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Big Ol' Rumour: Activision eyeing Take Two?

I blame all you people who bought Call of Duty... nah, not really. It was bound to happen with the way Activision has been doing lately. Plus, if Activision is able to get GTA under their portfolio, that would be a major coup. As has been proven before, no one cares about the original founders/creator of a franchise. People will continue to purchase GTA just like they have continued to purchase COD.

Now saturating the market and strangling the golden goose is another story...
 
It's kind of amazing what Rockstar North has done since GTA IV.


Mid-2008 to late 2009: GTA IV DLC that bombed.
Late 2009 to late 2010: Work on Agent
Late 2010 to now: GTA V (Going by their hiring pages, they're not making Agent right now because they're hiring for multiplatform development)


I mean, they spent 2.5 years basically doing nothing financially constructive and now they're at the point where GTA V would probably launch after the release of all of the next-gen consoles in the best case scenario. That's assuming that the Houser Brothers and a lot of dev staff don't leave for greener pastures, causing the team to have to be massively reformed, delaying the project to the point where PS3 and 360 would no longer be financially viable and then having to restart development of it on a next-gen system.
 
Opiate said:
In turn, Activision doesn't always make money. They're making money this year, but they lost money the year before that. As a general rule, however, Activision makes a great deal of money.
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Activision money making is just a façade sustained on two things: WoW and Modern Warfare (BTW, two core franchises, I refuse that idea that something automatically stops being core when it´s popular, one is a MMO with elves and the other is a macho shooter in first person, basically the two main columns of videogame geekdom).

The company, as a whole, has lost value, has proven inefficient on managing brands, has haemorrhaged talent and has failed to generate any potent IPs in the last years. Not wanting them to take over Take 2 has nothing to do with them being "the bad ones", and everything to do with them being quite bad at what they are supposed to do as a publisher with a roadmap that goes beyond the next fiscal year. You can argue that "they make money", good, but history shows what happens to companies that get creatively stagnant.
 
My brother was just joking the other day about this, I told him that would never happen, now this rumour. I'm going to punch him in the head if it happens.
 
I never believe these rumors of merges and buyouts when it comes to the big company's. Remember the one where Microsoft was gonna buy EA? Take Two is a would be a great company to own, but i think there doing fine on there own. But i guess every one has a price.
 
stewie-gun.gif
 
NO NO NO NO NO NO!!

Now I'm no Activision hater but I will call a spade a spade. Activision will destroy the GTA franchise like they are COD. Mark my words they would start pumping out a GTA every damn year. They do that and the quality would go down the crapper.

So no stay the hell away from Take2.
 
activation is no good I member one of the developers of COD calling into a conspiracy show every week acting paranoid as hell working there lol.
 
Acosta said:
Activision money making is just a façade sustained on two things: WoW and Modern Warfare (BTW, two core franchises, I refuse that idea that something automatically stops being core when it´s popular, one is a MMO with elves and the other is a macho shooter in first person, basically the two main columns of videogame geekdom).

The company, as a whole, has lost value, has proven inefficient on managing brands, has haemorrhaged talent and has failed to generate any potent IPs in the last years. Not wanting them to take over Take 2 has nothing to do with them being "the bad ones", and everything to do with them being quite bad at what they are supposed to do as a publisher with a roadmap that goes beyond the next fiscal year. You can argue that "they make money", good, but history shows what happens to companies that get creatively stagnant.
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I really don't agree. I tend to find vague future speculation to be almost uniformly meaningless.

I'm not saying you're wrong: I'm saying I'll believe it when I see it. For now Activision is doing much better than virtually all of its large scale competitors. This generation has been a good-but-not-great one for Ubisoft, a weak one for Take 2, and a disastrous one for EA: could that turn around? Yes. But I'll wait for that to actually happen before I change my analysis.

You can claim that this is all just about to change and just you wait Activision will get its comeuppance: I could turn around and make speculation about why that won't happen (for example, they are in a position to buy comapnies like Take 2 right now, while virtually no one else is, which gives them a long term advantage). I think both are silly until we see what actually happens.
 
