Microsoft to buy Epic?

[Kaotik]

http://www.dbtechno.com/gaming/2008/02/18/microsoft-to-buy-gears-of-war-dev-epic-games/

Not much but a rumor on one site, but if true, it would give MS one helluva good developer inhouse

 

[one]

Interesting, so who Silicon Knight is suing?

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Unlikely, being a part of Microsoft would pretty much alienate the entire PS3 development community from the Unreal Engine. Epic would have to be pretty stupid to give up such a large percentage of their income, and also MS is pretty much moving away from relying on first party developers.

 

[PARANOiA]

I doubt it's that big a deal for Epic, Laa-Yosh. If I were to rank where UE3 was being used it'd be 360, then Windows, then PS3 (then Wii if that rumour proved true?). Surely tying up Epic for Windows and Xbox exclusivity would be a very big win for MS. Epic in their golden days were fantastic, and Gears was a silver bullet for MS in 2006. Remember, MS's real market is the PC, with the 360 being a smaller fish. Devs like Epic drive the PC industry through pushing hardcore technology which drives the CPU and GPU upgrade market... and when upgrading, people will be moving to Vista and future iterations of Windows.

That said, I agree it's likely to be false given Bizarre, Bungie and Bioware's movements over the last few months.

 

[D3B]

Gamepro had a feature today and it doesnt say anything about Epic.
http://www.gamepro.com/gamepro/domestic/games/features/162348.shtml

 

[AlphaWolf]

Gamepro had a feature today and it doesnt say anything about Epic.
http://www.gamepro.com/gamepro/domestic/games/features/162348.shtml

isn't that just a bunch of their predictions?

 

[PARANOiA]

Gamepro had a feature today and it doesnt say anything about Epic.
http://www.gamepro.com/gamepro/domestic/games/features/162348.shtml

A GamePro editor has actually specifically posted saying he thinks it will happen.
http://www.wral.com/business/local_tech_wire/opinion/blogpost/2449264/

*shrug*

 

[zed]

a billion dollars for epic!!!
2 reasons its unlikely to happen
A/ its way overpriced
B/ ms have demonstrated they are unwilling this time round to incur loses

 

[Squilliam]

Well it makes sense, in the terms that it strengthens the Xbox franchise.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Well it makes sense, in the terms that it strengthens the Xbox franchise.

Buying EA or Activision would strengthen it more right?

I agree with zed that 1 billion for epic is too much. Hundreds of millions imo.

 

[PARANOiA]

How does Epic look an a balance sheet? Maybe they are just making squillions on UE3 to demand the price.

Edit: and wouldn't the look on SK's face be priceless if the MS lawyer army now faced them down in court!

 

[-tkf-]

Buying EA or Activision would strengthen it more right?

And it would put a quick end to the format war..

Ohh wait thats another war..

Carry on

 

[bRoNx]

Buying EA or Activision would strengthen it more right?

I agree with zed that 1 billion for epic is too much. Hundreds of millions imo.

If they want to strengthen their console, surely they would be better off investing this money in fixing their consoles, right?

The fact that this happened at GDC shows that the problem is far from over!

From GAF.

 

[PARANOiA]

Lol @ the response.

We're not that cheap.

http://www.developmag.com/news/29321/Rein-1bn-Were-not-that-cheap

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I doubt it's that big a deal for Epic, Laa-Yosh. If I were to rank where UE3 was being used it'd be 360, then Windows, then PS3 (then Wii if that rumour proved true?). Surely tying up Epic for Windows and Xbox exclusivity would be a very big win for MS.

On the contrary, devs are choosing to use UE3 because it's cross-platform. If the engine become MS exclusive, devs creating cross-console titles would either have to abandon PS3 or abandon UE3. I expect many would choose the latter.

I don't think anyone could ever force developers onto their platform through a tools system. We're hear all the time how hard PS3 is to develop for versus XB360, but the devs still develop for PS3 none-the-less. If they won't abandon PS3 now because it's awkward, they won't abandon it when one of an increasing number of middleware providers drops the system. The end result would be a next-to-worthless acquisition for MS. They'd be far better off spending that money to secure exclusives.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

On the contrary, devs are choosing to use UE3 because it's cross-platform. If the engine become MS exclusive, devs creating cross-console titles would either have to abandon PS3 or abandon UE3. I expect many would choose the latter.

Why would the engine become MS exclusive? Is that even possible considering how many have already licensed it with certain terms? Epic would be pretty nice to have under one's wing, with their engine creating cababilities and Gears IP has to be worth something too.

 

[Crossbar]

Why would the engine become MS exclusive? Is that even possible considering how many have already licensed it with certain terms? Epic would be pretty nice to have under one's wing, with their engine creating cababilities and Gears IP has to be worth something too.

The engine wouldn´t maybe become MS exclusive, but it´s not hard to imagine which platforms that would get a higher priority. It would probably scare off quite a few developers looking for a cross-platform engine.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Why would the engine become MS exclusive?

It wasn't me saying it would

 

[Tap In]

exactly, why would they make it exclusive? continue to allow Epic to develop it and them continue to make money on the licensing.

 

[AlNom]

It would be quite the mess to sort out conflict of interest, wouldn't it?

It would probably scare off quite a few developers looking for a cross-platform engine.

And thus Capcom's True Intentions come to fruition! (and large capacity hard drives see a peak in sales )