2004 was a great year for sports games. NFL 2K5 and NBA 2K5 were some of the best sports game ever created (that remains true to this day) and they were sold for only $20. That put some pretty significant pressure on EA Sports, which responded in the football market by dropping the price of that year’s Madden from $50 to $30. NFL 2K5 managed to sell over 2.9 million copies in the US, according to the NPD Group, and ever since — once EA locked up exclusivity with the NFL, NCAA and Arena Football League, some would argue that EA has had little incentive to innovate or drop the price on its football titles.

That trend isn’t about to end, either. Last year, 2K Sports put out All-Pro Football 2K8 which sold poorly without the help of a significant football license. (The game wasn’t great either — it was basically NFL 2K5 sans the NFL license.)

Two gamers — one from Washington, DC and one from California — have had enough of this and filed a class-action lawsuit against EA over “blatantly anticompetitive conduct.”

“This vigorous competition benefited consumers,” reads the lawsuit. “Electronic Arts could have continued to compete by offering a lower price and/or a higher quality product. Instead, Electronic Arts quickly entered into a series of exclusive agreements with the only viable sports football associations in the United States: the National Football League, the Arena Football League, and NCAA Football.”

Even if EA didn’t have the licenses, though, their potential takeover of Take-Two would essentially eliminate any and all competition in the football market. In doing so, the lawsuit says that even if EA were to lose its exclusivity deals, it “would remove one of the few companies with the ability and expertise to compete in the market for interactive football software.”

The lawsuit is seeking restitution and damages for individuals who have purchased EA football games since August 2005 (ring me up for three of those), as well as disgorgement (that’s a fancy word for “give up”) of all profits made as a result of their anticompetitive actions, and that any infringing agreements be declared null and void.

The likelihood of those events ever occurring is incredibly low, but I do enjoy thinking of a world where the NFL 2K games are still alive.

via Evil Avatar

EA Sports might be the 800-pound gorilla in the world of sports videogames, but according to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, 2K Sports both out-rates and outsells EA Sports’ titles when the two go head-to-head. He made the comments at the 28th annual Piper Jaffray Consumer Conference, according to GI.biz, where he also revealed lifetime sales for the three major sports franchises of 2K Sports’: NBA 2K has sold 6 million, MLB 2K has sold 5.5 million, and NHL 2K has sold 2.5 million.

“We pride ourselves on our quality,” Zelnick told the audience at the conference.

“When we go head-to-head with ‘Brand X’ we out-rate them significantly,” he said in reference to EA Sports. “We outsell them when we go head-to-head. It’s sort of an unheralded achievement. This is a tough business.”

Despite the apparent quality of the 2K Sports games (their NBA games are definitely the best on the market), it’s unlikely that the division will manage to turn a profit once again. But things are headed in a good direction, Zelnick believes — although he’s not taking any of the credit for the investment, which was something that took place before his time.

“We feel pretty good about where this is going and we’re committed to the business,” he said.

“We also have significant visibility into the business because we have long-term licenses and because it is an annual business, unlike many of our other businesses.

“And it is a business that, to a certain extent, can be seen as somewhat less technically complex and challenging which means it is a little more dependable and reliable.”

At least I can breathe easier for the time being. Year-to-year, there’s nothing I play more than the NBA 2K games, and the thought of an EA takeover threatens one of my favorite franchises. Zelnick’s confidence in the brand is somewhat reassuring, but that wouldn’t have much of an impact on what EA would do with it if Take-Two is ultimately acquired.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise when you consider GTA didn’t have much time to sell in April, but it was a much closer contest for the top spots in May than you might have guessed. While the 360 version of GTA IV did take the top spot with 871.3k copies sold, Mario Kart was right on its heels with 784.4k and Wii Fit not too far behind at 687.7k. The PS3 version of GTA IV came in at number four with 442.9k and then there was a significant drop off to number five, Wii Play, which sold 294.6k copies.

Wii Play’s number is actually fairly low given the number of Wii systems that were sold in the month, but it’s quite possible that many of those Wiis were sold alongside a copy of Wii Fit, which isn’t a multiplayer-happy game like so many other games in the system’s library.

The DS and Wii also took four more spots in the top ten with Smash Bros., Guitar Hero III, and the two versions of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon coming in at numbers 6, 8, 9, and 10. Iron Man on the unkillable PlayStation 2 snuck in at number 7, no doubt thanks in large part to the movie’s great success.

