The Microsoft of the Gaming Industry

Its a very, very sad day when I would rather work for Microsoft than another software company, but EA currently "deserves" this distinction.

First came the whole EA Spouse thing, basically stating that the working conditions at EA were not only inhumane, but illegal to boot. Not to mention the fact that they are being sued over this. That was disapointing, but EA is still a company.

Then came the "EA buys exclusive NFL license" thing. Anyone who doubts the negative impact a monopoly has on quality should only look to the deterioration of the Windows OS prior to XP. When there are no other options avaiable on the market, the monopoly-controlling company doesn't have to try nearly as hard with their development. Why work extremely hard on a product when half-assing it will get nearly the same amount of revenue?

Its not that bleak, however. Midway will continue to develop their Blitz football series without the license, and I doubt that Sega is going to give up on Football with their ESPN license still alive. But I doubt that EA is going to have a huge amount of competition next year in the Football department.

Then we get to the recent events.

Currently there is an offer by EA to aquire Digital Illusions CE, or DICE, the makers of the excellent Battlefield series of games (Battlefield 1942, Battlefield Vietnam). Currently DICE makes the best Mass Military Shooters, and has made the best Vietnam game to date. The phrase Genre-Defining Title shows up a lot here.

Then, in an act that could easily be termed Hostile, EA has purchased nearly 20% of the shares of French game maker Ubisoft. Ubisoft is well known for the recently revived Prince of Persia series, but thier biggest claim to fame has been their Tom Clancy Trio: Ghost Recon (squad-based military shooter), Rainbow Six (squad-based counter-terrorism shooter), and Splinter Cell (Stealth Espionage/Action). All three series have been consistently excellent, and now EA owns 20% of the company. The only group with more shares is the founders themselves.

This sounds a little familiar...