Today on Headline
RePLAY: The makers of Angry Birds reject a $2 billion acquisition offer, Ubisoft gets sued for its Assassin's Creed series and the
next God of War title gets leaked
early.
Recently we heard of
Zynga’s $180 million acquisition of Omgpop, the makers of the hit app Draw Something. However, did you know
that Zynga tried to buy out Rovio Entertainment, the studio responsible for Angry Birds, with an offer of more than
$2 billion?
Rovio has rejected the
offer and declined to comment.
Bloomberg reports this
is part of Zynga’s new strategy to counter Electronic Arts in the mobile gaming
market by acquiring many “high-growth hits” like Draw Something to add to the company’s portfolio. Zynga has even
recruited former EA executive Barry Cottle for this purpose.
“They are not really
that competent in mobile, and they need to be,” said Wedbush Securities Inc.
analyst Michael Pachter. “It’s the way that a big chunk of the world accesses
the Internet.”
Pachter observes that
the acquisition war may have unintended consequences: “You are going to have a
lot of developers swinging for the fences and trying to hit it fast and hope
Zynga will give them a couple hundred million dollars.”
|Source: Bloomberg
Ubisoft is being sued by John L. Beiswenger, the author of the novel Link,
over alleged similarities between his book and the Assassin’s Creed series.
Beiswenger claims that
the “Link device” and “Link lab” are “integral part” of the novel’s plot and
setting, which the suit claims is similar to the Animus and Animus 2.0 in the Assassin’s Creed games. Other
similarities include “spiritual and biblical tones, with references made to Jesus
and God, the Garden of Eden, and the forbidden fruit.”
The novel even has
references to assassins and assassinations.
The suit
is requesting $1.05 million worth in damages for each Assassin’s Creed product released since 2007 or $5.25 million if
the judge rules that Ubisoft has deliberately infringed on Beiswenger’s work in
addition to preventing the release of Assassin’s
Creed III.
|Source: GamesIndustry International
Like most things on
the internet, it gets leaked early—like the next God of War game, which was inadvertently revealed by an Amazon.com
product page, complete with box art and trailer.
The latest installment
in the series is titled God of War:
Ascension and it follows Kratos before he became the “Ghost of Sparta” or “a
time when something other than rage consumed him.”
And that little
narrative detail definitely nails it as a prequel.
|Source: NeoGAF
