EA wanted to pay over $1 billion for Valve, says report

According to a report published today in the New York Times, Electronic Arts offered more than a billion dollars in an attempted buyout of Valve, but was ultimately turned down by the PC gaming company.

The sources asked to remain nameless, but both confirmed that EA had made a billion dollar pass at the Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress, Dota 2, Counter-Strike, Left 4 Dead and Steam creator. Valve figurehead Gabe Newell was quoted as saying he'd rather let the company disintegrate over time than sell out to a mega corporation. 

“It’s way more likely we would head in that direction than say, 'Let’s find some giant company that wants to cash us out and wait two or three years to have our employment agreements terminate'.”

There is no word on when this attempted buyout may have taken place, but Valve is apparently currently valued at $2.5 billion. Which seems to indicate this was an event that took place some time ago before Steam became such a runaway success. It's possible (though entirely speculation) that EA sought to buyout the market leader in PC digital distribution before developing their own solution, Origin. 

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

Report: EA Sought to Acquire Valve

Electronic Arts was apparently prepared to pay up to $1 billion in order to acquire Valve, according to a new report.

The New York Times claims to have seen a report which lists the various opportunities Gabe Newell has had to sell the company in the past.

"Valve has been pursued over the years by Electronic Arts, which would very likely have valued Valve at well over $1 billion had the talks progressed that far," it explains.

The article goes on to say the claims come courtesy of "two people with knowledge of the discussion who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private".

Why said talks broke down isn't clear, especially given that EA's COO Peter Moore recently voiced his support for the company, describing them as being "on the cutting edge of the future of this industry". It may have something to do with Valve co-founder Gabe Newell, who has apparently long been convinced that the company would "disintegrate" if it was ever bought by another company.

"It’s way more likely we would head in that direction than say, ‘Let’s find some giant company that wants to cash us out and wait two or three years to have our employment agreements terminate,’ he said.

Had the deal gone through, EA would have gotten quite the bargain; Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter estimates that Valve would today be valued at around $2.5 billion, mainly thanks to its Steam digital distribution service. The company is also believed to make far more money from Steam than it does from actual sales of its own games.

This number only looks set to go up, especially with the recent news that the company will be "jumping in" to hardware development.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

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Daniel Craig to Play James Bond "At Least Five Times"

Daniel Craig will play James Bond “at least five times,” and if studio executives have their way, he will be the longest-serving actor in the role.

Roger Moore currently holds the record, having played 007 seven times in official Bond flicks.

MI6 broke the news when announcing that Sony Pictures has reached a new co-financing deal with MGM to continue making Bond movies.

The studio apparently hopes to start making Bond flicks on a two-year cycle, meaning that Bond 24 could hit in 2014.

The next Bond film – Skyfall – hits UK screens on October 26 before reaching the rest of the world in November.

Chris Tilly is the Entertainment Editor for IGN and is hoping to replace Craig as Bond. His idle chit-chat can be found on both Twitter and MyIGN.

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Wanna See The Avengers Again?

Yeah, yeah, yeah -- you've already seen it 16 times. But that doesn't have to stop you from checking out The Avengers again now that it's returning to theaters for a special Labor Day engagement.*

The film's Facebook page says Avengers will be back from August 31 to September 6, which should tide you over until it hits Blu-ray on September 25… But just in case it doesn't, check out old Thanos in the clip below:

*Of course, technically speaking, Avengers is still playing in a handful of theaters, many of them of the lower-end, mom-and-pop variety. But this special run will presumably return it to the big multiplexes of the world, where you can pay 50% more but also not have to worry about sticky floors (or seats).

Talk to Movies Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN and on Facebook.

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Wield Godlike Power in Harold, a Playable Saturday Morning Cartoon

“My goal is to create a downloadable game with the quality of a triple-A game.”

Sure, like I haven’t heard a game developer tell me that a thousand times before. But for Moonspider Studios CEO Loris Malek, he’s taking aim at his goal by somewhat nontraditional gaming means: he’s hired a team of the most talented 2D animators he can find and is creating a Don Bluth cartoon that happens to be playable with a controller.

Yes, animation has been given top priority in Harold, a sidescrolling platformer where you control a veritable doofus. See, you’re a guardian angel’s apprentice, and in order get your people-protecting Master’s degree, as it were, you must complete the final exam in which you steer the clumsy Harold through timed obstacle runs where pratfalls and dangers constantly befall him.

