All of us developers who had a game on Chillingo really have no clue how this shakes out for us, and its a sneaky move in my opinion. I'm not very happy about it.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idCNN2022096920101020?rpc=44 It's done then goodbye chillingo, welcome EA
I also don't see that as a positive thing. I like Chilingo a lot, and more so that they built a great rep on their own. When a big corp. like EA comes along and buys you out, you can guarantee changes will be made, plus competition is always healthy for creativity.
EA got strict policy for games under their control - PixelBite + EA I wonder what will happen for indie devs - Pro Zombie Soccer, Monster Mayhem, Knight's Rush, Pirate's Treasure... oh my, this is BIG.
$20 million for a buy-out of chillingo really isn't so cheap. We thought so at first, but when it comes to it, Chillingo has no ownership of the IP, just publishing contracts. Further, most of Chillingos profits were already earned from their games, so future revenues will be significantly less as EA mobile pushes it's publishing brand and moves away from Chillingo as a publisher, only to use their network for cross promotion.
I seriously cannot believe how stupid some of you are being about this. Here's how buyouts like this work- One company buys another because they want to integrate their products, expertise, and everything else they do which has made them a successful company worth purchasing in the first place. Kicking and screaming over how you don't buy EA games or whatever is completely asinine. EA is buying Chillingo because they want Chillingo to keep doing what they're doing, which is making money. They make money by publishing good games. All this is going to do is make Chillingo's pockets a little deeper when it comes to financing things, and potentially have access to many more resources they wouldn't have by themselves. The Chillingo brand is so strong on the App Store that I doubt they'd even bother rebranding things to make everything EA. If anything they'd be "Chillingo by EA" or something. I just... Wow, this thread makes my head hurt.
How do you know EA's intentions? Do you work for them, were you conferencing this meeting when the deal took place? Don't get frustrated because people have feelings of skepticism based on something that in the end is totally monetary. I would feel the same way if Starbucks bought out my local donut shop - apprehensive because change sometimes does suck, emphasis on sometimes.
Why can't you just state that in your response? lol Now my head hurts I mean that endearingly btw, not scarcastic.
Chillingo isn't a developer, they're a publisher. EA Mobile also rarely develops things in house, even their first party titles are done by outside developers if you take time to look at the credits. For instance, NBA Live was actually developed by Venan, the developers of Ninjatown: Trees of Doom and Space Miner then published by EA Mobile. Similarly, Angry Birds is developed by Rovio Mobile then published by Chillingo.
it's a little overbearing to call people stupid about this, as iPhone culture has thrived with what has been seen as this independent free-for-all. Much of the news you guys (and other websites) report on are impressive-looking productions built by small teams, I think one of the big appeals of the whole market (to the customer) is that it's so well-serviced by the developers who aren't so blatantly part of the bigger studios. Even in cases of Chillingo and Gameloft and such, which have always seemed like "Little Activision" and "Little EA," I think a lot of the time it was assumed by a lot of the more serious (and, a bit innocent) folks that things would stay clean of the politics and, well, control of the bigger entities who pretty much dictate everything; from what content is created, to pricing, to marketing and distribution. Of course, those of us who do pay more attention to what goes on in the background of the business do know better, and I'll say that there's probably a certain amount of the "naive" folks who knew this was coming sooner or later as well although they didn't wanna expect it might be this soon that "the party would be over." But really it's a matter of time, for better or for worse, that this period will pass, and it will eventually become all the big guys vying for space on what ultimately is "just another platform." I don't think indies will ever be phased out, but the days when we can have much (any?) chance to coexist high up the charts with what the big studios put out, are numbered (if not already long gone...)
