Here's a small question.

How can EA close down Pandemic when EA is making more money than Jesus on Madden and The Saboteur is looking to be a AAA title?

Addendum.

The bigger point i wanted to pose, was the big question of "Is the Western gaming model sustainable?"

My answer is, a huge resounding ... No.

EA has turned into the GM of gaming at some point in the last 10 years. EA West, East, Montreal, etc. etc. Not to mention gobbling up studios like Westwood(the last of whom are being fired when C&C4 is released), Maxis and Pandemic. I wondered when it will be that EA will gobble up Valve, but seeing as how Valve is probably doing much better than any given EA studio is right now, or even EA as a whole, not fucking likely(besides, if Valve's involved, the only gobbling being done is going to be done by Gabe Newell).

These extensions of their company is bleeding them dry, particularly during a period of time when their stock value dropped to 1/5th of what it was before October 2008. It lost something like, 40 points. Having to pay for overhead, marketing, support, distribution... EA can sell all the games they want, they can put out all the original, most thoughtful IP out there, but in the end, it's going to be economics that ends them, and probably Madden that's going to keep them afloat.

Ubisoft is similarly extended with offices everywhere short of Narnia and the Moon.

It's not just western development studios doing this. Square Enix also happens to own Taito and Eidos who also owns Crystal Dynamics and IO Interactive. Square Enix's approach to extension isn't going anywhere nearly as fast as EA is though, and that may be better for them in the long run, but who knows if the overall strategy of expansion is good?

Recently, Max Console ran a story from E4G where Gran Turismo 5 was "confirmed" to have a Track Editor.

Except, I can't find any corroborating evidence.

not on DToid, not on Kotaku, nowhere. Such a great feature would destroy Forza.

But it's no where to be found.

CVG however, did do a follow up.

Quote:

A Sony rep has just told CVG: "We haven't confirmed this", adding that Sony "aren't offering any other comment at this time".


So, for the love of $God_goes_here, think before IMing me with OMG GT5 TRACKEDITOR.

Just so the tag is relevant.

Dear TriForce,

Thanks for keeping it classy. I find it really offensive that you say, "Be Professionals" when not a few lines before you say that 99% of the gamer pro chicks are 'hoes.

Excuse me?

Even if it were true, what happened to being professional? What happened to acting like a grown up?

Clearly these things aren't important to the gamer culture. We really don't care who you sleep with, what you do, or how you conduct your private lives. Yes, 'hoes is pretty much street slang for any given negative connotation you could ever make for a woman, but if you're a gaming professional, speaking from your MySpace where you're representing your team and your brand, why are you speaking like a retard? Why are you making the rest of the gaming community look like we haven't grown up past the age of 18?

Having Justin Wong on your team doesn't make what you did less offensive and less stupid. Grow up. Set an example. Please. Looking at your MySpace Blogs, it's quite a stretch to expect you to do so. But I figure if you can do it, so can every 16 year old on Xbox Live who decide that "fag" is the right thing to call someone who doesn't spend every waking hour playing Halo, Call of Duty, etc.