EA to acquire Crytek?

German newspaper Die Welt reports US publishing giant is interested in owning studio that created Far Cry. UPDATE: EA says "nein." Paper got it wrong; studio not a target.

Last week, Electronic Arts confirmed that it was picking up German studio Phenomic, maker of the SpellForce series of games. Now it seems the publisher is looking to bring another Deutschland developer into the fold, as German newspaper Die Welt is reporting on its Web site that EA is interested in the Frankfurt-based Crytek. The studio, which created the critically acclaimed Far Cry on the PC, already has a publishing agreement with EA for the upcoming PC first-person shooter Crysis.

When asked about the report, an Electronic Arts representative told GameSpot the publisher generally doesn't speak to rumors or its mergers and acquisition strategies. However, the Die Welt doesn't appear to be idle speculation about an acquisition from people on the outside looking in.

It quotes EA executive vice president and general manager of international publishing Gerhard Florin as saying, "Crytek is a very, very interesting candidate" for an acquisition. For Crytek's part, the company's founder and CEO Faruk Yerli told Die Welt that talks are under way, although the company is also looking at other possibilities.

[UPDATE] After this story went live, an EA rep contacted GameSpot to clarify the company's stance on the subject. "Gerhard Florin's comments were misinterpreted," the rep said. "EA is not in negotiation for the acquisition of Crytek."

EA and Crytek's relationship began in 2004, when the megapublisher entered into an exclusive development deal with the Frankfurt-based studio. The arrangement saw the Far Cry franchise left with original publisher Ubisoft while Crytek devised a new intellectual property for EA. Besides spawning Far Cry Instincts and Far Cry Instincts Evolution for the Xbox and Far Instincts Predator for the Xbox 360, Far Cry is also being adapted into a film by controversial director Uwe Boll (House of the Dead, BloodRayne).

299 Comments

  • dileepvr

    Posted Nov 19, 2007 10:11 pm PT

    @ -G-Spot
    EA doesn't own Valve!! In steam we trust...

  • Sir1-9-9-0

    Posted Aug 5, 2007 7:35 am PT

    Now now, EA doesn't curse every game into the darkness, just look at Battlefield 2142, It is a great game. I can't vouch for their servers though. Still, EA isn't that bad about games.

  • ppau08223

    Posted Jul 23, 2007 9:02 pm PT

    nice essay on ....what ever

  • wse_jack

    Posted Jul 21, 2007 4:04 pm PT

    EA is what EA is, like any large corperation, they will try and use any and all means in order to control any and all markets they can effect. Its, well, I might have called it and them evil scum sucking algee/cancerousHPVstrand/hepititusABCDE encrusted douchebags, and that may vary well be; but a fact of life is that they are going to be the way they are and do the things they do because people like them dont and realy never will (probably till the end of our race) think about what they do, what it means what it results in, who is f*cked over, who's dreams and effort are crushed, how far back on the scale inovations /technologies /concepts /watersheds /progress or creation as a whole are pushed, held, kept, silenced, hidden, simpley locked from progression or avoided alltogether, usualy being trampled and forgotten and lost untill some one later realizes its potential and picks it up and advances the way things are exponentialy - provided that the effort and effects are ideal at this time rather than before where it will be left forgotten again untill eventualy, if even ever, the advancment is made. It can be said simpley that all they care about is money, but its realy more than that. These people are in the proffession of extortion, they have money, and while the figure and the drive of it is a factor of course in their endevores, and by all terms it is the defining factor of the corperation and the status of the world that every thing in thier existance is about; its realy about controll. Yes controling the market is one thing, like I mentioned above, and that control is essential to many things in what they are, this control is more psycological.

    We have a rather odd way in this modern age of advancment. There are no private inventors realy, there are no wizards in their basments creating elixers (ok there are but for now, corporate hand cant deal legaly with it in most countries, and they would be gone first thing if it were). Corperations task people to create products to sell. They have firms that create everything essentialy, using whatever they can from whoever and wherever and they come up with a thng, the things sole purpose is to be bought. Now buying things is not for every one, and they have advertising firms to leach that market, as well as sell and pursuade the others that this thing is something that you need, need to buy. This is founded on things that are usefull, for instance cars in the 20's, washing machines and dishwashers in the 50's, even TV's in the 60's (and of course Sea Monkeys). While there was crap then too, when you work with the basics, you run out of options.

