By Juliana Wimmer
It all began on 2 December 2007 when Activision and Vivendi Games, numbers two and three of the world’s leading gaming publishers, announced their merger as ‘Activision Blizzard’, consequently becoming the industry leader with a total value of $19 billion.
Activision mainly concentrates on developing games for US consoles whereas Vivendi Games is the publisher of Blizzard Entertainment, whose flagship products include online role player World of Warcraft and StarCraft, which has become a kind of popular sport in Asia. As both companies work in different areas of the gaming industry, their hook-up looked to be a clever move from a strategic point of view.
However, this of course forced Electronic Arts (EA), the former industry leader, to act in order to regain its market leadership. But this was more difficult than EA had ever dreamed of.
EA’s idea to buy Take 2 Interactive was basically good, but the offer came at a particularly inconvenient time. While financially in tatters, Take 2 still held a big trump card: Rockstar Games, which produces the hugely successful Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series. With GTA 4 on the brink of being released, the relevant investment funds showed their willingness to sell Take 2, but at the highest possible price. And they were right to...
As soon as GTA 4 hit the market, it was a total success. On its first day, Take 2 achieved a return of over $310 million – after a week, it was about $500 million. And as the game is only available on Sony’s Playstation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 at the moment, the upcoming PC release will surely only add to its success.
In the meantime, the tone between the two companies got harsher. EA failed to get majority support from Take 2’s shareholders for a deal and so its bid expired. However, the company is expected to extend again the deadline for its hostile takeover offer, though Take 2 describes the offer as undervaluing the company.
It will be exciting to see how the situation between EA and Take 2 plays out, and whether EA is able to sustain its position in the gaming industry. But many players already have made up their mind: they favour Take 2 as a kind of Jesse James-type outsider and source of real talent, while EA is often seen as a faceless giant sacrificing creativity for mass market appeal.
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