View Full Version : Take-Two to acquire Visual Concepts and Kush Games from Sega?
FriskyTanuki
12-24-2004, 06:51 PM
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/12/23/news_6115592.html
"Pursuant to an option agreement with SEGA, we have the right to purchase all of the outstanding capital stock of Visual Concepts and Kush," read the company's report. "The option is exercisable until the earlier of (1) March 31, 2006 or (2) the termination of our distribution agreement with SEGA. We are currently negotiating the option price, and we are continuing to evaluate potential opportunities in the market for sports titles." Were the deal to go through, Take-Two would own the rights to the ESPN Major League Baseball 2K, ESPN NBA 2K, ESPN NHL 2K, and ESPN College Hoops series. It would also own the rights to ESPN's next professional football game, which, due to EA's exclusive deal, won't be able to feature any assets from the NFL.
Take-Two's report also filled in the details of its recent purchase of Utah-based studio Indie Built from Microsoft. "In October 2004, we acquired certain assets from Microsoft, including Indie, the developer of the successful Top Spin (tennis), Amped and Amped 2 (snowboarding) and Links (golf) sports games, and the intellectual property rights associated with these products," it read. While the purchase was already known of, the price Take-Two paid--a surprisingly low $18.5 million in cash--was not.
Another sports-related revelation in the report was that Take-Two has acquired British developer Venom, creator of Rocky: Legends. The publisher quietly bought the studio, which was founded by former Rare staffers, in September for just under $1.3 million in cash. The Venom purchase means that Take-Two will directly publish golf, tennis, snowboarding, and boxing title and co-publish football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and college basketball franchises--evidence that it considers the sports genre fair game.
Looks like Sega could lose the ESPN license as well as VC and Kush Games. This would make Take-Two the big juggernaut of sports that will take on EA Sports. What do you think?
EDIT: Added Kush Games to the title.
Sarang01
12-24-2004, 09:36 PM
I think Sega are complete morons if they sell it. This is their ONLY potential gold mine in the U.S., I mean a chance to make some real money. If Sega just keeps on with Take Two fighting with EA they might be surprised at the capital that starts to flow in.
edit addition: In fact I'm going to e-mail Sega as WELL as visit their HQ in Japan and BEG them not to sell it. Visual Concepts is a vital part of Sega, they NEED them.
guyver2077
12-24-2004, 09:45 PM
yea visual concepts rock...i read this yesterday and i was like wtf..i guess rockstar can elevate them more though
punqsux
12-24-2004, 09:49 PM
wow...if sega lets them go, they are retarded
kinda intresting that take two is trying to start up a sports division, and even more intresting that they bought all the xbox licenses...
dafoomie
12-24-2004, 10:00 PM
Sammy is a very financially conservative company. The sports market is a big risk. Sega bought Visual Concepts in the late 90s, and if they sell, they'll probably make a lot more back. Plus this deal was negotiated before Sega lost the NFL rights, so they might be even more eager to sell now. The other sports are small potatoes compared to NFL 2k.
I hope the deal falls through though, Sega could stand to gain from keeping them, even without the NFL rights. Hell, its hard to find a division of theirs that doesn't lose money.
Sarang01
12-24-2004, 10:41 PM
yea visual concepts rock...i read this yesterday and i was like wtf..i guess rockstar can elevate them more though
What do you mean? To being giant assholes? I'm sorry but I'm still mad about the fact those pricks won't support the Gamecube at ALL. They made like one game for it and ditched.
They need to take a risk dafoomie and this is the safest one they can take and to be honest I don't consider it much of a risk if any. If they manage to wrestle a sizable purse from EA they'll DEFINITELY be able to cover any of the loss their other games make so we won't have to worry about them going bankrupt anytime soon. Yes I know Sammy bought them so perhaps I should say major losses.
OH MY GOD! Take-Two is trying to take over the video game industry! I'm boycotting all Take-Two products from now on. Someone please sign my petition to get this stopped.
Down with Take-Two!
punqsux
12-25-2004, 02:03 AM
OH MY GOD! Take-Two is trying to take over the video game industry! I'm boycotting all Take-Two products from now on. Someone please sign my petition to get this stopped.
Down with Take-Two!
haha wow youre funny...you should write for leno.
haha wow youre funny...you should write for leno.
Oh go sign a petition, hypocrite.
punqsux
12-25-2004, 11:24 AM
haha wow youre funny...you should write for leno.
Oh go sign a petition, hypocrite.
please explain the hypocrisy
haha wow youre funny...you should write for leno.
Oh go sign a petition, hypocrite.
please explain the hypocrisy
EA makes a few business moves and you cry foul and start boycotting them and claim they're a monopoly.
Take-Two makes a few business moves and you do nothing except say its "interesting".
Take-Two and EA are doing similar things yet the only one you shit on is EA. That's hypocrisy.
Kaijufan
12-25-2004, 09:16 PM
OH MY GOD! Take-Two is trying to take over the video game industry! I'm boycotting all Take-Two products from now on. Someone please sign my petition to get this stopped.
Down with Take-Two!
:lol:
guyver2077
12-25-2004, 09:18 PM
its not hypOcrisy...its just plain and simple
EA SUCKS!
SEGA128DC
12-26-2004, 12:04 AM
haha wow youre funny...you should write for leno.
Oh go sign a petition, hypocrite.
please explain the hypocrisy
EA makes a few business moves and you cry foul and start boycotting them and claim they're a monopoly.
