EA & Valve combine hmmm

While this story has no indication of an imminent merger between the two I am pretty sure EA would love to. Activision took on Blizzard mainly for battlenet functionality. Steam would be a massive asset to EA. Luckily Blizzard don't seem to be screwed around so much by Activision like many of their game studios and companies they take on and milk. The current relationship between EA and Valve is great. 40% off offers for nearly every recent EA game after around 5 months after release.
 
Seriously I am not great at business or mergers. I know in this merger Blizzard maintained automony and just assumed wow profits would remain in the Blizzard camp, but then I think Its all owned by Vivendi anyway... i knew i should have taken business at school.
 
Activision are vastly worse than EA ever will be to be fair. They completely destroyed world of warcraft and turned it into a pure cash cow to just shaft and milk the customer base for every penny, whilst also splitting starcraft 2 into 3 parts etc. The greed which some gaming companies strive for is insane to be fair.
 
While I agree Activision are much bigger money grabbers than EA (even though EA pretty much invented the yearly release through the sports franchises it owns) I can not see how they have ruined wow by turning it into a cash cow...

The game costs exactly the same as when it came out all those years ago which technically makes it cheaper due to inflation. Okay so they have introduced rare microtransactions for a few pets (this may have started before the merger) a few people with a handfull of microtransaction pets hardly ruins the game. The expansions cost the same and seem to come out at the same rate. What killed wow for me was overplay (5 years end game guild) and the evolution of heroic end tier content, which while it is designed around accessability for less hardcore players to try increase subscription numbers, started way before the merger I thought. For me taking months of hard work even to see C'thun let alone kill it was much more 'epic' than seeing all the new content in 2 weeks in normal mode and then just repeating it with a bit more challenge where there is nothing new to get excited about.

I will accept you may be right about SC2 and that splitting it into 3 parts was in a large part a financial decision, but even though I did not let myself play multiplayer the production quality of the single player game was worth the money for me (just)
 
Kenai said:
I think you're the only person here suffering from that.

It's a very simple arrangement, it worked for Orange Box, it worked for Left 4 Dead, it worked for Left 4 Dead 2 etc. etc. and nobody was giving EA the credit for those games.

Quite why you think suddenly this is all going to change and EA's purely distribution role in the arrangement is something else is beyond most of us.

I don't think you have any idea what you're talking about to be quite honest.

Here, a nice list of Valve retail products that EA distribute and have done for many years:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_4_Dead
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_4_Dead_2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Orange_Box
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Fortress_2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_2:_Episode_One
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_2:_Episode_Two
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_(video_game)
and even...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_2 since Valve had their bust up with Sierra/Vivendi (who did in fact put their names all over the boxes too, unlike EA)
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So what?

My point is why do they use a competetitor to do this? It's like adidas making footballs and nike boxing them and sticking their name on it with adidas's name, it makes no sense, they are BIG rivals in game development, maybe they're not actually, considering Valve are just releasing recycled PC stuff to consoles now and sticking with a 10(almost) year engine.

Sleeping with the enemy is my point. FORGET about how, supposedly, amazing EA is as a publisher.

It worked, but it would have worked if they used tesco's, if not it would have sold more as tesco's probably wouldn't have charged as much.

Why are Valve supporting EA? It's up to Valve I suppose, just doesn't make sense to me. Obviously you guys are passionate about this.

Don't get your knickers in a twist about it.
 
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Shamikebab said:
Seriously, look at what you're writing and realise how ridiculous you sound.


1. I've just picked up my copy of the Orange Box, doesn't say EA anywhere on the box, so you're wrong.

2. You could look at it as Valve becoming a development branch of the EA monster...but you'd be wrong.

3. "This has obviously went over most peoples heads here" Oh the irony, you don't seem to know what you're talking about dear.
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1) I've just got an email from EA advertising Portal 2, you point mute. Just out of interest, how do you know EA were involved with the Orange Box?

2) How are you sure of this? Please explain... (I doubt I'll hear from you again, unless it's to call me dear)

3) Pointless comment, which adds nothing to the discussion, infact your post shows a dinstinct lack of understanding of what I mean and you obviously haven't read half of what I've wrote.

Any idea how ridiculous you sound mr shamj? Oh... the irony.

