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while the subject may seem drastic...it also seems somewhat logical. EA has been one of the best developers in recent years (while not one of my favs) but this last year...they seemed to have lost their respect. With the releases of the awful Catwoman, the much hyped but bland Goldeneye: rogue agent, and even the LOTR the third age.. is EA just in a slump?
They also bought around 20% of rival Ubisoft shares being the second most powerful shareholders of that company..
AND they now have the sole liscence to the NFL. while they've been tryin to get a simialar deal for years now..they seemed to really push to win it last year because of Sega's and Take Two's ESPN NFL 2k series being at the same quality gameplay and a lower price tag ($19.99 compared to $49.99) EA seems to have been taking drastic measures to stay in the game, so to speak.
they might even lose the madden liscence because of the high NFL liscence price tag.
Now don't get me wrong, EA has some great games but lately...they've been losing some of their touch.

I would disagree and agee. The sell gazillions of sports titles a year so they're still makings millions. They're the biggest videogame company that produces games. In terms of quality of games though, they're not really well known for very good quality games like some notable compaines (Valve, Blizzard, Bungie, Rare and etc).

EA are here to stay.... you overlooked the good games that they've made.

fair enough, GE:RA and some of the others were of poor standard, but I really liked DefJam:FFNY and Burnout 3... plus FIFA 2005 was a fairly good game

Apart from Burnout 3 and Def Jam FFNY they havn't really made anything I enjoyed so really I don't think I'd miss them too much if EA died away

I like Medal of Honor a lot

Yeah It's alright but I've played better

i think everyone's enjoyed an EA game or two..but..i don't really see them as crucial to the business anymore
btw most people in the biz think that EA might also raise their prices on their NFL titles

Need for Speed Underground 2 is a really good racing game.

Fifa 2005 is the best soccer game I've ever played.

LOTR: the 3rd age wasn't a bad game by any means...it was just too linear....just like the movie.

All of the Medal of Honor games are good, I just don't play them because each one feels the exact same to me.


I don't see how you can say EA is dying or ending. They are growing.

i really dont think they are growing at all. they only put there efforts into established franchises which are growing stale and don't make an effort to bring new fun titles.
call of duty is better than MOH imo

EA are gonna become bigger and bigger, and eat up every company and start making applications and AI for the military.

I hear they are making a game called Skynet but are keeping it very hush hush.

EA isn't going anywhere for a long long time. They have the medal of honor series, Madden, NBA Live, Command and Conquer, Battlefield series.

They are probably the biggest game company at the moment.

not to say Fifa isn't good, but have you played Pro Evo?

EA make inferioir versions of everything these days - yet people still like them

Fifa is rubbish next to Pro Evo, yet Fifa has been selling more in the past.

Medal Of Honor is twoddle next to Activisions Call Of Duty, yet MOH still sells.

LOTR Battle For Middle Earth is inferior to Warcraft 3, yet the officialness of LOTR sells EAs game.

EA do have Burnout in their stable now - which USED TO be the thing that made NFS:U look rubbish. It still does, but it doesn't harm EA anymore. At least they were smart there.

The NHL serie's gameplay is steadily getting crappier in my opinion.

probably because Fifa is the official games, with teams like Arsenal... not North London

Me not knowing anything about how businesses work and whatnot, does EA owning 20% of Ubi's shares mean that EA owns 20% of Ubi? like do they control it?

Remeber, alot of EA games are not actually developed by them. Its actually just published by them so they have not alot of input in the design of the game.

I'm not sure, but I think to take perform a hostile takeover they need to buy 51% of the shares, essentially buying them out.

I don't think 20% does anything.

no i haven't.

I'll have to check it out. I never tried it because I couldn't complain with Fifa 2004....and 2005 was even better.

I don't really see what Pro Evo could have to offer that would make Fifa "rubbish" in comparison, but I'll take a Europeans word for it.

I played an older version of Pro Evo I still like FiFa better but that's just me I take it. 2005 is the best FiFa so far. They finally look like they are playnig soccer

yah. They took a big step in 2004. All the movements and stuff became more fluid, but it still wasn't like soccer....too much back and forth going on.

2005 is sweet. I've decided to go rent Burn Out 3 and Pro Evo on my way home. I'll be pissed if I've been backing NFS:Underground 2 and Fifa only to find 2 much better games on the market.

when a someone owns the second most amount of shares in a company (in this case 20%), they are basically the second most important voter on various things that company does etc..
They do own part of the company now, and there are rumors that they will try and buy them out completely.

basically with pro, you won't get Henry smashing it from a mile out and hitting it top corner

i think pro's more realistic, like REAL football

They bought Konami. Retards, all of them!
Maybe if they bought UbiSoft...

As long as EA has the Sims they'll never stop. May not be a good game, but with so many always in the charts...

EA will go on for a longs while, look at how they are producing. The Sims 2, the Urbz... I think they have some good games out and the Sims 2 wasn't bad as far as read time simulation goes (except no Guitars dumbasses). Anyways the sports are fun NHL 2006 and such will be coming. Without the real NHL I think they may lose a lot of buyers.

EA GAMES WILL LIVE 4EVA

OK about Pro Evo, anyone who thinks Fifa is better hasn't played a game of football.

Also, for some bizarre reason, Pro Evo 4's players look more like the real players than Fifa 2005 does. What's the point in having the license when a non-licensed game does a better job at having official likenesses? It makes Fifa look absolutely redundant.

Fifa used to be king back in the day. It stopped being the king at around Fifa 99. When Pro Evo 1 came out, it made Fifa look like a load of rubbish.

Put it this way, Henry himself said he and his mates play Pro Evo "It's the most like real football". Also, John Terry and Frank Lampard have also expressed how Pro Evo is miles haead of Fifa to every degree.

The only people who play Fifa are the ones that simply don't understand what football is about. It's not about having the official sponsor on your team's shirt - it's about the game itself.

The only reasons people play Fifa is because a) They don't know about Pro Evo, b) are so stupid to think that "official" = better and or c) They played Pro Evo, got their asses handed to them by better AI, and decided they'd prefer to go back to their 10-0 wins and half-line goals in Fifa.

Basically, Fifa is for the footy newbs. Pro Evo is where the real action is.

EA games is aiight.... I only care about command and conquer and battlefield..

IMHO, EA needs to stick to sports titles and leave the FPS's to Rare, and the RPG's to whoever else made them before EA started. Squaresoft, companies like that. Nightfire and Rogue Agent weren't as good as I thought they would be and that other Bond game, the non-1st person one, what was that called? Whatever it was it sucked, and EA needs to stop with the FPS's before it gets hurt.

Rare have only 2 FPS's in thier history (I think). Rare has lost its lustre. The amount of money Microsoft bought for Rare is ridiculous since they havn't released one game.
EA's other franchies like Battlefield and Medal Of Honour are good games and great franchises
I actually really enjoyed the 3rd Person Bond game. It felt like being Bond.

Modern Battlefield will rule droolio and the next C&C!!!!! droolio but thier servers suck

actually they did release a game.. i think it was grabbed by the goulies or something like that..heard it sucked bad.
And of course there is still no word on the ex-gamecube launch title now for xbox game Kameo. its been over 2 years rare..where is it?

Rare are sucking nowadays. I can see why Nintedno let em'go.

Grabbed By The Ghoulies was crap and despite Conkers Bad Fur Day probably gonna excel as a game, it's just a N64 remake, and when you think about it, it's been in development WAY too long.

But if history has showed us that Rare if developing for long periods do put out works of art. So I wouldn't count them out. But for the amount of money Micrsoft paid for them, they should be atleat putting out something.