EA Buys Mythic

[Slyfeind]

Yes, but you're mentioning specific games, and the question was about the EA-> Dev relationship.  Where are the dev houses that produced those games?  Sucked dry of talent until they were dissolved, maybe?  What Dev house has flourished (and therefore been an "UP" in the story) under the EA banner.

I never looked behind the curtain back in those days, but I got the feeling that the programmers made the games, and EA put 'em on the shelves, and that was that. Things didn't get ugly until after EA aquired OSI, at least from what I could tell.

we probably don't care, but isn't the point to ask "What is EA planning to do in the MMO space?"  They didn't do it just to rehab DAoC or foster WHO.  I bet.

I'll bet the answer to that is the same as it was ten years ago; expand, compete, excel. And I'll bet the results will be the same as they were ten years ago; struggle and flounder and flop around.

[Arthur_Parker]

EA Mythic should release a new classic server type, but not DAoC, UO pre-trammel.

BRING BACK PRECASTING BIYOTCHES

[sarius]

WAR as it currently designed is not a WoW challenger because its not follow Diku grind exp/items model.  That and it's pvp focus is why I *was* interested in it. But that's all out the window now.

Repeat after me:

I will not fall for pre-alpha MMO-hype that promises me none of the same old tired features and instead ALL NEW XTREME RADICAL GAMEPLAY!@!!

I say this in my sleep now after DnL. :)

[Sky]

We really believe in the MMO market as a rapidly growing segment and instrumental to our worldwide growth in North America, Asia, and Europe. We feel very strongly about the segment.

That's a great foundation for great games imo.

Hey, how about Madden MMO! The target demo would embrace the subscription model and the cross branding, franchising and merchandising would be insanely lucrative! Be the first on your block to have your Madden MMO (MMMO) sideline cap, jersey, helmet, poster, blanket, keychain...Available on a console near you!

[MrHat]

Great avatar Sairon.  What is that?

[Llava]

Great avatar Sairon.  What is that?

Whatever it is, it scares the hell out of me.

[HaemishM]

EA & GW in the same bed, it is a toss up as to who will end up sore in the morning.

No, that's easy. The customers.

[HaemishM]

Like I said, Tiburon (the studio that does the EA Sports line) is left to do their own thing.

As long as that thing includes making the newest Madden game on time, under budget and without really changing it much from last year's version.

[Yoru]

GS: How do you compete with World of Warcraft?

Owen Mahoney, EA SVP of corporate development: It's not 'how do you compete with WOW?' It's 'do you believe in the MMO market or not?'

Nice dodge, asshat. I hate it when 'legitimate' rags just let these guys off the hook when they pull this crap. I'm guessing this is EA code for "We throw money at the problem".

[WayAbvPar]

Like I said, Tiburon (the studio that does the EA Sports line) is left to do their own thing.

As long as that thing includes making the newest Madden game on time, under budget and without really changing it much from last year's version.

Saw an ad last night for 'Head Coach'; sounds like they have split the off-field strategery bits into a new game. EA ftl.

[HaemishM]

Yeah, Bill Cowher's been pimping this game heavily, even on ESPNews. Meh. It's a coaching simulation, but with the EA spin, which guarantees it'll be flashy, shallow and eventually shitty.

[Sairon]

Great avatar Sairon.  What is that?

I don't know, I stole it from a friend of mine  :-D

[schild]

Your friend got it from 4chan.

Edit: NO I DO NOT PURPOSEFULLY FOLLOW AVATAR TRENDS ALSO, OK?

[eldaec]

Apparently Mythic themselves didn't believe that they would be competitive with WAR. What a fucking disgrace to sell out to EA of all companies. I bet they got loads of $$$ but trying to hide with "we just want to make the best games possible" is just low, allthough expected.

This is the most ridiculous post in the entire thread. If EA offered me and my family financial security for life in the form a big ol' hat-o-money(tm) in return for handing over a business with no tangible or saleable assets, I'd bite their hand off. So would anyone else who is smart enough to be capable of building a business that EA might want to buy.

