Dillgaar
06-21-2006, 02:08 PM
1879In a not so surprising move, Electronic Arts has announced they will be acquiring Mythic Entertainment in a bid to fulfill their commitment to the online market.
It seems the trend for company acquisition as opposed to innovation and development continues to reach it's way into the video game industry, but is it a blessing or a curse?
I can see it now...
John Madden's Warhammer Online!
oooh maybe even...
Dark Age of NFL
I hope the seemingly deep pockets of EA can help Mythic really achieve its potential as opposed to turning Mythic into merely a puppet developer. A small company by comparison, Mythic has been well known for its smooth launch of DAoC as well as its innovative Realm vs Realm system (by far one of the best PVP systems out there to date) and that was just in their first major foray into MMOGs.
Warhammer online is highly anticipated and here's to hoping that the EA purchase will only effect the ability of Mythic to deliver the quality game they can make and not hinder the abilities of the company to complete their projects.
EA has had a sordid past of unfair treatment of their employees which brought fame to folks like ea spouse (http://ea-spouse.livejournal.com/274.html) and lit a fire under the industry to improve the work environment for game developers. We can only hope that with the already stressful environment of developing a persistent world that these types of practices won't rear their ugly heads.
We hope for the best with this acquisition and wish both EA and Mythic good luck and we look forward to seeing Warhammer Online and whatever else may be coming our way.
You can read the official press release here (http://www.ea.com/article.jsp?dcr=ea&id=ea_mythic)
It seems the trend for company acquisition as opposed to innovation and development continues to reach it's way into the video game industry, but is it a blessing or a curse?
I can see it now...
John Madden's Warhammer Online!
oooh maybe even...
Dark Age of NFL
I hope the seemingly deep pockets of EA can help Mythic really achieve its potential as opposed to turning Mythic into merely a puppet developer. A small company by comparison, Mythic has been well known for its smooth launch of DAoC as well as its innovative Realm vs Realm system (by far one of the best PVP systems out there to date) and that was just in their first major foray into MMOGs.
Warhammer online is highly anticipated and here's to hoping that the EA purchase will only effect the ability of Mythic to deliver the quality game they can make and not hinder the abilities of the company to complete their projects.
EA has had a sordid past of unfair treatment of their employees which brought fame to folks like ea spouse (http://ea-spouse.livejournal.com/274.html) and lit a fire under the industry to improve the work environment for game developers. We can only hope that with the already stressful environment of developing a persistent world that these types of practices won't rear their ugly heads.
We hope for the best with this acquisition and wish both EA and Mythic good luck and we look forward to seeing Warhammer Online and whatever else may be coming our way.
You can read the official press release here (http://www.ea.com/article.jsp?dcr=ea&id=ea_mythic)