A Tree Falling in the Forest

[I put this up a few weeks ago, and then took it down. I don't know why, so now I am putting it back up. Enjoy.] A couple weeks ago Take Two announced the termination of takeover discussions with all parties, but it seems the “victory" over the would be invaders is Pyrrhic at best. While the company will certainly survive, whether the actions were in the best interest of the shareholders is up to debate. With the decision to remain fiercely independent seeming set in stone, maybe Take Two will finally move to more fiscally responsible plan than “Rockstar makes all the money and 2K spends it” If last quarter’s events taught us nothing else, we learned GTA’s value has always been factored into the stock price. After the smoke cleared, we see the company is worth roughly the same thing as it was the day Strauss Zelnick entered the board room. I know all the game stocks are down now, but the most recent USD 380 million plus decline in market value happened before any of ...

A little while back I wrote about the failure to release a Batman game with the film . I argued there was sufficient time to make the game, and it was really surprising someone would not be riding the film's wave. Since then, rumors emerged of a game in development but missing the date, and SCi announced their Arkham Asylum game based on the comic books. This was a missed opportunity to exploit public knowledge of a license. Some game publisher, somewhere, lost out on free marketing. But what about Max Payne? The game supporting the movie based on a game? Sure, it's tough to come up with a good game from a film. The studio and actors have approvals. The scenes get added and cut, and players are split between playing the movie and playing an entirely new story line. But Max Payne started life as a game. What gives? I don't have any unique insight into this deal and any information I have is available to you as well through Google. I am just a simple guy looki...

Ken Levine is a talented guy. He is a key visionary behind Bioshock, one of the recent games to rock the industry. For some untold reason, I like to think he is not behind it, news keeps leaking about his contract negotiations. Negotiations, which are taking place months after the production of Bioshock 2 was moved several thousand miles away from him. These leaks are beyond rare in the game business and I don't entirely understand who benefits from the leaks. I never hear about Miyamoto renegotiating. Jason Rubin just went on with his business and addressed it by successfully selling Flektor. Mark Cerny, well, you never hear anything about him, other than a name in the credits of most games I like to play. Will Wright, nah, Neil Young, announcement after the fact. Okomoto, announced the new venture after it happened. Terry Donovan, co-founder of Rockstar, just announced his departure after the fact. Yu Suzuki, never heard a thing. Sam Houser, Dan Houser, Leslie Benzies, n...

No stranger to investigative pressure from every acronym associated with the US Government, Take Two is once again embroiled in controversy. Only this time, they really, really didn't do it. The FTC is trying to force Take Two to surrender reams of information, some of it confidential business information to determine whether the business combination the company does not want to be a part of will harm consumers.  The FTC's action is not unprecedented, nor is it unique under the new FTC chairman, but it seems to upset fundamental rules of fairness. We like to think our government acts logically, this would not be the case here. EA instigated a takeover attempt and was rebuffed by Take Two. EA lowered its per share purchase price of its tender offer, which was already lower than the current trading price of the stock.  Now, before the tender offer is accepted, Take Two is being asked to show why it is ok for the merger to proceed.   Personally, if I were Take Two, I would be...

The New York Times just ran an article about voice actors in games. The Times makes it sound like Michael Holick, the voice of Niko Belic is unhappy with his deal, and the part of the quote working its way through the blogosphere makes it sound worse. The whole quote paints a mildly different story. Here is the whole quote: “Obviously I’m incredibly thankful to Rockstar for the opportunity to be in this game when I was just a nobody, an unknown quantity,” Mr. Hollick, 35, said last week over dinner in Willamsburg, Brooklyn, shortly after performing in the aerial theater show “Fuerzabruta” in Union Square. “But it’s tough, when you see Grand Theft Auto IV out there as the biggest thing going right now, when they’re making hundreds of millions of dollars, and we don’t see any of it. I don’t blame Rockstar. I blame our union for not having the agreements in place to protect the creative people who drive the sales of these games. Yes, the technology is important, but it’s the human per...

Bioshock is set up at Universal to be a movie and it appears to be on track to breaking the bad transition mold. Take 2 appears to realize games are not like books or comic books. Story cannot be lifted from the game, it must be created from the universe the game established. The story is drawn from, but not dictated, by the game. Bioshock is a stand out game by every measure and deserved to sell each of the 2 million units it sold and more. But if each one of these 2 million purchasers goes to see the film on opening night, it will generate box office of $20 million - a bit of a failure. The first job of the studio is to make the film appeal to a broader audience than the game. The job of the publisher, is to make sure the film does not alienate the gamers. This means the film is answering to two masters from the start. Other game to film transitions fail when the story either plays too closely to the game narrative, which is already derivative of a film, or the story ignores ...

In a further expression of his city state model, John R. told the BBC Rockstar is a "rockstar." BBC story . This is a nice sound bite, but I think he is taking the whole city state analogy too far, or maybe not far enough. The power of the city state is derived from its citizens. The same can be said of a game developer. Every night the company's assets ride down the elevator, or in the case of a game developer, go to sleep under their desk. John tells the BBC " What we are attracted to is what we value in our own studios: great developers and great intellectual property." But I don't think he really knows what a developer is. In the same interview he said "If the wrong guy walks out, we have an issue to deal with, But we don't stop making games." He does acknowledge his respect for Sam and Dan Houser and Leslie Benzies, but he also said he had no fear that the value EA placed on Take Two would be damaged if they left. These men are ...

I am concerned about John Riccitiello. He gave a very eloquent speech about his great concerns for every company which is smaller than EA and wants to be in the game business. In his mind, and in his life in games, the world order is very simple. There is EA, and there is everyone else. EA was number one when he left, and when he came back. Then he woke up one day and it was not. That must be fixed. Worse than that, the new number one to be will have a game that is vomiting incomprehensible amounts of cash on a monthly basis and EA has nothing of that scale. The whole thing has put John into a bit of a state. His communications are about as internally consistent as those of a two year old on speed. It is clear he really has to work on the filter between the words coming out of the little angel and devil sitting on his shoulders, and the words coming out of his mouth. Unfortunately, much like Ted Knight, he is simply mouthing the things these little guys are speaking into ...