Just a quick post to share my concerns about EAs proposed buy-out of TakeTwo.

While we still haven't seen what affect EA will have on BioWare, I'm still a little concerned about their apparent desire to buy everyone that makes profitable games. I'm not against big corporations just because they are big and corporations, but it's already hard enough to being unique games to market; further consolidation will just add additional hinderances to doing anything other than the most formulaic of games.

I know "innovation" was the buzz-word of 2007 and there has been a lot of debate on whether or not the games were really all that innnovative or just well executed versions of the same thing. Either way, there were some great games in 07 and many of them were unique even if they were following a tried and true formula (ie. BioShock). What happens to the ability to produce a unique game when the ultimate decision makers all sit on the same board?

Perhaps I am jumping the gun a bit seeing as how TakeTwo has rejected EAs offer. But the offer itself causes me concern. EA just finished bringing BioWare into the fold and they are already on to the next target, silly me, I though EA was a game developer, not a holding company.

What do you guys think?