Good bye.
 
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kylew said:
If you understand what's actually happening, you'd probably be very indifferent about it. The only thing EA are doing is taking the gold of Portal 2, pressing it on to discs, making the boxes and distributing them to the shops. So in basic terms, they're just taking care of transporting it from Valve, to the customer, and that's it.
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I nice calm post, thanks.

Yes, I know, it's a bit more than that now as getting an email from EA advertising Portal 2 in my inbox I seriously thought EA and Valve were one, and I just didn't read about it somewhere.

EA is a developer, the biggest developer in the gaming industry. Valve are programming a game, giving it to the biggest company in the industry, who are developers, and letting them distribute it for them. Now it seems they have their name associated with the product advertising, they are the ones sending out the emails not Valve, it makes you wonder whos game is it?
 
Liampope said:
This haz definately not went straight over my head.

I vaguely remember it registering in there about five years ago, then was forgotten.



You could.

But that would be stupid.
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Yeah, I'm thinking if there are any actual developers in Valve now, well there must be 5 or 6, then they might be working in the same office as some EA guys putting the finishing touches to the console release, giving the PS3 work by EA mentioned earlier, is this not possible?

Regardless, folks seem more than happy with EA.

Let it be.
 
davewhite04 said:
So what?

My point is why do they use a competetitor to do this?
Click to expand...

Because Valve do not have the capability or infrastructure in place to press millions of DVDs and distribute them to a huge supply chain of retailers, nor do they have any interest in investing in one when they have Steam and only release about one game a year of their own anyway.

Therefore, they get EA to do this for them and that is all that EA do for them.

It's a very very very simple concept and one that has been working without issue for half a decade already.
 
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davewhite04 said:
Just out of interest, how do you know EA were involved with the Orange Box?
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http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/634/634535p1.html

That was when the arrangement started and it has been in place for every Valve game since then, including Orange Box. It was all over the gaming news at the time.

davewhite04 said:
Now it seems they have their name associated with the product advertising, they are the ones sending out the emails not Valve, it makes you wonder whos game is it?
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Makes sense, EA have a huge mail list of gamers, many of whom only play on console - this is a market Valve's usual channels can't easily target. The only person who suddenly thinks EA have developed Portal 2 is you though really.
 
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Dave you just don't seem to understand the process of selling a video game or why Valve are using EA. Just give it up, does the fact that EVERYONE is telling you you're wrong not give you a hint?

How do I know that EA were involved with The Orange Box? Aside from the million news stories announcing it, here is a big ******* hint http://www.ea.com/games/the-orange-box Perhaps you haven't mastered Google yet though.

And the reason I'm sure Valve aren't a development branch of the "EA monster" is because I know the difference between a company being bought by another company....and a company partnering with another company for a service that they themselves are not capable of at the moment. Suggesting that EA have any influence over the development process (you even went on to suggest that EA might "make" Half Life 3) really shows how little you seem to understand.
 
davewhite04 said:
EA is a developer, the biggest developer in the gaming industry.
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EA are first and foremost a publisher. They have the infrastructure in place for making physical disks and the relationships with the retail chains globally to get those disks onto shop shelves with the leverage to ensure the product is prominently displayed.

There's nothing nefarious about this, Valve sell more copies of their game and EA take a cut of revenue for all physical sales. Of course it's in EA's interest to promote the game.

I can't see EA buying Valve, the crown jewel is Steam (which I imagine is very profitable) - and the value in that is the network effect of having product from many publishers. Publishers that would likely pull out of any deals if a direct competitor took ownership.

Anyway, it's a moot point. Valve is a growing, successful, privately held business and until such time as Gabe Newell wants to retire and count his millions it will stay that way.
 
davewhite04 said:
Yeah, I'm thinking if there are any actual developers in Valve now, well there must be 5 or 6, then they might be working in the same office as some EA guys putting the finishing touches to the console release, giving the PS3 work by EA mentioned earlier, is this not possible?

Regardless, folks seem more than happy with EA.

Let it be.
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I think you're missing the point mate, we all understand EA can be right shi**ers at times but they are simply, as mentioned above, transporting from Valve to ourselves. Everybody is still aware that it's a Valve game and they should take all the credit.
 
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