC.) The Marathon series, though, really put them in the limelight. The first Marathon game started Mac-only but it became so popular that they ported it to the PC. The Marathon trilogy sold great for Bungie and eventually forced them to make their games for PCs as well as Macs, which I didn't have a problem with since they made their games for the Mac first, or they made hybrid CDs. When Halo was first revealed it was shown running on Macs at one of the Mac World Expos. Then MS bought them out, and there is no chance I will see another Bungie game on the Mac. One thing that really pissed me off when I played through Halo was that I could tell how MS influenced them to rush the game. Bungie had never been a company that would rush a game. They were almost as bad as Rare in the fact that they strived to perfect their games. The first Myth RTS game was in development for years and it turned out to be one of the few games that I enjoyed so much that I played it online. When playing Halo I could tell that some of the later levels were rushed through. It just didn't have the same polish of past Bungie games, and I really hate MS for doing that to them. Sure the game sold great, and is a good game, but I cannot get myself to enjoy it because of the high level I used to hold Bungie to.

Blizzard has been a great supporter of the Mac as well. Although they took a while to bring Starcraft to the Mac, they generally release hybrid CDs that allow their games to be played on PCs and Macs. Blizzard games, the Civilization games, the Sim games, and Master of Orion III when it comes out are the only games I consider getting for my computer. There are a lot of others out there that look interesting, but I generally don't have enough time to devote to both console and PC gaming. If Vivendi gets bought out, there will almost be no reasons left for me to pursue computer gaming. I seriously hope this doesn't happen, as it just makes me not like Microsoft even more.
It'll just make "Mac Gamer" even more of an oxymoron than it already is... :)

Sure, Windows isn't that good, but its worlds better than MacOS... and for gaming? There is only one choice.
Lemmings was created by DMA design (the guys that made Silicon Valley, Body Harvest, and the GTA games). Psygnosis just published Lemmings. But that's what you meant, right ABF?
[i]
Quote:Sure, Windows isn't that good, but its worlds better than MacOS... and for gaming? There is only one choice.

It's obivous that Windows is better for gaming, but you're going to have to back up saying that it's better in general. When is the last time you used a Mac? I'm assuming it's pre-OS X, which I would agree wasn't as good as Windows.
maybe not in his bank account...but i read somewhere that bill gates was worth about $50 billion. you know, just him, not microsoft corporation...just the one man.

i said bank account because it sounded nice
He has $6 billion in his bank account. The other $44 billion he keeps in the dresser and cookie jar. :D
That's got to be one giant cookie jar.
and just think if it was filled with cookies...that'd be something.
Mmmmmmmmmmm.
At first, I thought EA would be the best if either EA, Sony, or Microsoft had to buy it... but then when I think about it, any of those would be really scary. Lets look at the record.

EA: Has bought up Origin, Bullfrog, Maxis, and Westwood, as major purchases.

Sony: Bought Psygnosis (I don't know if Verant was always an internal Sony studio or not).

Microsoft: Bought Digital Anvil, Ensemble, and Bungie.

Hmm... and the results. Psygnosis? Still making games... but PS2 only. The PC division is dead... and the studio is now called Sony Somethingorother.

Digital Anvil? Well, they managed to finish FreeLancer and StarLancer, but Chris Roberts left, meaning they are without their star developer...

Ensemble? Still fine (they made Age of Empires and Age of Mythology).

Bungie? I think we all know what happened there... X-Box first. And some people left.

Those are all bad. However, compared to EA's record, Sony and Microsoft's look positively tame and pretty good...

Origin. Once one of the top sim (Wing Commander - Chris Roberts) and RPG (Ultima - Richard Garriott) developers. After a few years under EA control... they dissolved. Now? They are pretty much gone. Only a hollow shell of the company is left... and none of its decent talent.

Bullfrog. Developer with Peter Molyneux as its top guy. Made many innovative games. EA bought it... and in a few years, it ceased to exist. Bullfrog pretty much died off completely a few of years ago.

Westwood. Good strategy game developer... among other genres. EA-owned.
http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/new...52,00.html
their main Las Vegas studio (and the side Irvine studio, but everyone from that one was relocated to LA) was just closed down. While some of the people were given positions at the new expanded EA Los Angeles studio, it won't be the same... the founder of the company is still there (and going to LA), but they've taken the first step to assimilation and more firings if any of their future projects fail. Great... I wonder if they've gotten rid of the Westwood label with its studio and a bunch of its staff and seperate location...

Oh, lastly, Maxis. For now, they are untouched... but they are both a relatively recent purchase and EA's biggest moneymaker after EA Sports (due to the phenominal success of The Sims), so I doubt there will be many changes there until The Sims starts to falter as the major sales success it still is... but I am sure there will be in the end.

Well. None of them have good records, but EA's is much, much worse... I'd say ruining Origin, Bullfrog, and now starting on Westwood is a lot worse than just killing Bungie's Mac support... though MS has has issues too (Digital Anvil...).

The point? I really hope this deal doesn't go through. Blizz had been doing great as a part of a series of major companies, true... but those aren't game companies. There's a big difference between Vivendi Universal's expectations of Blizz and a Microsoft or EA, I bet...

Of course on the case of Sierra, I gave up on them several years ago, as most Sierra fan probably did, so I don't care much about them... bringing back their old logo isn't enough to even BEGIN to convince me that they have changed at all...

Poor Blizzard.
Goodness me, check out <a href=http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/news/0,10870,2909912,00.html>this news</a>.

Quote:Destineer announced today that it has acquired MacSoft, Infogrames' Macintosh division, and that it now has the rights to publish Mac versions of future Infogrames games. Destineer is known for bringing Microsoft's PC games to the Mac, particularly Age of Empires II: Gold Edition and Links Championship.

Destineer announced plans to publish at least 10 major Macintosh games during 2003, including ports of products from both Microsoft and Infogrames. These upcoming games include Master of Orion III, Neverwinter Nights, Dungeon Siege, <b>Halo</b>, and at least six other games that have not been disclosed. As a result of the acquisition, Destineer will start publishing its future Macintosh products under the well-established MacSoft brand.

Wow. MacSoft has always been great at bringing PC games to Macs, and most of those games had already been confirmed to be coming to the Mac, but Halo?! Wow, I'm shocked to put it mildly. I won't complain, though.
And to think, Macboy from PA almost commited suicide because Halo wasn't coming to Mac, but now it is, but he thought it wasn't, and that's like, ironing.