XBOX-HQ.COM - Viacom still looking to break into Game Development

Since I posted the last news on Viacom looking into a possible purchase of EA, I figured a follow up story would suit just fine. As I have mentioned before, I have followed Viacom for quite some time. My father in law gave us CBS stock years ago, and of course CBS was bought by Viacom. Since then, I have watched this company grow to be a huge media success.

Viacom, the media giant (owner of MTV amongst others) is looking to get into the Games market in a big way. Not big as in BIG, but big as in Activision, Take Two, Ubisoft or THQ. Viacom recently admitted to looking into purchasing Electronic Arts, but was scared off by the $20,000,000,000 price tag - thats Billion with a B.

Summer Redstone, the CEO already has a stake in Midway, however, Viacom has recognised that they need to be in the video-games market to compete in the expanding media world.

Gamesindustry.biz are reporting that although Viacom is involved with almost every other aspect of the media business, they have no finger in the game publishing pie - and is thought to want to rectify this situation by acquiring a profitable publisher.

"We have looked at the obvious companies like Electronic Arts," admitted Redstone, speaking in his capacity as Viacom chairman to a conference in New York, "which is clearly the leader in the field.... But their price is so high, it would be dilutive to our earnings. We have ruled it out."

If there's anyone out there that doesn't think the video game market is multi-billion dollar industry, they need flogged. Also, I don't think that past trends hold any value in todays market. In the early to mid 80's the video game market was flourishing, only to fall flat on it's face. I can without a doubt say that is something that is very unlikely to ever happen again.

Source:XBOX365