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EA to Purchase Firemint, Developer of 'Flight Control' and 'Real Racing'

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,553
30,882



120254-ea_firemint_logos.jpg

Electronic Arts today announced that it has agreed to purchase Australian iOS gaming firm Firemint, the developers behind the popular Flight Control and Real Racing games.Electronic Arts Inc. today announced an agreement to acquire Firemint Pty Ltd., the leading independent mobile development studio. Based in Melbourne, Australia, Firemint brings a proven powerhouse of creative talent to EAi, with original hits Flight Control and Real Racing for iPhone and iPad, and an attractive future slate of games. The deal is not material to EA overall and is expected to close within four weeks. Financial details are not disclosed.Flight Control and Real Racing were two relatively early hits on the App Store, and Firemint has continued to push forward with iPad versions and sequels of the popular apps. Firemint was also one of the first iOS firms to commit to bringing an iOS application to the Mac App Store.

Article Link: EA to Purchase Firemint, Developer of 'Flight Control' and 'Real Racing'
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/05/03/ea-to-purchase-firemint-developer-of-flight-control-and-real-racing/
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alectheking

macrumors 6502a
Mar 9, 2010
584
28
wow, that sucks. EA is an ass of a company, I can't stand them. It makes me so pissed that they have started charging, let alone even think they are entitled too do so, to play online for 2nd hand console games. It's a total crap whole that they can get away with it. And yes, I have stopped purchasing their products.
 
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tasset

macrumors 6502a
May 22, 2007
572
200
I'm OK with this. Means I can pick up the games for a buck when EA has their inevitable holiday firesale to lock up iTunes Top 10. And maybe then they will incorporate the mirroring capabilities of Real Racing into their other games.
 
ciTiger

ciTiger

macrumors 6502a
Jan 25, 2011
626
0
Portugal (Porto)
I hope this is a good thing rather than a bad one... But the games market is thriving so it's normal that big fish eat the little ones..
 
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ssspinball

macrumors 6502
Aug 6, 2008
348
174
So much for Firemint's quality. :(

EA games are crash-tastic, even months after release. They just abandon them instead of fix them. See Command & Conquer on iOS--could have been great...if you could play for longer than 2 minutes without it crashing.
 
BC2009

BC2009

macrumors 68020
Jul 1, 2009
2,237
1,393
I'm pretty sure we can all agree that this sucks. EA is the worst. I've had friends who worked for game software companies that EA acquired and then mismanaged and destroyed.

I really hate the way EA manages their acquisitions. I guess this opens the door for somebody else to do a great racing game for iOS because in about a year Real Racing will probably suck.
 
MartiNZ

MartiNZ

macrumors 65816
Apr 10, 2008
1,222
125
Auckland, New Zealand
Firemint had just purchased Infinite Interactive and there was excitement that some of their better past products, e.g. Warlords, might get funded for a comeback at last. Seems to me that sort of thing would just get lost in such a bigger beast, unless they can do it in the background without anyone noticing.... The titles have been rather negatively affected by lack of support form publishers (Red Orb / Ubisoft) in the past ... ahh well, guess will have to see what happens.

Tend to agree on the "there goes RR" sentiment. EA needs more racing games under it?
 
ArtOfWarfare

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,563
6,062
I felt firemint's games were overrated.

Even so, EA is definitely leaps and bounds backwards (and probably still heading further back... I don't know how much further they can go though... Maybe try selling bug fixes as IAP? Probably not, I just don't see EA as having the programming talent to actually fix bugs.)
 
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techy298

macrumors newbie
May 2, 2011
27
0
At least firemint updated their apps

I have 3 EA Apps, none have been updated since purchase:eek:
 
rockosmodurnlif

rockosmodurnlif

macrumors 65816
Apr 21, 2007
1,089
96
New York, NY
tasset said:
I'm OK with this. Means I can pick up the games for a buck when EA has their inevitable holiday firesale to lock up iTunes Top 10. And maybe then they will incorporate the mirroring capabilities of Real Racing into their other games.
Click to expand...
Flight Control is 99¢

And updated games following this purchase would surprise me. Been waiting with EA to do something with Tetris. Their version sucks.
 
J

jmsait19

macrumors 6502
Jan 26, 2004
378
0
MO
it's annoying when these little companies start up and do something cool. something that no one else was doing, or just not doing very well. they get successful.

then along comes a company who had the capability to do it themselves, but were too concerned with sitting on their moneybags... so they buy the little company to absorb its profit, and the product is left to wallow until it stops making money... then the big company will just go find someone else who's making money and buy them...

capitalism is supposed to be good, right? free market, also good? prove it.
 
cmichaelb

cmichaelb

macrumors 68020
Aug 6, 2008
2,280
739
Italy
That sucks soooo badly, EA will ruin these games. Real Racing will turn into a need for speed real or some arcadey junk and I can't imagine how bad they will screw up Flightcontrol.

And didn't Zynga(mafia wars, farmville) buy the Words with Friends developer?
 
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tigress666

macrumors 68040
Apr 14, 2010
3,288
17
Washington State
ssspinball said:
So much for Firemint's quality. :(

EA games are crash-tastic, even months after release. They just abandon them instead of fix them. See Command & Conquer on iOS--could have been great...if you could play for longer than 2 minutes without it crashing.
Click to expand...

I haven't paid too much attention to EA, but yes, I've noticed that since I bought Sim City and the Sims, I have yet to see one update on Sim City and I saw a few on Sims after they were new but now it's like it's been abandoned.

EA seems to pretty much put out the software and then never do any upgrades or fixes to them.

I'd expect now that Real Racing will stay the way it is after EA buys it and never get any bug fixes nevermind upgrades (I really appreciate that about most other games from other companies. I never noticed it from EA cause they were one of the first iphone games I bought and I just assumed you get what you get, but now I'm spoiled by so many games that do update and do add not only bug fixes but added features).
 
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tigress666

macrumors 68040
Apr 14, 2010
3,288
17
Washington State
I guess I should be fair, I forgot one other of the games I have is EA, Need for Speed Shift. And that one has had ok support and even some upgrades (like they eventually did update it for the retina screen).

Though... I kinda saw Shift as Real Racing's competitor... now both games which kinda competed with each other are owned by the same company...

(Never bought Real Racing, played it a bit on the Apple Store's ipad, and ended up getting Shift cause at one point Need for Speed made my favorite racing games until Gran Turismo came around so I opted for it instead. Don't have regrets, not that I dislike Real Racing, I have no experience. But I have really enjoyed Shift and it makes for a good "realistic" racing game if I'm going to have just one).
 
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