Take a deep breath – this post isn’t *entirely* about the EA/Take 2 offer. If you actually have been living under a rock for the last week (and Liquid Architecture would never discriminate against subter-mineral dwelling Americans), Steve Totilo at MTV’s Multiplayer blog has a good digest, and Nick Wingfield put together a very thorough run-down as soon as the news broke.
As far as day-of coverage goes, I was a bit surprised to see the New York Times piece, coauthored by the almost-always-stellar Seth Schiesel and Captain Dealbook Andrew Ross Sorkin, identify Take 2 as a “mercurial one-hit wonder.” That HAD to be a Sorkin contribution , ’cause Seth has at least heard of Bioshock, the Sid Meier’s series, 2K Baseball and other non-GTA, non-Rockstar Take 2 games.
I can understand why mainstream media latched onto EA’s offer so readily – it’s a genuinely big story, even though no deal is complete… yet. EA’s a superpower, and GTA is definitely a super-franchise. Besides, it’s an M&A story with quite a bit of money at stake, and every business reader can make sense of that, even if they couldn’t pick Mario out of a lineup.
The downside is, coverage of the not-quite-deal sucked all the air out of the room for the more important news, in my opinion: EA’s Blueprint division announcement. Blueprint shows a commitment to lo-fi, indie-developed games from one of the world’s biggest publishers. Combined with announcements from Nintendo and Microsoft at GDC regarding snack-size game delivery channels (WiiWare and Xbox Live Community Games, respectively), low cost games from garage band developers are a bona fide industry trend.
Unlike the EA/Take 2 business, this is real big news that WILL impact the industry immediately. I’m excited to see what this new batch of developers brings to the table, and how bigger developers augment their retail products to keep our interest. As the Escapist pointed out, easier access to development can’t be a bad thing.
