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Take Two Troubles


Yankee4Life

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First, forgive me if this is old news to some or most of you. But I was reading the Game Informer magazine, the April 2006 issue and it had a little write up on the people who have the MLB license for the next few years. And it's not good news for them. Since I can't find the link on the magazine web site, I got to type it out word for word. This is on page 34 of that magazine in case you want to see it for yourself.

Take-Two Up For Sale

Still Scalded by Hot Coffee

The after-effects of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' Hot Coffee Scandal keep slamming Take-Two and its subsidiary Rockstar Games. The scandal has not only cost the company millions of dollars, but the numerous pending lawsuits could prove the mistake to be even costlier still.

The Hot Coffee controversy is just one of many aspects that will influence which direction the company takes. As of the time of this writing, Take-Two was the focus of buyout talk, although industry analysts have said the usual suspects of EA, Activision, and Ubisoft weren't interested in the company. But with lawsuits filed or pending in more than a half a dozen states in the country (with more expected), the potential payout and controversy is not attractive to prospective buyers.

Perhaps more influential, however, was the recent resignation of Take-Two audit committee chair Barbara Kaczynski. A letter from Kaczynski's lawyer explaining her resignation cited the "unhealthy relationship between senior management and the board of directors" as one of the reasons. Another referenced the apparently poor internal financial controls of the company. Because of this, Take-Two's annual report was filed two weeks late. In fact, one of the pending lawsuits charges the company with insider trading and other illegal financial practices. Take-Two's stock fell 26 percent in the four-day wake after Kaczynski's resignation.

Bono's Elevation Partners is tipped to be interested in buying, and some believe that it has the cash to buy back all of Take-Two's shares, no longer making it a publicly-traded company. Elevation could then strengthen Take-Two's financial position using product from developers like Visual Concepts and Firaxis until there was enough stability to make the stock public again.

A link that details Take-Two's lawsuits.

Here's my question: if no one buys Take-Two, would the deal for MLB be null and void?

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Unfortunately no.

They have the rights and whoever owns Take Two would have those rights.

If they sell the company then the rights go to whoever owns the entity called Take Two.

Now, what if EA offered $ for that contract on MLB stuff. Hmmm.

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But I was making a dumb suggestion.

It is more about selling the entire company more than anything. The rights to MLB related games and other items such as GTA would be a result of the buyout.

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Let's just hope the company folds and dies off like 3DO... then the fellas that used to make High Heat over at 3DO get back into video game production and High Heat 2007 is made, with graphics like MVP and gameplay like High Heat. Just a dream.

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This might be getting a bit off topic, and probably beating a dead horse, but just imagine a game with the strategy of High Heat and the graphics that have been done here for MVP, it makes me drool thinking of it, hahaha

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Let's just hope the company folds and dies off like 3DO... then the fellas that used to make High Heat over at 3DO get back into video game production and High Heat 2007 is made, with graphics like MVP and gameplay like High Heat. Just a dream.

I have been thinking about that, I like the graphics of MVP, but I sure miss the game play of High Heat. I really miss my Manage mode, not that I don't like mashing buttons now and then. High Heat had more user friendly game options.

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Hopefully EA buys Take 2 and makes MVP games again. Not only that, but imagine a GTA/NFS mix game, that would be hot.

then will like make EA dominate, and all-powerful, time to build the EA DEATH STAR!

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