If EA couldn't buy them, neither can Activision. Take Two shareholders refused to sell their stock. CEO Strauss Zelnick didn't want to sell. This wouldn't be any different.
 
zerokoolpsx said:
If EA couldn't buy them, neither can Activision. Take Two shareholders refused to sell their stock. CEO Strauss Zelnick didn't want to sell. This wouldn't be any different.
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It was just a case of money, EA didn't offer enough, and they had GTA4 in the wings ready to rocket share prices.
 
Rated-Rsuperstar said:
Going by this rumor maybe Activision hasn't canceled True Crime after all. There just waiting to slap the GTA name on the box instead.
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I can see them actually doing this GTA: Hong Kong in 2012
 
Ponti said:
This shit needs to stop. We'll have no good developers left.
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We did alright when Atari did this exact same thing and then again later when EA went around and stomped on the industry. Each time old companies were destroy (along with some properties *coughxcomdungeonkeepercough*) and new companies were created. The industry didn't evaporate, it just got a little slimmer and more, ahem, focused.
 
Hope this doesn't happen, for the sake of the industry.

But if it does, some brave souls will rise up and create new companies and innovation.

(I hope I can :) )
 
This is fantastic news. I was wondering when I'd be able to buy a plastic horse attachment for RDR and actually ride into the sunset ... every year on a different plastic horse, maybe with an added button or different colored ears.
 
Red Dead Redemption: Mexican Invasion
Get prepared to get on a train as John Marston defends Washington, D.C. from the Mexican amphibious assault, in the midst of their own civil war!
 
StuBurns said:
It was just a case of money, EA didn't offer enough, and they had GTA4 in the wings ready to rocket share prices.
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Not to mention that EA burned a hole in their pockets trying to gather enough money to buy Take Two. As soon as JR started to call them out on not getting in on his 'generous' offer we knew T2 wasn't going to bite. They could just sit by and watch one of their biggest competitors struggling to take them over while the Take2 stock went higher and higher and EA stock hit rock bottom. There was no reason for Take2 to go ahead with the merger.

Activision is a different story. They never went after the sports market so 2K would certainly live on and with Activision Blizzard on their side they could even try and take the Madden license when it comes up for sale. They could benefit from Activision's MMO success and turn GTA into the next MMO craze. The shareholders could trade their 'ok' Take2 stock for 'money from the heavens' Activision Blizzard stock. I'd say that in this case there's a lot to gain for both sides. It would be horrible if it happened but I wouldn't be shocked if Take2 actually went along for the Activision Blizzard ride. They're doing shitty things but between the infinite moneystream of WoW and the yearly COD's it's the safest train for investors to be on right now. Not to mention that they could totally poop in JC's and EA's face.

Any system they'd back would also instantly go to great heights in the US and Europe and they could demand quite a bit from the platform holders.
 
alr1ghtstart said:
GTAs every year
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It's okay, though: GTA4 already killed that series.

Time for Bioshock 3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11... until they run that brand into the fucking ground.
 
With publisher consolidation (as opposed to a publisher buying a developer) , you have to look out for massive cuts in lineups. And it looks like Activision has already done so.

If publisher A publishes 10 games a year, and publisher B publishes 8. A merged publisher A/B rarely publish 18. Instead it may publish 12 or 15.
 
This would be a disaster for the entire industry and the progression of gaming as an art form.

Aside from Take Two being one of the better publishers in the industry (MUCH higher quality games than Activison shits out), having Rockstar fall under Activision's management would be a severe blow to the entire industry.

Rockstar has been able to consistently push the boundaries of what games can be because of their unending support from Take Two. There's NO WAY that Rockstar's games could even be close to as good and successful as they are if they were rushed out the door by Kotick and Co.
 
Opiate said:
You can claim that this is all just about to change and just you wait Activision will get its comeuppance: I could turn around and make speculation about why that won't happen (for example, they are in a position to buy comapnies like Take 2 right now, while virtually no one else is, which gives them a long term advantage). I think both are silly until we see what actually happens.
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"Nintendo is doomed"... "Nintendo going 3rd party"...