And what the fuck else do you expect them to say?

yeah, all our games will suck now

 

Insert Quote
If Mythic really thinks that they are going to stay 100% the same as they are now (with this recent EA thing) they are stupider (or is it more stupid?) than what I thought.  Part of buying into or buying companies like that is to assimilate them into their "collective" if you will.  Sounds like some kind of Borg thing, but that's how it is.

Well that's how it's sold to the shareholders, but in truth most mergers are really just corporate penis extensions in teh short to medium term. Benefits through assimilation are rarely secured for several years after an acquistion if ever. In EA's case they usally let the existing company run through a few development cycles before gutting the company, sacking everyone, and moving a few brand managers back to head office.

I imagine very little will change at Mythic at least for a couple of years.

[eldaec]

It is, however, a very nice avatar Sairon.

[Bunk]

Well, I sure picked a shitty time to wander back over here. I'd rather I'd just stayed in ignorant bliss.

"Dear Mythic guys, we here at EA Land thank you for your hard work spending the last three years developing WAR. At this time we feel the game may cause an undo loss of subscriptions from our flagship Dark Age of Camelot franchise, and have thus decided to suspend development of WAR for the next thirty years or so.

We will then get sued by GW, blame our losses on you guys, and add robot ninja elven vikings to our new Flagship Franchise: Dark Age of Ultima Online: Electric Boogaloo."

[Sairon]

Apparently Mythic themselves didn't believe that they would be competitive with WAR. What a fucking disgrace to sell out to EA of all companies. I bet they got loads of $$$ but trying to hide with "we just want to make the best games possible" is just low, allthough expected.

This is the most ridiculous post in the entire thread. If EA offered me and my family financial security for life in the form a big ol' hat-o-money(tm) in return for handing over a business with no tangible or saleable assets, I'd bite their hand off. So would anyone else who is smart enough to be capable of building a business that EA might want to buy.

If WAR is as good as it's made out to be and they belive in their game, then I don't see why they're selling their buis to EA. Sure I bet EA is giving them a lot of cash, but afaik Mythic isn't having financial troubles. Also "We'l be in complete control, me promise!" sounds no better than Allakhazam selling out to IGE "I promise I'm in complete control and still hate the actions of my new owner!". If they had sold of the company and more or less stated that the offer was to good to let down, then fine. I don't have any problems with people selling their company and make a truckload of cash and then retire.

And what the fuck else do you expect them to say?

yeah, all our games will suck now

 

Uh, hence the "although expected" at the end if you didn't notice.

Insert Quote
If Mythic really thinks that they are going to stay 100% the same as they are now (with this recent EA thing) they are stupider (or is it more stupid?) than what I thought.  Part of buying into or buying companies like that is to assimilate them into their "collective" if you will.  Sounds like some kind of Borg thing, but that's how it is.

Well that's how it's sold to the shareholders, but in truth most mergers are really just corporate penis extensions in teh short to medium term. Benefits through assimilation are rarely secured for several years after an acquistion if ever. In EA's case they usally let the existing company run through a few development cycles before gutting the company, sacking everyone, and moving a few brand managers back to head office.

I imagine very little will change at Mythic at least for a couple of years.

And what do you base that on? DICE turned crap hole fairly fast and joined in on all the practices we all love to hate EA for.

[Arthur_Parker]

Mark Jacobs continues the posting frenzy at Warhammer Alliance today.  Couple of posts have some new information.

BTW, I never said I would never sell. I said I wouldn't sell unless we got what we needed to protect the Mythic employees, WAR and GW. Well, we did. 

I'll also say something else, we turned down deals that were worth more money than the EA deal but EA's commitment to Mythic and WAR made the EA deal the best one for Mythic to take. And I also want to give credit to our investors (Abandon Entertainment and TA) who supported our reasoning 100%. Many kudos to them for their support.
.................

