Studio acquisition and management practices

Studio acquisition and management practices
See also: List of acquisitions by Electronic Arts

During its period of fastest growth, EA was often criticized for buying smaller development studios primarily for their intellectual property assets, and then producing drastically changed games of their franchises. For example, Origin-produced Ultima VIII: Pagan and Ultima IX: Ascension were developed quickly under EA's ownership, over the protests of Ultima creator Richard Garriott,[37] and these two are widely considered [38] to be subpar compared to the rest of the series.[39][40]

In early 2008, current CEO John Riccitiello stated that this practice by EA was wrong and that the company now gives acquired studios greater autonomy without "meddling" in their corporate culture.[14]

In 2008, John D. Carmack of id Software said that EA is no longer the "Evil Empire".[41] id decided to go with EA Partners, despite having a poor opinion of the publisher's past record.

"I'll admit that, if you asked me years ago, I still had thoughts that EA was the Evil Empire, the company that crushes the small studios...I'd have been surprised, if you told me a year ago that we'd end up with EA as a publisher. When we went out and talked to people, especially EA Partners people like Valve, we got almost uniformly positive responses from them."

Like other EA Partners, such as Harmonix/MTV Games, Carmack stressed that EA Partners deal "isn't really a publishing arrangement. Instead, they really offer a menu of services—Valve takes one set of things, Crytek takes a different set, and we're probably taking a third set".[41]

EA was criticized for shutting down some of its acquired studios after they released poorly performing games (for instance, Origin).[42] Though, in some of the cases, the shutdown was merely a reformation of teams working at different small studios into a single studio.[43][44] The historical pattern of poor sales and ratings of the first game shipped after acquisition suggests EA's control and direction as being primarily responsible for the game's failure rather than the studio. In the past, Magic Carpet 2 was rushed to completion over the objections of designer Peter Molyneux and it shipped during the holiday season with several major bugs. Studios such as Origin and Bullfrog Productions had previously produced games attracting significant fanbases. Many fans also became annoyed that their favorite developers were closed down, but some developers, for example the EALA studio, have stated that they try to carry on the legacy of the old studio (Westwood Studios). Once EA received criticism from labor groups for its dismissals of large groups of employees during the closure of a studio. However, later, it was confirmed that layoffs were not heavily confined to one team or another, countering early rumors that the teams were specifically targeted—countering the implication that the under performance of certain games might have been the catalyst.[45]

EA was once criticized for the acquisition of 19.9 percent of shares of its competitor Ubisoft, a move that many felt would lead to a hostile takeover but has not yet materialized. However, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot later indicated that a merger with EA was a possibility. "The first option for us is to manage our own company and grow it. The second option is to work with the movie industry, and the third is to merge," he said.[46] However in July 2010, EA elected to sell its reduced 15 percent share in Ubisoft[47] That share equated to roughly €94 million (US$122 million).[48]

EA was criticized in the media for its attempted hostile takeover of Take Two Interactive.[49]










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