What Vivendi doesn't want us to know. And why Valve needs a new publisher!

[Chadda]

If you were to create a Games Publishing Company, what would you call it?

 

[Grand Architect]

The whole MP3.com thing is like the digital ages version of burning book ;(

 

[DrEvil]

All corporations want to make money. They need to make money. That's what the exist for, not to make gamers happy.

 

[VGJosh]

Maybe they aren't selling Half life 2 now because it'll interupt the WoW sales?

 

[Grand Architect]

Maybe they aren't selling Half life 2 now because it'll interupt the WoW sales?

I'd believe that if WoW goes gold before HL², but as far as I've heard it is still in beta (am I wrong?).

 

[Cole]

Heres an image, it has a swearword (for those who are offended by a swearword even if its vs vivendi).

Quick photoshop.

 

[razorblade kiss]

Damn Razor, excellent post. Very informative. This definetly shines a new light on this situation. Great find.

It's amazing what a little research can do. We need to stop viewing Vivendi as our friendly local publisher. Their huge. Huge slimey filth bags who would do anything to make another cent. :flame:

 

[Xcellere]

Everyone is forgetting that it's VU Games that is in trouble here, not Vivendi itself.

 

[cadaveca]

to kinda further razorblade kiss's comments, and the articles, one of the questions asked at the end of the 1st-half earnings press confrence, was "What do you plan with VU games?"

The answer was given

"Well, we are really looking forward to the release of World of Warcraft. The game itself entered beta a couple of weeks ago, and it looks like our servers are having no problems. The Beta has been so popular, that we literally had to turn thousands away."

"Do you have any plans to sell?"

"Well, we will see how it goes, but uh, even though there is some pressure from the board for sale of VU Games, we'll ride it out. Right now we're only at a loss of 9m, and our IP battle looks good. Next question?"


That's not quite verbatim, but it was what i got to jot down while listening. I had only found the audio recording a day or so before it was pulled, and listening to the 1h44m recording just for a snippet of HL2 was not a fun task. Of course, nothing was mentioned about HL2, Valve, or anything else HL related.

So the pressure is there to get rid of VUGames, but i think they want to see if they can pull the division out of the hole it's currently in, and quite possibly get some decent money for it. There are not alot of big games on VUG's slatebeside W.o.W. , unless you wanna count "Evil Genius". LOL.

 

[MetEoRA]

Dunno if this has been said yet, but not everyone can buy HL2 over steam. 56k users would have a hell of a time dling it. There are also those who have a fetish w/ boxes and instruction booklets.

I have kind of a wierd question. Would the release of W.o.W. and HL2 have any kind of effect on Vivendi's stock? I've been thinking that the release of these games is probably going to make Vivendi a lot of money. So, theoretically, wouldn't this cause Vivendi's stock to rise? Would it be a good idea to invest in this stock before the release of these games and hopefully make a bit of $$$?

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't realise this was such an old thread, didn't mean to bring back the dead...but any response to my question would be appreciated

 

[zer0kewl]

You just made the point I want everyone to know.

They started selling tap water, then expanded the company to where the money is. They do not care about how us gamers feel. They go where the money is. They invest there time into companies that they feel will bring them money. Vivendi is a corporation. That alone is bad.

in that case valve really needs a new publisher.
but what publischer can actualy publissh hl 2
and all stuff

for the world wide release for not to much
and 1 that does care about gamers.

and wich publisher valve would choose ?
if vivendi does't want to release it?

 

[[Dragoon]]

I have kind of a wierd question. Would the release of W.o.W. and HL2 have any kind of effect on Vivendi's stock? I've been thinking that the release of these games is probably going to make Vivendi a lot of money. So, theoretically, wouldn't this cause Vivendi's stock to rise? Would it be a good idea to invest in this stock before the release of these games and hopefully make a bit of $$$?

I've always kinda wondered that. If so, it would be a great way for us gamers to make money, since we have a pretty good idea how well a game is going to do - Like how World of Warcraft is going to sell like hotcakes at a... hotcake... convention.

It sounds logical to me. Other then the hotcake convention. Who the hell goes to a hotcake convention?

 

[f|uke]

Chances are, savvy investors have already taken these games into account,. therefore their release will only have a significant impact on stock if the sales are considerably better/worse then expected.

 

[Edge]

They do not care about how us gamers feel.

No corporation cares about it's consumer base. It is merely a smoke and mirrors act to make you feel special and get your money.

VU shutting down is good. Valve will get all the rights to do what they damn want. I wouldn't be so sure the results would still be the same today.

This is actually not that black and white. For example when Dr. Dre let Death Row he has to sign over all his masters to the label before he was allowed to leave his contract. The whole Artist formerly known as Prince fiasco in the 90's was because even though Prince was born as Prince Rogers Nelson... Warner Brothers legally OWNED the rights to his name Prince. He was told to change his name because until Dec 31st 1999 the name was property of Warner Brothers. He refused to change the name his mother gave him and to mock them he said he was to be known as a symbol. Unfortunately the media likes to twist things around.. anyway the point is in Entertainment when it comes to intelectual property and big corporations it is NEVER that easy. I am sure VUG could hold Valve to something if they needed to.

Drop it, it is not going to work.

That attitude is unamerican.. oh you are finnish. Well in America that is how we do things. Seinfeld is now coming on DVD because of 80k signatures on a web petition Remember how Star Wars was never to be released on DVD because Laser Disc was superior! Well Public OUTCRY prevailed and now we have a digitally remastered box sets of the entire collection in every retail store.

Im scared........Do u guys think they VU is really going to delay HL2 just for the hell of it?

They could delay if they wanted too... but honestly (and I am not bashing HL2) they NEED to hurry up and release it. So many games have surpassed the technical features in HL2 already. If they continue to wait it could end up a Duke Nukem Forever and when they decide to release it they may not make much money.

All corporations want to make money. They need to make money. That's what the exist for, not to make gamers happy.

Exactly.