I agree with you, if that comment isn't clear enough. Gamers are, if anything, horrible prognosticators.

EDIT: I have no idea why people think Activision would force Rockstar to adopt practices that would kill its title. A GTA game isn't exactly the same as a COD title; it's not as easy to just shit one out on a yearly basis. Hell, Activision is currently employing five different development teams in order to make that happen for COD - you think they could do it with GTA??
 
Vinci said:
EDIT: I have no idea why people think Activision would force Rockstar to adopt practices that would kill its title. A GTA game isn't exactly the same as a COD title; it's not as easy to just shit one out on a yearly basis. Hell, Activision is currently employing five different development teams in order to make that happen for COD - you think they could do it with GTA??
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...yes? The quality would suffer sure, but they could do it. One studio did 3 GTA games in 4 years last gen, so I don't see why they couldn't put two mega studios on it to shit out games on an alternating yearly basis.

Not that I care cause GTA4 was shit. But the other open world games Take 2 has been doing are pretty interesting (RDR, La Noire).

And whatever they do they better not screw up Bioshock Infinite.
 
SA-X said:
...yes? The quality would suffer sure, but they could do it. One studio did 3 GTA games in 4 years last gen, so I don't see why they couldn't put two mega studios on it to shit out games on an alternating yearly basis.
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Still doubt it. Making games these days is a helluva lot more complicated and time-consuming than it used to be, especially for titles like GTA. I mean, if all they did was pump out two genuinely distinct games and then add expansions to them year-after-year... that, I could maybe see. But full-fledged GTA titles like what we saw during the PS2? No way.
 
Deku said:
With publisher consolidation (as opposed to a publisher buying a developer) , you have to look out for massive cuts in lineups. And it looks like Activision has already done so.

If publisher A publishes 10 games a year, and publisher B publishes 8. A merged publisher A/B rarely publish 18. Instead it may publish 12 or 15.
Click to expand...
This is really what has sparked the rumors.

As I've been saying, ATVI's line-up is just really slashed:
-True Crime: Hong Kong cancelled
-Guitar Hero: shut down
-DJ Hero dead
-No skateboard game this year
-No Blizzard game this year unless they get Diablo out the door

There is just a huge hole in ATVI's line-up. So that sparked speculation. But they've kinda been filling it in . . . the announced Spyro, they said they are going to try to get Diablo 3 out, Wipeout TV show game, some other TV show game, spider-man.
 
Even if they did "take over" I don't think R*'s product would be ruined. They still have business structure. Look at Blizzard for instance.
 
i love Activision.

every move they make is exciting. they are really using their "no. 1 in the usa" status to make big moves, unlike EA. Activision with Take Two would be a juggernaut.

the fallout is especially delicious, 'dey r killin da industri!!11' like japan or europe doesn't exist.

someone asked in the GH thread if anyone still thinks Kotick is a genius. every second Activision remains as one of north america's top publishers, Kotick is still a genius.
 
Activision is truly the new EA,except even worse.Kotick might become the new definition of the devil himself. :P

Now with that being said,I just don't see how you could mass produce these free roaming games when they require ton of manpower+hours to make.No way could I see a yearly GTA when IV did cost 100 million to make.Rockstar would probably still be able to take as much time as needed to polish their game and they have a sound business structure.

Other devs under Take 2 wouldn't be so lucky however,that's for sure. :(
 
kitzkozan said:
Activision is truly the new EA,except even worse.Kotick might become the new definition of the devil himself. :P

Now with that being said,I just don't see how you could mass produce these free roaming games when they require ton of manpower+hours to make.No way could I see a yearly GTA when IV did cost 100 million to make.Rockstar would probably still be able to take as much time as needed to polish their game and they have a sound business structure.

Other devs under Take 2 wouldn't be so lucky however,that's for sure. :(
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You're making the assumption that there would be new games, not just 5 hour overpriced mission-packs. I'd say your assumtion is too gullible.
 
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