The obstacle course also happens to be a race against other sad-sack mortals, however, so you’re competing with your fellow guardian angel apprentices for the top finish times. As such, you’ll need to egg Harold on with divine bolts of lightning, sabotage other racers, and use your godlike powers to look ahead in the race and clear a path for Harold as he ignorantly runs toward certain death.

And prepping the course for a smooth run is all you need to worry about, big job though it may be, as you don’t actually control Harold’s movements outside of jumping. Like the 2009 LucasArts platformer Lucidity, the stage is constantly advancing and you can’t stop it. Your job is to make sure Harold doesn’t kill himself, thereby causing you to flunk your guardian angel SAT.

Things start simply enough, but before long you’ll be constantly juggling hazards and looking for any shortcut you can in order to shave precious seconds off of Harold’s time. Gators ahead in a river you need to traverse? Give ‘em a holy whack on the noggin with your divine hammer. Is Harold nervously tiptoeing across a teetering plank bridge? Give him a nudge forward by pulling the bridge tight at each end and then release it to rubber-band snap the young man into gear. A total of four worlds – desert, jungle, beach, and snow – house multiple stages each, adding up to a pre-replayability total of about 6-8 hours of gameplay.

And as for those animations? You truly have not seen a video game look like this since…well, ever. “I wanted to make the first game that would look like a Walt Disney movie,” Malek says enthusiastically.

It shows. Film-quality cartoon cutscenes form the introductory sequence, finale, map introductions, and even mid-race moments. Harold is one game where you’re not likely to want to skip any of the cutscenes. Now that would be a divine miracle.

Ryan McCaffrey is the Executive Editor at IGN Xbox. He used to own a DeLorean, which is weird. Follow him on Twitter, on IGN, catch him on Podcast Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

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The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes - "Ultron Unlimited" Review

Warning - full episode spoilers follow.

The problem with Ultron is that, no matter how many times you pound him into scrap metal, he always returns in a new body and with a new plan for wiping out humanity. The Avengers learned that the hard way in this week's episode of Earth's Mightiest Heroes. "Ultron Unlimited" picked up where "Behold... the Vision!" left off a few weeks ago, as the robotic villain sought to replace the Avengers with his own, "perfected" Synthezoid Avengers. Unfortunately, "Ultron Unlimited" turned out to be the first instance where the show's new, largely standalone approach to episodic storytelling took its toll.

The problem is that the idea of the real Avengers battling their evil replacements is a little too familiar coming so close on the heels of the Skrull invasion saga. Hawkeye even seemed to point out that fact when he quipped, "Just so we're clear, I'm the real me." That brief moment of levity didn't do much to spice up the conflict, however. Even Vision's fight scenes felt strangely diminished, as the character was far from the unstoppable powerhouse he was in his first appearance. Chalk it up to his conflicted feelings on his mission, I suppose. The best that could be said for the action in this episode is that, like in "Assault on 42", the fact that the Avengers were fighting inhuman opponents allowed them to be more brutal and decisive in combat than animated superhero shows typically allow. The rampant battling was entertaining enough, just not particularly noteworthy.

The focus on Avenger vs. Avenger brawling meant that Ultron himself was largely relegated to being a backseat player. We were never given a clear idea of what Ultron's larger goal was beyond swapping the Avengers out for Synthezoids.It was cool to see the team eventually unite to battle Ultron in his all new, all adamantium shell, but by that point the episode had too little running time left to take advantage of the scenario. And while Vision's evolution from uncaring soldier to would-be human was engaging, it could have been fleshed out and expanded upon. That's to say nothing of Jocasta, who played so little role in the episode it's enough to wonder why she was introduced at all. I don't know if she's intended to return before the end of the season, but if she does, hopefully the writers will actually do something with her and her relationship to the Pym family.

"Ultron Unlimited" was at its best when it focused on that family dynamic and Ultron's Oedipal relationship with his "mother," Janet. It's too bad Hank didn't make his long-awaited return here, because there's plenty of good material to mine with these characters. A script that downplayed the Avengers and devoted more time to Ultron's efforts to both please and supplant his father would have worked a lot better. Sadly, as far as I'm aware, this was Ultron's final appearance for the remainder of Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The most we can do is hope that Avengers Assemble takes a slightly more dark and psychological approach to the character.

Jesse is a writer for IGN Comics and IGN Movies. He can't wait until he's old enough to feel ways about stuff. Follow Jesse on Twitter, or find him on IGN.

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