May 2008 Software Sales:

1. Grand Theft Auto IV (360) – 871,300
2. Mario Kart Wii w/ wheel (Wii) – 787,400
3. Wii Fit w/ balance board (Wii) – 687,700
4. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) – 442,900
5. Wii Play w/ remote (Wii) – 294,600
6. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) – 171,100
7. Iron Man (PS2) – 130,600
8. Guitar Hero III (Wii) – 116,800
9. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (DS) – 107,000
10. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (DS) – 102,000

Metal Gear Solid 4 is sure to come in highly with the June NPDs, and it’ll be difficult to overcome both Grand Theft Auto and a continued stream of Wii Fit copies. It’s definitely got a good shot at outselling them, though, and with those hard-to-come-by MGS4 bundles selling like crazy, the PS3 will be sure to see a nice bump in the first month of summer.

Electronic Arts and Take-Two have been at an apparent stand off for months as EA keeps extending its offer to buy out T2. It appears that T2 has been doing more than just stalling to raise the asking price. According to Forbes, the company may be negotiating with Ubisoft over a possible merger.

During T2’s second-quarter earnings call on Thursday, chairman Strauss Zelnick revealed that he’s “had and continues to have formal discussions with interested parties” on the company’s potential sale or merger.

Ubisoft is looking to expand and diversify its interests and T2 would fit that plan nicely. In particular Ubisoft wants to expand into sports video games. T2 is pretty much the only competition EA has in the sports arena.

“Ubisoft has shown they do a good job of managing original intellectual property. Culturally, Take-Two developers would not have a problem at Ubisoft because they allow a decent degree of creative freedom,” says Doug Creutz, analyst at San Francisco firm Cowen and Co.

“Ubisoft has grown phenomenally over the past few years,” says Todd Greenwald, an analyst at Signal Hill. “But the only way for them to continue to grow is to enter categories that they aren’t in.” Buying is always easier than building.

Call me petty, but I’d like to see Ubisoft and T2 merge rather than having T2 swallowed by EA.

via Forbes 

2K Games announced today that Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization is currently in development at 2K’s Firaxis Games development studio. Conceived from the ground up to take advantage of the Civilization IV engine, Colonization will be available this Fall exclusively for the PC.

“We’ve received many requests from fans over the years to bring back Colonization and now seemed to be the perfect time to do that,” said Sid Meier, director of creative development at Firaxis Games.“The Civilization IV engine provided a fantastic foundation for a new Colonization experience and allowed us to create something great for both new players and long time fans of the game.”

In Colonization, players lead one of four European nations on a quest to conquer and rule the New World. Players will be challenged to guide their people from the oppressive motherland, discover the New World, and negotiate, trade and fight with both the natives and other nations as they acquire power and fight for freedom and independence.

As a complete reimagining of the 1994 classic, Colonization is a total conversion of Civilization IV contains all-new graphics and features that add more depth to the franchise along with new features, such as a brand-new interface, improved diplomacy options and the included modding tools.

The best thing about Colonization is that it does not require the original Civilization IV product in order to be played – which should help alleviate some of the shame you might feel conquering the Native Americans in the game.

For a list of game features, hit the jump.

Via: Press Release

Read the full article »

Hope there’s enough for you to do in Grand Theft Auto IV as it stands — Take-Two announced today as part of its Q2 financial reports that the Xbox 360 exclusive DLC has been delayed until Q1 2009. It was originally planned for release later this year.

According to CEO Ben Feder, the delay has nothing to do with development, but rather about “portfolio balancing.” So does that mean they’ve got a lot coming out later this year, or that they’ve got nothing early next year? I’m better on the latter, as two new Carnival Games titles were announced for later this year during the conference call.

During the second quarter of 2008, a total of 78% of all Take-Two publishing revenue came from Grand Theft Auto IV and GTA catalog sales — that’s a pretty astonishing amount, but there wasn’t much from Take-Two to have stolen any percentage of their revenue.

With this delay, I wonder if owners of the PS3 version feel vindicated in their purchase at all. Fewer load times, less pop-up, and the same content until at least 2009 — doesn’t sound too shabby.

Electronic Arts desperately wants to gobble up Take-Two in its entirety as quickly as possible, but with repeated failed attempts over the past several months, EA is going to have to wait even longer before it can have a chance at snapping up Rockstar’s parent company. EA has filed an SEC form agreeing not to complete its acquisition attempts of Take-Two until either the Federal Trade Commission completes its investigation or 45 days have passed since EA “substantially complied” with FTC requests, according to GI.biz.