I wanted to check with EA before I posted this note and I just did that so here's the first bit of news to come out regarding WAR. As part of the deal, EA is going to put significantly more development resources into WAR than Mythic was going to be able to do. Obviously, I'm not able to say what that is in terms of dollars (this is a party line and the neighbors have itchy trigger fingers - one of my favorite movie lines) but it is significant. Development timeline remains the same though as does the game design, no worries there for those prone to worrying. 

[Krakrok]

Fuck Warhammer Online. If EA was smart they would take the DAOC server/client engine and reskin it for as many of their game brands as possible and start poping them out like a welfare mom. Maybe as online releases only? Beat NCSoft at their own strategy. Port UO to the DAOC engine and call it UO2.

[Comstar]

Well, I hope some good comes out of this: WAR makes so much money, Mythic makes Warhammer: 40K Online.

[Chinchilla]

Part of me hopes WAR does good and part of me doesn't give a rat's ass.  I'm having so much fun on my UO freeshard that it can all go to hell for as much as I care.  I like Mythic, but this merger has me worried.  I don't know enough about EA to say if they are horrible or not (I'd love some links w/ info), but I know that usually when corporate America and video games come together... the end result usually SUCKS!

[Arthur_Parker]

Market Watch

SHANGHAI (MarketWatch) -- Investors will look for the next piece of EA's China strategy to fall into place following the company's acquisition of Mythic Entertainment, and Google will hunt for deals after dumping its Baidu stake, this week in China.
Electronic Arts and other major videogame companies have struggled this spring, as delays of next-generation game consoles have raised uncertainty. But last week's Mythic acquisition (while not a huge deal financially, in the $70-80 million range) adds a component that will play a key role in EA's future business, especially in China.

This deal is an obvious precursor to EA's initial foray into China's massively multiplayer online (MMO) games sector, which has been dominated for several years by local operators The9 Ltd. NetEase.com Inc and Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd

EA has largely sat on the sidelines as the MMO sector of the global games industry has transformed itself from a niche play to a significant force -- mainly on the strength of China's millions of Internet café residents.

It appears that EA has now put itself in position to turn around its China business, which has historically been a sore spot due to piracy concerns, the absence of a console-game tradition (high-end game machines are generally out of Chinese gamers' price range) and the difficulty of securing approval to market game titles from China's daunting plethora of regulatory bodies.

EA has been working hard to secure a foothold in China's online game industry, engaging several players in negotiations or partnership conversations. This process is reportedly ongoing, but with Mythic EA gets the upcoming Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online titles, which will provide valuable operating experience. Bringing the "pogo" casual game platform to China will balance EA's hard-core online game offerings and target the relatively untapped female gamer segment. And the $680 million October 2005 acquisition of Jamdat will eventually port many of these EA elements to China's most common communications platform.

What is the ultimate potential of MMOs, in China and elsewhere? Answer: it depends. On many factors. But by the time the Mythic deal closes in the second quarter of 2007, EA should be in a better position to give investors visibility into its console games business, and also provide insight into an online game strategy for China. Until then, hold on tight.

[Engels]

That article is full of nonsense. Buying Mythic to open up the Chinese MMO market? That's like buying a french chef to open up the US hamburger market.

[HaemishM]

Yeah, there is nothing remotely enticing to the Chinese market in Mythic other than WHO's surface resemblence to WoW.

[Broughden]

That article is full of nonsense. Buying Mythic to open up the Chinese MMO market? That's like buying a french chef to open up the US hamburger market.

Yeah I was going to ask...

does Mythic have alot of experience in this market?
why not buy one of those local operators mentioned in the article?
does the Warhammer franchise have alot of fans in China?

Also something Mark Jacobs said kinda threw me. He mentions EA adding significantly more development resources to War, but then goes on to say the development time line will remain the same. Then what exactly are these increased resources going to be doing? Adding a Chinese language adaptation?

[Lum]

Ironically, the team EA already had (Ultima Online) has significantly more experience with the Asian market than Mythic, something I suspect this analyst kinda... forgot.

