Take2 buys Firaxis

[PJayTycy]

I guess Jeff Brigs and Sid Meier are a little bit richer again:

http://ir.take2games.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=178951

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Acquires Firaxis Games
Firaxis Enhances 2K Games' AAA Development Talent
New York, NY – November 7, 2005 – Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTWO) today announced the acquisition of Firaxis Games™, one of the world's premier game development studios. Firaxis Games joins the 2K Games publishing label of Take-Two Interactive.

Firaxis Games, home of industry icon Sid Meier, is known for developing award-winning, top-rated games with mass consumer appeal. Their popular gaming franchises include Sid Meier's Pirates! and the blockbuster Civilization franchise. Firaxis has a proven track record of best-selling products that will complement 2K's expanding portfolio of high-quality titles.

"Firaxis Games, founded and led by industry executive Jeff Briggs, and inspired by the genius of Sid Meier, is among the most innovative and successful development studios in the industry," said Christoph Hartmann, Managing Director of 2K Games. "The Firaxis and 2K Games union is a strong fusion of creativity and vision that will continue to result in the development of innovative games with mass appeal. We're excited to welcome Jeff, Sid and the entire Firaxis team to the 2K family."

"This is a tremendous opportunity for Firaxis," said Jeff Briggs, Founder, President and CEO of Firaxis Games. "2K Games is an energetic label that shares our goals and vision for making great games that stand the test of time. We are pleased to be associated with the energy and commitment to quality work that 2K represents, and look forward to a great future together."

"2K Games has already been a tremendous partner to Firaxis in the marketing and release of Sid Meier's Pirates! and Sid Meier's Civilization IV. We're excited about all of the possibilities ahead of us as we work together to explore new ideas, new products and new consumer markets," said industry legend Sid Meier, Director of Creative Development at Firaxis Games.

[DanQ]

http://apolyton.net/news/search.php?Category=All&LookFor=both&Find1=take-two+buys+firaxis

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Dan; Apolyton CS

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Er. This make anybody else really nervous?

[WiggleStick]

Deja vu? Microprose sold after the release of Civ 2, while they were working on the patch. Civilization must be one strenuous endeaver.

[Addled Platypus]

I will be watching very closely

[DaveV]

Wow. This is huge. I'm amazed there aren't more comments.

Take Two/2K will presumably be looking for some return on their investment, which could well impact the number of patches issued (why give away what you could sell instead?), the release of the SDK (ditto), future development (apparently Soren had to do quite a bit of selling to make the beta testing of Civ4 happen; now he has to convince a couple more levels of management).

Nothing against Take Two, but big companies tend to be very conscious of the bottom line, especially when they've just had a huge fiasco that cost them a lot of money (Hot Coffee). There will be enormous pressure at upcoming board meetings to show that the money spent buying Firaxis was well spent. This means producing maximum revenue per man-hour of programming, which is probably not good news for gamers.

[binTravkin]

(..)the release of the SDK (ditto)(..)

which is probably not good news for gamers

Bye bye, SMAC 2..

[PJayTycy]

mwah, it's probably cheaper than buying all remaining franchises seperatly.

plus, it makes them "bound" to take2 as publisher.

now is also a good time, because the value of firaxis will probably rise a lot if civ4 sells well.

I think take2 will leave them as long as they produce money-making games.

Sid and Jeff will probably have had to sign a contract about staying at the company for at least 5 years with a clausule about not becomming a direct competitor for a few years more if they do leave Firaxis.

This is very similar to what happened to Poptop 6 years ago after the release of Railroad Tycoon 2. The head of poptop has resigned the day after his 5-year term came to an end, but he is still prohibited to develop a game with the same theme as any of the previous Poptop games.

[Broken Hawk]

I hope they still issue patches for some of the little problems that exist .

[Apocalypse Cow]

Another problem with this, and with patches in general, is that a good chunk of the dev team often gets the axe less than a week after the game ships, and just a skeleton crew is kept on for patch purposes. I have a friend who this happened to twice, so who knows what we can expect with the ship attrition and the possible new company attrition.

[Q Classic]

Yeah, I'm not as thrilled about this as I could be.

It makes me quite nervous.

[Vaugula]

Originally posted by DaveV
Take Two/2K will presumably be looking for some return on their investment, which could well impact the number of patches issued (why give away what you could sell instead?), the release of the SDK (ditto), future development (apparently Soren had to do quite a bit of selling to make the beta testing of Civ4 happen; now he has to convince a couple more levels of management).

You can easily say that about any game company because at the end of the day everyone is chasing the bottom line, so I don't think that argument holds water. If nothing else releasing patches for known bugs is good PR, or at a bare minimum not patching them is bad PR.

I see this more as locking Firaxis into publishing with 2K games rather than anything insidious.

Have a little faith that things will turn out ok.

[Gray_Lensman]

Damn, I was hoping Fixaxis would remain independant... The only company I dislike more than Take2 is InfoCrap... aka Atari. That pretty well seals it for me... All the graphic bugs, CTDs, and nothing really new other than some fancy graphics and new, but in some cases flawed diplomacy has convinced me that this game, for me, is a "Don't Buy"... I do appreciate the forums that are independant enough to allow negative comments that some would consider rants, because the official forums are not gonna allow any negative information to be discussed that would cut into sales. I just wish they would have pushed the design of Civ Iv more in the direction of SMACX, and not wasted resources on super complicated graphics, that seem to be causing most of the reported bugs.

edit: There seems to be a lot of parallels here when compared to the MOO3 release and purported bug/design support. Hopefully, I'm wrong... But MOO3 changed how I approach buying new software.

[MarkG]

wow, how people tend to forget....
this is NOTHING like the moo3 release

[Bhruic]

Hmm, unfortunately I can't think of a single example of a publisher purchasing a developer that turned out to be good for the customer. Not one. If anyone can think of one, please post it so I'll feel less bad about this.

Of course, this could be "the exception that prove the rule", so-to-speak, but that's highly doubtful.

Bh