The present EA offer for the company was last amended to expire on June 16 — something which has happened a number of times now. Back in April, the FTC requested information from EA as a part of its review of the $2 billion acquisition.

With the SEC agreement, it seems likely that we’ll be waiting past the June 16 deadline before we find out if (but more likely, when) EA will be acquiring Take-Two. I continue to beg the gaming gods to not let this happen, as I refuse to believe my two favorite sports franchises (NBA and NFL 2K) could be killed — and by the same company, no less.)

Looks like Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello is hoping against all hope that EA does eventually storm Take-Two’s impenetrable castle. That could only be his “true” reasoning behind him recently purchasing almost $1 million in EA stock the day after the publisher extended its offer to buy Grand Theft Auto firm Take-Two. Yes, I italicized that for a reason.

Riccitiello bought the 20,000 shares which equals to $976,000 in stock, and this is the second such purchase the CEO has made since rejoining the company in 2007 which means that he is banking on becoming even richer than ever before. Mwha ha ha ha!

“John believes that senior executives should be invested in the company,” a spokesperson for EA stated. Yeah, right. Sure it is only appropriate that a CEO own stock in the company they work for, but Riccitiello now owns 47,294 shares and approximately 75,000 exercisable options. That is a truck load of power right there. Plus, with the recent offer to Take-Two being on the table until June 16th, John better hope that his Voodoo Priestess pulls out all the stops for him oe else she will have to go back to peddling her wares to tourists on the streets of New Orleans.

Via: GamesIndustry.biz

As if to confirm my suspicions that nothing will be worked out between EA and Take-Two by the new deadline of of June 16, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick and CEO Ben Feder have made a statement which claims the deal “undervalues” Take-Two.

Prepare to get your quote on.

“This is the same highly conditional proposal that EA offered Take-Two stockholders on March 13, 2008, which our board of directors thoroughly reviewed and unanimously determined to be inadequate and contrary to the best interests of Take-Two’s stockholders.

“As such, the recommendation of our board of directors that stockholders not tender their shares to EA remains unchanged… We are confident in the significant growth potential of Take-Two and in the unique value of our business given our strong position in this growing and dynamic industry,” said Zelnick.

Feder also chimed in, stating, “EA’s highly conditional offer fails to compensate our stockholders for our exceptional portfolio of intellectual property, world-class creative resources, and our successful revitalisation initiatives.”

“In the last several weeks, our strategy and Take-Two’s value have been vividly demonstrated by two notable events. The record-breaking sales performance of Grand Theft Auto IV in its first week of release confirmed its status as the most successful videogame launch of all time and as a blockbuster on a par with any entertainment product ever released.

“We have also just announced an agreement with Universal Pictures to make BioShock, the universally acclaimed hit videogame, into a feature film, demonstrating how Take-Two is delivering value from our powerful and wholly-owned intellectual property. The small number of shares tendered into EA’s offer to date demonstrates that our stockholders agree with what our board has maintained from the beginning: EA’s proposal undervalues our company.”

I’m not going to claim to be any sort of financial genius, but while the two make a compelling argument, I think they’re wrong. At what point in time could Take-Two’s stock value be any higher than in the midst of a GTA launch and potential acquisition?

We’ll have more on this story as it continues to develop.

via GamesIndustry.biz

The concept of a looming deadline for Electronic Arts’ offer to acquire Take-Two has become a complete joke, as time and again that “deadline” has come and gone, only to be met with nothing more than an extension. That’s the case once again, as Electronic Arts has extended its offer until June 16, but as I said, you’re better off expecting nothing more than yet another extension.

“Extending our offer will allow the FTC review process to continue,” said EA exec Owen Mahoney.

“EA’s offer price remains unchanged at USD 25.74 per share and our offer is still subject to conditions that include regulatory approval. As stated earlier, we retain the right to terminate the offer if the conditions are not satisfied.”

The latest deadline had expired this past Friday with nothing of significance to be reported on. As of this past Friday, more than six million shares of Take-Two had been tendered according to GI.biz, which remains a fairly negligible amount when considering the size of the company.

And so the saga drags on. The shortsighted part of me is happy for this, because all I want at this point is to end up with NBA 2K9 later this year, not NBA Live 2K9.