    Corperations are doomed if they dont expand and whoever expands the fastest, and more importantly the most stable, is the corperation that lives to rape another day. The canablism of this world is brutal, a cut throat buisness isnt adequate to discribe it, cause at least you die in a few minutes, gurgling and making one helluva mess mind you, but the pain does end, and usualy you dont get eaten. What this has to do with anything? Well video games have been a golden oportunety for the corperate field. From day 5 or so, once the initial artistic and inovation ideas were gotten out of the way, they have been a litteral money tree for dumbsh*t kids who have quarters and dont know that space invaders is impossible to win, finish, or do anything other than get carple tunnel, spend all your money, or eventualy get blown up by the ever increasing waves coming at you. PC's brought a becon of hope to turning Video games into the eventual goal that virtual reality has allways held at top, which is a fully interactive enviroment, story and well, reality.

    An art form that goes beyond anything a book or film can provide in more than entertainment, in experiance. We had a good run, but with consoles, and comercials, and of course ignorence; the very few are all that are left in making anything near compitant, or revolutionary programs that are something more than the genericy of that of a mere product from the ground up, no love, not much effort, a happy meal equivilent to a software divice.

    True game developers as well as true musicians (WW.KEXP.ORG (for relief from dumbsh*t corperate RnB hiphop power pop punk, corperate generic hair and now alternative rock, manufactured country and pop rehash electronica) ), as well as real independent writers and film makers have a pasion for what they do. You can tell very specificly from the ubisoft internal developer crap and the genious boundry breaking epics, generaly a lack of suckage is the first sign. Unfortunetly because of the cheep and rather static ease of the consoles (for the manufacturer, they were at the start and are exponentialy so now in such a contrast its aw inspiering, far more expensive than the equivilent of components sold for PC's which is damned hard to do at this point they are so far back most equipment widly available for far cheaper any how is again exponentialy superior to that which is in these as I call them "last gen" since they are allmost 2 watersheds behind now, console crapfests), and the complete lack of standards for thier gamers, who were not around during PC's reign, or had not ever played anything before the flood of generic, massivly outdated crap (halo) is a surety for the large corperations who have and try hard to controll every aspect of the market, so they dont have to suddently do something to catch up with another and be forced to spend more money per capita cause the bare minimum was lifted.

    EA does this allmost more than any other company out there for software besides the father of the lets f*ck people over and not even try and hide it cause there aint any where else they can go companies (Microsoft, ). Westwood studios, a incredibly talented devleoper team was bought and is now EA LA. Many such like it have been assimilated. While them being real developers unlike UBIsoft's teams causes a rather high level of quality to come from thier work its still not technicaly their work as they are assigned projects and ideas from EA, and strictly regulated inorder to keep marketability.

    If I know anything about Crytek, their leaving UBIsoft was specificly because of UBIsofts very sloppy mimic of EA's tactics, and in that, while a few years ago EA was officialy the most scumy of them all, UBIsoft has easily taken this title in spades. Fortunetly this farcry 2 will be the general horridly acted and written and developed sh*t that we can expect from UBIsofts internal developers, as they dont disapoint, and the fact that FarCry was a revolution abused, and has given birth to a god, that is Irrifutible in its might is all the more of a mockery to UBIsoft's milking of the original crytek engine.

    But...

    In that, and the fact that valve left Vindivi, which is probably the best and most accomidating and in a way inovating publisher of games of the super powers, to have EA distribute their non-steam hardware, and that Crytek said f*ck off to the loosers at UBIsoft when they got pushed at allmost the drop of a hat (thank god, or gods or rabbits, or cattle, or small yellow fish, or flying spaghettie monsters), well it probably is a sure sign that they took some precautions with EA, as EA is not usualy the bearer of anthing close to real, much less god like. If they did, Crytek would decend to the levels of genericy as Westwood did, making RTS's for kiddie consoles and such, lol.

    EA buying Crytek would be a standard move though given that it would take them out of any other float trips as they took from UBIsoft and keep them in check from doing anything rash, like making god again, and going beyond the mere crap that is the standard for the big name console games these days. But I am, or I was, and am sort of but the title of this article scared the sh*t out of me, but still am fairly confident that CryTek is tough enough to keep afloat, and smart enough not to make themselves some ones b*tch nor put them in a position where they didnt have a choice in the matter.

    Though I could be wrong...

  • tuarciano

    Posted Apr 5, 2007 6:34 am PT

    what the hell is wrong with EA, are they wanna own every studios that makes good games

  • Mercutio89

    Posted Nov 30, 2006 7:45 pm PT

    If EA thinks that EA is so BA, why does their stock suck so hard?

  • quakeknight1991

    Posted Oct 18, 2006 6:47 am PT

    damn ea they alway destroy good series.