[Righ]

Not so much an analyst as paid by the word.

[Arthur_Parker]

I disagree, I know Lum worked for Mythic until very recently and I know he's just back from Asia.  I still disagree, Asia is the new trendy market to aim for.  Here's a report from earlier today on the potential growth of the Asian-pacific online gaming market.

A BBC news item from 2004

Electronic Arts, the world's biggest computer games firm, is setting up a development studio in China.

The firm said it hopes to have 500 staff at the Chinese arm, which should help it capitalise on the massive demand in Asia for online gaming.

EA's annual report

We believe that in order to increase our online sales in Asia, we will need to devote significant resources to hire local development talent and expand our infrastructure, most notably, the expansion and creation of studio facilities to develop content locally. In addition, we are establishing online game marketing, publishing and distribution functions in China. As part of this strategy, we may seek to partner with established local companies through acquisitions, joint ventures or other similar arrangements.

EA's job site

EA Asia is the fastest growing region within Electronic Arts, the regional HQ is based in Hong Kong and studio operations are located in Japan and China.

Reuters

UPDATE 1-EA to buy online game developer Mythic

SAN FRANCISCO, June 20 (Reuters) - Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS.O: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's biggest video game publisher, said on Tuesday it will buy Mythic Entertainment, beefing up its portfolio of online role-playing games.

EA did not disclose financial terms of the deal, which was expected to close in the company's second fiscal quarter, the company said.

Silicon Valley-based EA -- which is looking for growth outside its core console gaming business in the United States and Europe -- is eyeing key Asian markets like Korea and China, where online games dominate.

Mythic, which will be renamed EA Mythic, developed "Dark Age of Camelot" and is working on another keenly anticipated fantasy-themed title called "Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning".

Both of those are what are called massively multiplayer online role-playing games, which allow thousands of players to simultaneously carry out missions or battles in virtual worlds.

Such games are attractive to publishers since they usually require a monthly fee on top of the roughly $50 cost of the game itself.

The most successful online role-playing game ever is "World of Warcraft", developed by Blizzard Entertainment, a division of French media giant Vivendi (VIV.PA: Quote, Profile, Research).

EA publishes an online role-playing game called "Ultima Online," but is better known for its sports, racing and shooting titles. (Additional reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles)

If Reuters say it, then other websites also report the same thing

[Lum]

I'm not discounting Mythic's experience in Asia; they support the Japanese version of DAOC internally and hired Japanese-speaking producers and support staff to make that happen. All I'm saying is that UO's team has done the same thing for longer and has had better success in Japan. Neither DAOC nor UO has made any inroads into the Chinese market, or had much success in the Korean market.

There's a lot of reasons for EA to acquire Mythic, but the Asian market isn't one of them.

[schild]

I wonder what style Mark Jacobs chose for his "Money Hat."

I'm sure it's fantastic.

Yes, I'm purposefully trying to derail. Isn't Mythic supposed to be dead to us now?

[WindupAtheist]

UO forevar, roundeye!

[Nazrat]

I wonder what style Mark Jacobs chose for his "Money Hat."

I'm sure it's fantastic.

Yes, I'm purposefully trying to derail. Isn't Mythic supposed to be dead to us now?

I picture an Arcadian style purple wizard hat. 

[Arthur_Parker]

WAR June Newsletter

[Arthur_Parker]

Yes, I'm purposefully trying to derail. Isn't Mythic supposed to be dead to us now?

Very few people will make the decision not to buy WAR just because EA are involved, at the end of the day it will succeed or fail based on how good the actual game is.  EA's ownership has always resulted in terrible/cancelled mmo's in the past, so this should be interesting.

[schild]

EA sells more games than any other publisher in the world. Of course very few people will buy it based on them having bought Mythic. But I'd like to think that I and possibly We are better than that. We _should_ base our decision on that. It doesn't matter if Warhammer Online is the best MMORPG ever made, I still won't buy it based on EA's business practices in the past, present, and most likely the future.