Bell out, Kim up, Spencer in at Microsoft

i think these people don't know how to make a game. this game has been coming out for over a year now. silly phucks.

I'm very surprised at how proudly incorrect, ignorant, and vitriolic so many of these short quips are. Microsoft is an evil company, which was born out of a stolen IP, plain and simple. EA is a company that, while it definitely is the cliche publisher that cares very much about the bottom line, they have the unique advantage of knowing that what makes games sell is quality, not quantity. Are they able to provide an environment to allow creative expansion on many of their own IP's? Absolutely not. EA has been referred to by many many game industry workers as "burn-out city", simply because they are so cutthroat in their attempts to stay on top of the game(s), so to speak. In the end, what really needs to happen is a change of this "fanboy" crapola to something like actually finding out who the DEVELOPERS of these games are, and giving them the immense kudos they deserve for putting years of their lives into something they know we'll probably only play for a max of 40-100 hours total, if they're relatively lucky. We should be hating Microsoft and EA for not properly marketing their games when they have the potential to be awesome, and instead focusing on making the same old commercials for the same old Halo or Madden spin-offs. Good for Bioware for getting into EA, but hopefully they won't die a horrible, slow death there due to lack of creative license from their publisher. ~ XM

mass effect tbh is no loss its a horrible rpg compared to others

Jesus Jshaw.... do you know english? Where are you from? Pakistan?

lol wut

you know sony may have struggled against the 360, but now it seems like there staff is imploding, great joib guys leave it to only M$ to shoot themse.ves in the foot, nah j/k, but seriously, haven't there already been engugh changes?

i hope microsoft will reveal a new footage for alan wake.

darkride66, thanks for your reply.

@ Mindchamber. Hey, I'm just offering up what I've heard. Out of all the EA bashing that goes on on these forums, how many people have spoken to employees who work for developers that have merged with EA? There seems quite a lack of actual feedback from people working with EA. I don't know my Bioware guys very well, but at least their comments carry some weight over some poster who's thinks EA's just some monster sent to earth to stifle all creativity and innovation within the games industry. I'm not trying to name drop, I'm only sharing the impression I got from talking to a couple of people making the games we all love.

Lol @ darkride66, we get it, you know a few bioware guys. whoop-de****

@ thenephariouson. They do, and EA has publically vowed that they would continue to give their devs creative freedom. That was really important to the people I've spoken to with Bioware because EA has made some questionable calls in the past, but in the end they were satisfied with what EA brought to the table.

I Said "I know a lot of people flame EA for thier 'Buy-Out' bids, however am i right in thinking that EA still allows its aquired devs to still have total creative rights?" Why the thumbs down?? I only asked a simple question, Jesus!!

Darn, robot man had to go...oh well, maybe the next Microsoft E3 press conference will actually have some human emotion.

the great XBOX360 IS GOING;go my love;go and be the best forever;

Woah...Alan Wake is still in development?

MrGordons The Day Microsoft buys EA ,will Be the Day I smile... Yea you can say that again then they would start coming out with good games that dont suck.

Ea is going to kill gaming

PieCrusher commented "EA is becoming more and more generic and the quality of games has been going down for quite some time now." Really? Because metacritic seems to indicate that EA's games are still very well received, and certainly the public is voting with their wallets. What are you basing your opinion on?

with all these buy-outs by EA i'm just hoping that they are putting their name on the box for publishing purposes coz then the games will be alright instead of those . . . unfortunate titles that they decided to make themselves with the same content that was thought of 10 years ago. (sports titles in general) besides that i THINK some of their other stuff is ALRIGHT, not perfect but ALRIGHT

EA is becoming more and more generic and the quality of games has been going down for quite some time now.

@ tsiper. The guys I've talked to at Bioware don't think so. Maybe you should actually wait to pass judgment. @ andrew_ribbons. You said "Microsoft the Corp. > EA. Anyday." This type of attitude never ceases to amaze me. So you prefer Microsoft, one of the world's largest, most anti-competitive monopolies that has ever shambled across the face of the earth to EA, a company that has for 20 years now produced some of the best video games ever. Microsoft, a corporate monster that openly admits and willfully forces their competition under by any means at their disposal. Who's executives vowed to "choke the life" out of Netscape, who have been found guilty of anti-competitive practices over and over and over again all over the world and who still use their vast resources to fight any proposed changes in court while delaying actually changing these very same practices, because they don't want to, a company that strong arms and threatens computer makers about what would happen if they put competitors products on the computers they're building, so they can continue to force their buggy, security nightmare products. MS was busted not once, but twice, doctoring video of the anti-trust trials against them so that the public might not find out what they're all about. You prefer this beast over EA because why? EA, after decades of awesome games, after paving the way for the entire game industry, because EA bought up a couple of developers and you didn't like that? Because not every game was fantastic? Because they bought a football license? Because they stumbled a bit a few years ago with some of their management decisions?

EA is going to sucktify Bioware, its sad because bioware is an awesome company to bad they caught EAism, its hard to cure or get rid of symtoms are rushed games, no innovation, and yearly secretions of the same old %^&@$#! DONT THEY MAKE A PILL FOR THAT!