  • xXrebel666Xx

    Posted Oct 7, 2006 11:09 pm PT

    PLEASE NO. for the sake of a decent game, don't get involved EA

  • pms81350

    Posted Sep 24, 2006 5:51 am PT

    EA's only concern is profit,period.Their so-called next generation titles are stripped down versions of previous releases and their servers are crap.Crytek left Ubisoft after Far Cry and hopefully their wisdom will prevail here also.EA has never been concerned with quality of titles,merely how soon can we release it.
    BF2 was fun but also very heavily patched and glitchy.It demonstrates their lack of concern for quality and their "just get it to market" stance.Crytek should avoid EA like the game killers that they are.

  • doomhesoka55

    Posted Sep 10, 2006 4:51 pm PT

    i dont like EA

  • twilightjawa

    Posted Sep 6, 2006 9:04 am PT

    I like how they said he was "controversial". As if controversial means all his movies are completely unbearable to watch.

  • geebus

    Posted Sep 5, 2006 4:41 pm PT

    Uwe Bol.. why must you torture us..

  • twilightjawa

    Posted Sep 5, 2006 1:23 pm PT

    Publishers decide what games are published, how much time is spent on them, and what overall quality the games are....So yes publishers are a big deal. Also, I pre-ordered BF2142. I got a BF dog tag USB thingy. It has exclusive Crysis wallpapers on it... I think EA will publish it.

  • skeeterbutt

    Posted Sep 5, 2006 11:34 am PT

    Why all the hate toward EA. Theyve made some good games.

  • DoctaStrangelov

    Posted Sep 4, 2006 9:02 am PT

    No Yerli; how could be sell out and become a slave like Westwood, Maxis, Origen and DICE; why?

  • peeweeshift

    Posted Sep 4, 2006 6:41 am PT

    I don't hate ea i just think they are a jinx to videogames cursing their sales

  • bruceflea

    Posted Sep 3, 2006 10:29 pm PT

    EA will butcher this game just like everything else they touch

  • decapitor

    Posted Sep 3, 2006 7:46 pm PT

    honestly who cares who publishes a game? i have never once discounted or been drawn to a game based on who publishes it. they don't make the games and besides having some control over development times they don't influence its quality. if you're into games enough to be on this site you read reviews and buy the good stuff regardless.

  • CharmedLife

    Posted Sep 3, 2006 2:19 pm PT

    thats nice

  • maskedmanx4

    Posted Sep 2, 2006 5:38 pm PT

    hey wait a minute im kinda against ea buying out crytek but maybe crytek will actually make good games for ea then ea mightt actually start focusing on quality not quanity
    (plz dont flame me)p.s options:flameshieldn

  • Ek-Andy

    Posted Sep 2, 2006 4:13 pm PT

    EA are not developers they are publishers, i mean really do you think a Devoloping company can buy a game when its half way through development? i dont think so. If EA owned crytek the only thing that would be affcted would be packaging and production time and EA dont tend to be intrsted in large projects all that much they tend to stick with yearly projects such as FIFA or even burnout (is that yearly? Im sure it is) they make more money this way rather than having to wait 3 years for a game thats jusrt going to make the same amount of money, plus if your under EA your future is pretty much gauranted becuase they have so much money unless they sell you out. So in conclusion it is the Devs under EA who mess games up and not EA, unless of course they feel they deserve more timeand theya rnt given it so the game comes out broken, now that would be EAs fault.

  • aslag94

    Posted Sep 2, 2006 1:43 pm PT

    AHHHHHAAAA! (runs to fallout shelter)

  • coolioali47

    Posted Sep 2, 2006 9:21 am PT

    Say No to EA, they will screw up the game.

  • gtochld11

    Posted Sep 2, 2006 8:28 am PT

    Take a look at the last 10 seconds of the official trailer. This is old news.

  • ssjtrunks6

    Posted Sep 2, 2006 5:28 am PT

    Ive got better things to worry about

  • TruB

    Posted Sep 2, 2006 4:15 am PT

    Say NO to EA!

  • Jd1680a

    Posted Sep 1, 2006 11:50 pm PT

    Does anyone remember what happened when rumors about EA and Mythic wanted to merge. Both said it wasnt going to happen. Yet they merged anyway two months later. So I wouldnt be surprised the same thing will happen with Crytek.

  • PrinceAdam11

    Posted Sep 1, 2006 4:34 pm PT

    what was the last good game that EA made that wasn't purchased from a different company?

  • hyp3rknight

    Posted Sep 1, 2006 12:43 pm PT

    EA + Crytek= Skynet

  • Just_Desert

    Posted Sep 1, 2006 10:13 am PT

    EA has an amazing ability to turn gold into lead.

  • Robinvd

    Posted Sep 1, 2006 8:33 am PT

    EA stop buying everything!!!!!!
    Go disign your own master work!!!!

