Bono, Murdoch could buy 'Grand Theft Auto' maker

B

Big Papa

CAGiversary!
Interesting article on CNN Money about the possible selling of Take Two Interactive.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/19/commentary/column_gaming/index.htm?postversion=2007031911

Some quotes from the article:

"As for potential buyers, the list is long. Game publishers UbiSoft and Activision (Charts) have reportedly explored a possible bid in the past. Elevation Partners, the venture capital group whose members include U2 front man Bono, is a possibility as well. And Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (Charts) has also been mentioned regularly as a possible suitor."

"One company that says it's not in the running is Microsoft. Because today's independent publishers are platform agnostic - that is to say, they build games for all major systems - taking over one would result in a massive revenue loss for Microsoft, as all development would be redirected toward the Xbox 360.
"We could never launch an acquisition bid at a third party publisher," said Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft (Charts) Game Studios."

Guess they decided the Bungie thing was a bad move? (By popular demand it has been stated I should have said). Guess they decided the Rare thing was a bad move?

"The looming shareholder battle is just the latest in a series of troubles for Take Two. The company spent a significant part of last year dealing with a scandal involving backdated stock options. Former CEO (and company founder) Ryan Brant in February pled guilty to criminal charges in connection with the option scandal and settled a civil suit for $7.3 million. Brant is expected to cooperate with investigators as they expand their case against the company."

"2K Games has some notable properties in its portfolio, including games made by industry legend Sid Meier ("Civilization," "Alpha Centauri"). 2K Sports, though, would be vulnerable to sale. Ubisoft, for instance, has made it known it would like to start a sports brand to compete with Electronic Arts (Charts), makers of the popular "Madden" series. EA, meanwhile, would likely make a bid as well."

Lets hope that EA does not try to buy 2K sports to prevent competition from Ubisoft. God help us all if this happens as we are relegated to crap tastic sports games for ever.

Hopefully none of this will happen and 2K will still release its rumored "Legends" football game.
 
I am glad to see an article that finally states WHY companies won't bother even attempting to buy independent publishers. I get sick of hearing XXXX could buy xxxxx etc.
 
[quote name='Big Papa']Guess they decided the Bungie thing was a bad move?[/QUOTE]

More like they figured out they shouldn't go after a massive publisher/developer unless it fills a certain niche that hasn't been filled by a third party or that you can buy the company but you can rarely buy the talent.

People may think Rare was a horrible purchase but it helped fill in the "kiddy" part of their catalogue while Bungie helped fill that "killer app" catalogue back in the Xbox's infancy.

If Take Two was selling off just Rockstar, Microsoft would be over it so quick it would blow your mind.
 
[quote name='Sporadic']
If Take Two was selling off just Rockstar, Microsoft would be over it so quick it would blow your mind.[/quote]

Even then they might not jump on it too fast. The problem is that even if GTA is insanely popular it doesn't translate into instant profit if microsoft were to buy it. Rockstar's profit comes from 2 main systems right now Sony and Microsoft. I don't have the numbers but i'm fairly confident that most of the profit is currently from Sony since there aren't as many GTA games on xbox yet.

If Microsoft were to buy Rockstar now they obviously wouldn't make GTA games for Sony and would eliminate that entire market from their sales. So if GTA IV cost $25 million to make and were to have sold $22 million for PS2 and $24 million for 360 then it would sell at a loss.

Now there are a ton of other factors such as hurting Sony by getting the license, # of people who would buy it on 360 if it wasn't available for PS3, etc. So its a VERY complicated decision that takes alot of research. Just don't expect companies to jump on a name just because they can.
 
Bungie never was a publisher OP. Bungie is a developer. Microsoft has never stated that they are not willing to purchase Software/Game developers. They do it all the time.
 
[quote name='Brian9824']Even then they might not jump on it too fast. The problem is that even if GTA is insanely popular it doesn't translate into instant profit if microsoft were to buy it. Rockstar's profit comes from 2 main systems right now Sony and Microsoft. I don't have the numbers but i'm fairly confident that most of the profit is currently from Sony since there aren't as many GTA games on xbox yet.

If Microsoft were to buy Rockstar now they obviously wouldn't make GTA games for Sony and would eliminate that entire market from their sales. So if GTA IV cost $25 million to make and were to have sold $22 million for PS2 and $24 million for 360 then it would sell at a loss.

Now there are a ton of other factors such as hurting Sony by getting the license, # of people who would buy it on 360 if it wasn't available for PS3, etc. So its a VERY complicated decision that takes alot of research. Just don't expect companies to jump on a name just because they can.[/quote]

If they were to buy anything it be a strict license transfer or Rockstar. They might be at a slight loss with buying Rockstar, but in the long run they would be making bank off of that acquisition. A lot more then just GTA would come out of buying Rockstar.
 
Honestly, though, even though Take 2 owns other properties, anyone doing this deal is mainly doing it for the GTA franchise.

This would be an interesting thought. Yes, you would lose money on the transaction, just from the game side. However, a few big positives would happen from this transaction

1) Sony loses one of their biggest titles this year
2) Microsoft gains one of the most popular system selling products out there

Let's be honest, we're all gamers here. Given the option, we'd all own every system (many of us do eventually). But, there are tons of people out there that play an occasional game, and that's it. They may play Madden, or GTA, or something else, and then own a couple other games. GTA is one of those games that these players buy systems for. Anyone on the fence between a 360 or a PS3 may flock to the 360 for the next GTA game if that's the only place to play it.

How much is that worth? I have no idea, but I'm surprised it isn't enough for Microsoft to at least make an inquiry.
 
[quote name='lordxixor101']Honestly, though, even though Take 2 owns other properties, anyone doing this deal is mainly doing it for the GTA franchise.

This would be an interesting thought. Yes, you would lose money on the transaction, just from the game side. However, a few big positives would happen from this transaction

1) Sony loses one of their biggest titles this year
2) Microsoft gains one of the most popular system selling products out there

Let's be honest, we're all gamers here. Given the option, we'd all own every system (many of us do eventually). But, there are tons of people out there that play an occasional game, and that's it. They may play Madden, or GTA, or something else, and then own a couple other games. GTA is one of those games that these players buy systems for. Anyone on the fence between a 360 or a PS3 may flock to the 360 for the next GTA game if that's the only place to play it.

How much is that worth? I have no idea, but I'm surprised it isn't enough for Microsoft to at least make an inquiry.[/quote]

The problem though is i'm pretty sure they already have a legally binding contract meaning they HAVE to make the game for PS3 and 360 right now. Microsoft can't pay them to NOT make the game or else they'd be in breach of contract. For future games yeah its a possibility but you'd need to look at the cost. Your looking at several years income for the company and if microsoft were to buy them they would only make a fraction of their current income so it would take quite a few years to break even.

The other factors such as depriving Sony of the game are an issue but its not a decision the average joe can make.
 
[quote name='Big Papa']Guess they decided the Rare thing was a bad move?[/QUOTE]
Fixed.

[quote name='Xevious']It will never happen...Bono and Murdoch would not touch that..[/QUOTE]
Don't assume Rupert Murdoch has scruples until you've looked at his portfolio. Same goes for Bono, I'm sure.
 
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