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[kevm3]

It'd be nice if Rockstar left if Activision did buy Take Two out.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

It'd be nice if Rockstar left if Activision did buy Take Two out.

Rockstar is a subsidiary of T2, i think. The company wouldnt be going anywhere in a Buyout. The talent however...

 

[stupei]

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.

Has this actually been confirmed? We know the disc based version didn't do great numbers, but when did we ever seen numbers for the DLC?

And I don't really see a reason to assume that just because they might be starting development on GTA V that they've abandoned Agent all together.

This just sounds like a lot of baseless speculation.

 

[twinturbo2]

Remember when EA was eyeing Take 2? Good times...

 

[Jtrizzy]

I thought Sony had a deal in place for Agent instead of the GTA dlc exclusivity window. Seems unlikely that Agent isn't being worked on.

 

[Chairman Yang]

Activision's business model is brilliant. They let others take risks and develop IP and talent, then they buy those companies out and reap the rewards. If they run the franchises into the ground, no problem--with the cash they've made, they can repeat the strategy. I don't see why they can't successfully sustain their approach indefinitely.

 

[dope4goldrope]

Has this actually been confirmed? We know the disc based version didn't do great numbers, but when did we ever seen numbers for the DLC?

And I don't really see a reason to assume that just because they might be starting development on GTA V that they've abandoned Agent all together.

This just sounds like a lot of baseless speculation.

I'd think it made them enough money if they gave Microsoft back the $50 million that secured them the DLC in the first place in order to release on PS3.

 

[Hey You]

I thought Sony had a deal in place for Agent instead of the GTA dlc exclusivity window. Seems unlikely that Agent isn't being worked on.

Maybe R* is working on two projects. Their job listings (as mentioned above) are looking for people for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

 

[Acosta]

"Nintendo is doomed"... "Nintendo going 3rd party"...

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

Nintendo was doomed, and if you ask that to Iwata I'm sure he would agree. In fact, because they were doomed, they had to put a 180 (which worked), but that doesn't invalidate the idea that they had a flawed strategy with N64 and specially with GC.

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.

I am just talking about what I see now Opiate, most of my post is not a vague future speculation. I don't know who would fare Take Two in hands of Activision, I'm just noting that Activision has proven quite incompetent on dealing with their own talent and IPs, something I thing I could defend quite successfully based on what has happened in the last months.

Based on that, I feel is quite reasonable to fear that, as a gamer who normally enjoys Take Two efforts, a buyout could have a bad effect on their output. This is where I speculate.

Activision's business model is brilliant. They let others take risks and develop IP and talent, then they buy those companies out and reap the rewards. If they run the franchises into the ground, no problem--with the cash they've made, they can repeat the strategy. I don't see why they can't successfully sustain their approach indefinitely.

That didn't work for EA, why would it work for Activision in the long term?

 

[poppabk]

Activision's business model is brilliant. They let others take risks and develop IP and talent, then they buy those companies out and reap the rewards. If they run the franchises into the ground, no problem--with the cash they've made, they can repeat the strategy. I don't see why they can't successfully sustain their approach indefinitely.

Because one failure - like they buy Take Two and GTA 5 bombs and they implode. The only reason this hasn't already happened is because they hit it out of the park with MW, and that franchise has been a success like nothing has been in the past.