  • olive67

    Posted Sep 1, 2006 2:29 am PT

    EA has lost it spark. It is more of an industry than a company that is trying make each game worth the money, i.e. they never go the last mile when developing a game they rather try to make as much money on as least development as possible.
    Some might say well yes that is the goal of every company to get the most for as little as possible, but company like that will lose on the longrun.
    I was/am not that great fan of Farcry but I think Crytek is better of not merging with EA.

  • gozalo

    Posted Aug 31, 2006 9:19 pm PT

    Crytek: Stay away from EA, just look at what they did to westwood, origin, bullfrog, etc... EA is the devil!

  • alifont

    Posted Aug 31, 2006 3:03 pm PT

    Well, E.A. has been aquiring so many companies lately it only seems natural.

    It reminds me of that South Park episode where cartman's Trapper Keeper starts aquiring everything in an attempt to conquer the planet.

  • trigun123

    Posted Aug 31, 2006 3:02 pm PT

    Two or three years ago this would be great news, but the games EA has put out in the past couple of years have gone downhill. The Madden series is losing its flash and great gameplay, they screwed up one of my favorite franchises of all time after medal of honor allied assault (which i cant complain since COD is where its at) the only really good games EA has put out lately is BF2 and Fight Night. I think the new Cryengine is amazing and will definately be revolutionary, Far Cry was a good game but had some issues with the voice acting and the plot was really corny, but the gameplay was good and the engine was amazing. I think Crytek should just stay with Ubisoft who has been cranking out some of the most amazing games i personally have ever played. They really know how to publish games. I think Ubisoft is in position to become THE major player in games shortly, but its too bad EA has alllll the money in the world and even if they pump out crappy games, the cover boy/girl or licence they get will still get them a large profit because people will buy anything (do yourself a favor, and RENT the games or read the reviews first)

  • mamad_raiss

    Posted Aug 31, 2006 2:48 pm PT

    now microsoft and EA should sign a contract to make games only for xbox360....I know it was fanboyism just for kidding but realy I like ea games they have many good games but people just can't see their success . go go EA ...

  • ele975

    Posted Aug 31, 2006 12:29 pm PT

    As we all know they have bought the unreal 3 game engine, wasn't this good enough? it's good engine. So EA should just walk away from Crytec and STAY AWAY FROM THEM!

  • naryanrobinson

    Posted Aug 31, 2006 8:13 am PT

    why don't you just buy the whole world EA? *sigh*

  • sm0ke311

    Posted Aug 31, 2006 6:27 am PT

    ea games sux. why ea try to buy all best game developers. i tell you why, couz ea sux in business and their developers suck badly. ea just tryin publish crysis and so.

  • sm0ke311

    Posted Aug 31, 2006 6:24 am PT

    ea games sux. why ea try to buy all best game developers. i tell you why, couz ea sux in business and their developers suck badly. ea just tryin publish crysis and so.

  • sm0ke311

    Posted Aug 31, 2006 6:24 am PT

    ea games sux. why ea try to buy all best game developers. i tell you why, couz ea sux in business and their developers suck badly. ea just tryin publish crysis and so.

  • gtochld11

    Posted Aug 30, 2006 5:19 pm PT

    Hasn't this already happened?

  • HK-Ghost

    Posted Aug 30, 2006 2:41 pm PT

    Importguy said: "I wonder if this'll make EA a better developer? One can only hope."

    EA is not a developer...EA is a publisher. Publishers, like EA, tend to screw developer studios.

    You guys should read some interviews at the end of a book named: Game Programming All in One 2nd Edition

    You'll get to know some details about how developer studios get the short end of the stick...

    -Ghost

  • gtjava

    Posted Aug 30, 2006 10:36 am PT

    no leave crytek alone.

  • caladine

    Posted Aug 30, 2006 8:16 am PT

    Nice a last word without wow. Its been awhile

  • Reap3r666

    Posted Aug 29, 2006 11:41 pm PT

    You have to hand it to EA, they do make great games but I wouldn't want them to take over all the independent studios cos the games will lose their quality in a mad rush to churn out sequels.

  • EnigmaSIN

    Posted Aug 29, 2006 11:15 pm PT

    lol everyone is flaming EA but im sure you're gonna hit the stores as soon as Crysis comes out. EA is big because all of you made it big, just like all of you who hate Microsoft for being a monopoly, or Walmart haha

  • jdm3126

    Posted Aug 29, 2006 8:36 pm PT

    The most troubling news uncovered in this article is the announcement of another Uwe Boll movie...yikes!

  • tribe81

    Posted Aug 29, 2006 8:33 pm PT

    i sure hope this isnt the case ea are great at making fantastic game develperment companies CRAP crytec need to do there own thing.

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