I know a lot of people flame EA for thier 'Buy-Out' bids, however am i right in thinking that EA still allows its aquired devs to still have total creative rights?

Im waitin patiently for Alan Wake, as its being made by 'Remedy' (Max Payne) hopefully means we might get an original and fresh experience.

The Day Microsoft buys EA ,will Be the Day I smile...

Man I thought Alan Wake was canceled, guess I was wrong.

""When asked if Microsoft might move to acquire studios itself to ensure a steady stream of 360 exclusives, Spencer demurred. "We're always looking at opportunities" Im just waitin for the day the GS headline says "MS in EA takeover bid" : ) its dog eat dog, theres always a bigger fish" Microsoft the Corp. > EA. Anyday. However Microsoft Game Studios also > than EA. Because MS GS produce well published games on the whole, whereas EA rush an awful lot of what they produce. Lionhead Studios moved from publishing with EA, to publishing with MS for that very reason.

I like the people who mourn the loss of Bioware. I live in Edmonton and know some of the Bioware guys. They're really excited about what EA brings to the table and I for one am really looking forward to see what they can do with EA's resources at their disposal. However, they get all tight lipped when I ask what's in the pipe for the PS3. Drives me nuts.

Well, you know the old saying: If you cant beat-em, buy em! : )

Terdog: It's a Bioware franchise, nothing to do with Microsoft whatsoever. EA bought Bioware, and thus inherited the franchise.

I think the most pertinant information in the whole article is that the Peter Jackson Halo project would be continueing. Thats the only real interesting part that made me read it.

No offense, and I may be wrong on this, but Didn't EA buy the Mass Effect franchise off Microsoft?

M$ needs to do more with the M$ Game Studios. Where is the Crimson Skies sequel and when are they going to bring back their sports studio? They bought Access Software and they just let the Links franchise die. I'm glad they are bringing a lot of RPG's to the system, but they're all from 3rd party companies. Where are the 1st party RPG's, Sports and Fighting games? There were a few of these for the XBox, but nothing much for the XBox 360. M$ should be churning out 1st party titles at least once every couple of months.

Microsoft usually shuffles execs when they're trying to look like they're fixing something. These moves don't mean a thing.

"When asked if Microsoft might move to acquire studios itself to ensure a steady stream of 360 exclusives, Spencer demurred. "We're always looking at opportunities" Im just waitin for the day the GS headline says "MS in EA takeover bid" : ) its dog eat dog, theres always a bigger fish!

Anyone playing metal gear solid 4.. cuzz u should.. it got a 10 from this site.. and ign.. and every other site.. ... Now if only i had a ps3..kicking around.. O theres one sweet.. !

good luck to everyone

XXMadManVII I gotta be honest. I don't see how any of this is pertenant to us as end-users. I don't really care who is doing what at MS or any other company for that matter. _______ So, you don't care who's making the decisions that shape the games you play? I hope you don't feel the same way about our government...

It pertains to us MadMan because these people run the people who make the games. As well their outlooks on the industry will effect us Spartan. I personally want to see budget games, more complex and larger than arcade titles, come through the pipeline of digital distribution. Now Phil Spencer may feel the same way (just an example, I don't know how he feels about this idea) and decide that digital distribution of budget titles is a good idea. I mean if we were all the kind of people who liked to sit back and just wait until we saw games on the store shelves to know what was happening in the industry we wouldn't be on this site reading this news post. So in the end I like to know who is guiding the course of this generation of games to see if I agree with their views.

good points Spartan1017, XXMadManVII- I believe people (especially on a forum) just want something to talk about for their own entertainment. When I first entered the forums (1999) it was about talking about GAMES..nowadays it's about fanboyism and system-bashing. Because of PC's accessibilty (more younger people are on forums now) you hear alot less people talking games and more on "sales" and the companies who make them. As a whole, the generation on gaming forums now has completely lost the message of what GAME forums are for. Hopefully they will grow-up soon, or having intelligent conversation about GAMES will almost completely disappear from forums. And the "my systems/games sells/better than yours" era will dominate. It seems each passing generation gets dumber,egotistical, and more selfish as time goes on.

OH YA GO XBOX!!!!!!!!!!

this is going to affect me how...?

I gotta be honest. I don't see how any of this is pertenant to us as end-users. I don't really care who is doing what at MS or any other company for that matter. Why do we track the careers of these people? I feel the same way about Americas obsession with celebrities too. They don't care about us, so why should we care about them. As long as good games continue to be made, whats the difference. Am I the only one who feels this way??

Good news to see things are still on track, looking forward to Halo Wars and Fable 2, but didn't know they were thinking of bringing Mass Effect to PS3, oh well its a good RPG everyone should be able to have a go at.

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what?? this guy will join Atari as well??... hahaha..... we getting used to this type of news by now..

grigjd3: "I just don't find it that surprising that the VP for product strategy for Chrysler came up with Scene It? So is it "product strategy" to keep building large gas-guzzling SUVs as gas prices sky rocket? I mean, is that what constitutes foresight?" That is so utterly irrelevant, I'm not even sure what to say to you. Except maybe GTFO.

HOLY CRAP! "BioWare was bought by EA." no more awarding-winning games from them anymore, sad.

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MGS...what irony. :)