Take-Two makes a few business moves and you do nothing except say its "interesting".
Take-Two and EA are doing similar things yet the only one you shit on is EA. That's hypocrisy.
I don't recall Take-Two Interactive, acquiring the rights to the NFL, in the attempt to crush the competition? There is nothing wrong with competition, something Electronic Arts doesn't seem to understand...
craven_fiend
12-26-2004, 12:11 AM
haha wow youre funny...you should write for leno.
Oh go sign a petition, hypocrite.
please explain the hypocrisy
EA makes a few business moves and you cry foul and start boycotting them and claim they're a monopoly.
Take-Two makes a few business moves and you do nothing except say its "interesting".
Take-Two and EA are doing similar things yet the only one you shit on is EA. That's hypocrisy.
I don't recall Take-Two Interactive, acquiring the rights to the NFL, in the attempt to crush the competition? There is nothing wrong with competition, something Electronic Arts doesn't seem to understand...
checkmate
gmzone
12-26-2004, 12:19 AM
That's right. EA paid for the rights to have no other NFL games for five years, not caring what the fans thought about it. The day Take-2 does something like that, let's say with the NBA or MLB, I'd boycott their car-jacking asses in a heartbeat. Competition is good. NFL Blitz = Midway NFL 2K5 = Sega Madden = EA and we used to have NFL Fever and NFL Gameday from MS and 989. While I don't miss Fever, Gameday was good back in the day(pre-2001), and one can't say it would never be good again. Now, one will never know. And, now I can't use NFL players to clothesline and drop elbows on other NFL players in future Blitz games. Boo!
punqsux
12-26-2004, 02:27 AM
EA makes a few business moves and you cry foul and start boycotting them and claim they're a monopoly.
Take-Two makes a few business moves and you do nothing except say its "interesting".
Take-Two and EA are doing similar things yet the only one you shit on is EA. That's hypocrisy.
EA aquired an exclusive licence to a sports leauge, and attempted to aquire another, to create a monopolous state in the sports gaming industry, and initiated a hostile take over of a very sucessful publisher/developer.
take two is mearly buying a development house from another publisher. take two is becomming competition, not eliminating it.
how you can think they are the same actions baffles me, but im sure youll post another incohearant post about something or another, so be my guest ^^
punqsux
12-26-2004, 02:30 AM
Gameday was good back in the day(pre-2001), and one can't say it would never be good again. Now, one will never know.
i played gameday 2004 and honestly, it wasnt horrible.
it wasnt sega or ea quality, but it was not the crap it used to be, its a shame the series is gunna end when they were on the right track.
gmzone
12-26-2004, 02:44 AM
I never played Gameday 2004 so I can't comment on it. I stopped playing Gameday back in 2002 because the other football games were better. I tried NFL Fever through a friend, and it's OK. Nothing to write home about, but OK.
gmzone
12-26-2004, 02:44 AM
Well said Pungsux. I couldn't have said it better myself if I had cut and pasted the words right out from under you and called them my own.
take two is mearly buying a development house from another publisher. take two is becomming competition, not eliminating it.
how you can think they are the same actions baffles me, but im sure youll post another incohearant post about something or another, so be my guest ^^
Yeah, I'm the incoherent one when you don't even know how to spell "incoherent".
Take-Two is buying small developers so they can narrow the competition as well. They want to compete with EA but, at the same time, are eliminating any other developers that might give THEM competition.
Besides, I realize what Take-Two and EA did aren't exactly the same thing. My point is, they're similar enough that they could both be compared. EA did what it thought was best for its business by buying up a bunch of stuff as did Take-Two.
And I guarantee if Take-Two comes out tomorrow and announces they got an exclusive deal with the NBA nobody would be boycotting them, they'd all be going "HAHA IN YOUR FACE EA!"
punqsux
12-26-2004, 03:09 AM
Yeah, I'm the incoherent one when you don't even know how to spell "incoherent".
oh my gosh, you SO caught me, im an awful speller.
Take-Two is buying small developers so they can narrow the competition as well. They want to compete with EA but, at the same time, are eliminating any other developers that might give THEM competition.
i dont see how they are narrowing competition by keeping the same number of sports games on the market.
the only diffrence is that take two will profit off of visual concepts work rather than sega.
while id rather see sega profit, if they want to sell, let them.
Besides, I realize what Take-Two and EA did aren't exactly the same thing. My point is, they're similar enough that they could both be compared. EA did what it thought was best for its business by buying up a bunch of stuff as did Take-Two.
please dont bring up the "good for business" line because its old. you say it in every thread, and i agree, ea makes great business moves! but its bad for the industry.
i see no way that take two aquiring VC will have an immediate negative impact on the video game industry.
And I guarantee if Take-Two comes out tomorrow and announces they got an exclusive deal with the NBA nobody would be boycotting them, they'd all be going "HAHA IN YOUR FACE EA!"
even in a world of business there is room for poetic justice. i see no such deal happening, and if it did i would not support it, but i would find it funny.
gmzone
12-26-2004, 03:17 AM
If Take-2 got an exclusive deal with the NBA, I wouldn't support it. I wouldn't bash them as much as EA however, because it's mainly in response to EA, and they'd still need to do a few more things to get to EA's status(bullying, lousy treatment of workers, buying up 20% of Ubisoft, etc.). I would not like the NBA, NHL or MLB to sign an exclusive deal with anyone, PERIOD.