Valve pursued by EA for over a possible $1 billion

[Savber]

Apparently reported by the New York Times, it seems that EA has been pursuing Valve for almost a year.

"Not that Mr. Newell hasn?t had opportunities to sell out. Valve has been pursued over the years by Electronic Arts, which would very likely have valued Valve at well over $1 billion had the talks progressed that far, said two people with knowledge of the discussion who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private."

Scary thought since I was just talking to a friend way back about how one of the worst things that could happen to the game industry was if EA ever brought Valve.

I guess to think that EA would want Valve and Steam shouldn't be too surprising.

Still the idea of EA buying Valve is still an unpleasant thought.

After all,

EA dissipated Westwood.

EA killed Pandemic

EA nearly destroyed Bioware.

Now they want Valve?

Back the frack off, EA

Thoughts?

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/09/10/report-ea-sought-to-acquire-valve

Update: Subject changed to better reflect content.

 

[yuval152]

Never gonna happen, eventually valve will buy EA.

 

[Dandark]

It's from IGN so I wouldn't put much stock in it but if EA ever did buy Valve then that would be the worst thing that could happen to the gaming industry that I can think of. It would be the worst for PC gamers, it would be terrible, it's the stuff of nightmares for those who hate EA.

 

[Scrustle]

It's not really that surprising. Valve are a huge competitor, especially in the download market, which people seem to think is the future of gaming. EA didn't want to compete with a big rival, so instead they wanted to assimilate it. Gain their assets instead of having to create their own. Once they had done that maybe they would gut Valve like they have with so many other studios, but that's just conjecture.

 

[DoPo]

I totally misread the title the other way around. In my defence, I missed the "by", so what I got was "Valve nearly bought EA for over $1 billion".

As for my thoughts, I doubt anything big would happen. In fact, here is an artist's depiction of the signing of the deal

Oh...

 

[Erttheking]

I frankly don't like Valve that much, but they sure as Hell deserve better than that.

 

[Lilani]

Valve and EA are two totally different kinds of beasts, and apparently even EA is too thick to see that. Valve has very little bureaucratic structure, their opinion of their customers are almost in total opposition to EA, and because what they have works and EA would only want to homogenize them, they would never sell themselves to EA because they simply have different goals in mind. As far as Valve is concerned, they are so different from EA that they may as well have been trying to buy a railroad company.

I'm pretty sure EA only pursued it because they wanted to dismantle Valve for parts and eliminate their biggest competition, which I think it's safe to say they did to those other studios they're so infamous for putting down (Pandemic, Maxis, etc.).

 

[Terminate421]

EA wants to be Valve, why am I having an image of nazi Germany (EA) attemtping to invade Freetown and happyville (Valve) and currently best fun times is there neighbor (Bungie).

 

[tendaji]

Hey if it did happen, at least we would be seeing Half Life 3 through 12 in the next 2 years! But yeah as long as Gabe is there, Valve won't be bought out by anyone with absolute certainty.

 

[lapan]

I totally misread the title the other way around. In my defence, I missed the "by", so what I got was "Valve nearly bought EA for over $1 billion".

As for my thoughts, I doubt anything big would happen. In fact, here is an artist's depiction of the signing of the deal

Oh...

Same thing happened to me. Wouldn't even be surprised afte EAs stocks fell into oblivion.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

EA buy Valve? Not likely.

The opposite has a bigger chance of happening, since EA is a public company, unlike Valve. Not that Valve would ever do that. They're in an excellent market position already and a bloated mess like EA has very little to offer.

 

[shrekfan246]

Oh IGN, you so silly!

Also OP, you missed a few developers:
Origin Systems
Bullfrog
Maxis (might as well be dead)
Mythic

EA's been at this for a while, you know.

EDIT: Oh, DICE and Visceral are riding on fumes at this point too, DICE is staying around because of Battlefield and Visceral is looking like they'll be crushed because of Dead Space 3.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

The thread title is more than a little misleading. It seems what happened is that EA wanted to buy Valve for $1 billion, but they never even got close to negotiating. So it's more like "EA had told Valve they were willing to buy them for over $1 billion, but Valve said 'haha, no'".

 

[jprf]

It's not really that surprising. Valve are a huge competitor, especially in the download market, which people seem to think is the future of gaming. EA didn't want to compete with a big rival, so instead they wanted to assimilate it. Gain their assets instead of having to create their own. Once they had done that maybe they would gut Valve like they have with so many other studios, but that's just conjecture.

The future of gaming? I'd say it's the present of gaming.

 

[Radoh]

Your title is both misleading and completely wrong, EA was interested in buying Valve for one billion, but negotiations never happened.

With this kind of thought process, it would be just as accurate as saying Radoh Incorporated nearly bought Valve for twenty dollars and a half eaten chicken sandwich.

 

[jhoroz]

EA have turned into the Big Brother of the gaming industry. No surprise this information came from IGN. They've been dick-riding EA for the past year now, with that debauchery of an article "Why do people hate EA so much?"

 

[Scrustle]

It's not really that surprising. Valve are a huge competitor, especially in the download market, which people seem to think is the future of gaming. EA didn't want to compete with a big rival, so instead they wanted to assimilate it. Gain their assets instead of having to create their own. Once they had done that maybe they would gut Valve like they have with so many other studios, but that's just conjecture.

The future of gaming? I'd say it's the present of gaming.

The present of PC gaming, the future of console gaming.

 

[Lunar Templar]

*sees title, then see IGN in the link*
i c .....

it is unlikely all things considered, Valve would actually be losing money in the long run by joining EA

 

[Vegosiux]

Your title is both misleading and completely wrong, EA was interested in buying Valve for one billion, but negotiations never happened.

With this kind of thought process, it would be just as accurate as saying Radoh Incorporated nearly bought Valve for twenty dollars and a half eaten chicken sandwich.

I'm sure the main obstacle in that endeavour was that the sandwich was, in fact, already half-eaten.

But yeah, since Valve isn't a public company, there's no way EA could have bought them, save for Valve selling themselves. Which they have no reason to do whatsoever.