Way back in the mid-90s, media conglomerate Sony shoehorned its way into the home video games industry, an event which led to a lot of hand-wringing about the effect this would have on Nintendo and Sega, the console heavyweights at the time. A scant few years later, when Microsoft made its move into gaming, many of the fans Sony had lured away from the older players lined up to defend the now-entrenched media giant from the new interloper. And irony laughed and ordered another drink.
Lately, EA has been the designated whipping boy for followers of the games industry, what with the poor labor practices and the exclusivity deals (Update: Here’s another one!) and the hostile takeover attempts. Given that News Corporation has started sniffing around for a publisher to acquire, though, I’m going to make a rash and foolhardy prediction: in a few years, when Fox owns Activision, and Viacom owns Midway, and Time Warner and Disney bolster their own games divisions by scooping up a few other publishers, you’ll see a flood of support for good ol’ boys EA and Microsoft, and a ton of editorials, weblog posts, and message board chatter about how all these corporate raiders are going to somehow ruin the world of games.
While my inner knee-jerk liberal wants to rail against a wave of corporate invasions in video games, the cynic in me just shrugs. The main effects of media consolidation tend to be a narrower range of voices, increased cross-selling, and a generally risk-averse attitude. Game publishers are already so conservative, though, with their heavy tendency towards sequels and licensed titles. I suspect that if my prediction turns out to be wrong, it won’t be because fans don’t like the shift towards placing more power in fewer hands; it’ll be because they won’t even notice.