Rumor: EA purchases GTA community site for $3.4m [Update]
Update: Forum MODs have just confirmed for us that this was an April Fool's joke. That's strange though because we could have sworn it was still March. Thanks for wasting every body's time!
Confident they'll soon be the owners of all things Take Two Interactive, Electronic Arts has made a push to acquire GTANet.com, one of the largest Grand Theft Auto communities online (which is comprised of 11 different GTA based websites). According to reports, EA has acquired the site, including all domains associated and all statistical information about its members (as listed in the above email scan from EA to GTANet owners found by WhatIfGaming), for $3.4 million as of March 22.
If true, Electronic Arts would have one of the largest databases of information of any Grand Theft Auto community available. Speculation aside, we wonder how important this information is to EA if they were to acquire Take Two.
While the owners of the GTANet have not posted an official confirmation on the matter, the GTAForums.com logo has been changed to incorporate the EA insignia adding fuel to the fire. With this supposed acquisition we wonder Take Two acquisition press release is being edited as we speak.
[Thanks, Chris]
[Read, full email scan]
[Read, GTAForums New Logo]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dan_C @ Mar 24th 2008 5:46PM
That's a big chunk of change for a fan site
Xav de Matos @ Mar 24th 2008 5:51PM
@Dan_C: It's actually a network of 11 GTA based websites. I edited that into the article.
Apologizes for the confusion.
slash @ Mar 24th 2008 5:57PM
Smells bogus to me.
Robert @ Mar 24th 2008 5:58PM
They are covering their backs, they are trying to be ready for when EA transform the GTA franchise to garbage, they will have the list of all possible suspects when something bad happens to EA headquarters, jaja
muffin man @ Mar 24th 2008 6:09PM
Wow that's scary.
HaywireAcorn @ Mar 24th 2008 6:19PM
EA is a dangerous company I believe. I won't buy GTA IV if they get their grubby little hands on it. They will just find some way to exploit it. (Micro-Transactions for sure.)
Microswirl @ Mar 24th 2008 6:23PM
EA only has a month left to coerce stockholders and get all the fake parody ads in GTA4 changed to real ads for Doritos and Madden. Can they pull it off? I dunno about you all, but my finger is hovering over the "boycott" button, ready to strike!
mcwattersm @ Mar 24th 2008 6:25PM
THIS IS THE END OF THE WORLD!
YouSlippin @ Mar 24th 2008 6:33PM
I bet its april fools joke in progress.
Jeff Tronti @ Mar 24th 2008 6:35PM
I will continue to boycott EA.
Espiox @ Mar 24th 2008 6:39PM
Wow, this is so obviously an April Fools joke it's unbelievable.
Gamer_001 @ Mar 24th 2008 6:55PM
Even if EA did end up getting Take Two, its not going to effect GTA 4. Since the game is coming out in about a month, they wouldnt have time to do anything anyways since its going to be in manufacturing soon if not already.
Russ Tundra @ Mar 24th 2008 7:04PM
lol thats right Espiox! I think TT leaked this too. there is no paperwork showing EA looking to buy take Two! lmao! this is bogus! I can't wait for GTA Version of NHL 08. Sidney Crosby Stealing Cars and Smoking Marijuana.. or how bout "EATT" Electronic Arts Take Two Make a Hard Core Dog Fighting Game named after good 'ole boy Mike Vick. You'll be able to go be a ball hogging QB out on the field on Sunday and come home and put a chihuahua up against a Bull dog Monday night. that would be an awesome Superstar mode! Bringing it to their homes! LMAO!
Knight Marquise @ Mar 24th 2008 7:27PM
If EA succeeds in their hostile takeover of Take Two....I'll have to cancel my pre-order of GTA IV. Sad, so sad...
UNSCleric @ Mar 24th 2008 7:28PM
God I hate EA.
oo7ev @ Mar 24th 2008 7:47PM
Will I have to buy MS points to post in the forum?
xenocidic @ Mar 24th 2008 7:58PM
T2 shareholders would have to be stupid to accept the current offer. The shares are going to skyrocket in the coming months.
dirt junkie @ Mar 24th 2008 8:15PM
if this is true and please god tell me its not, this is a sad day for gaming!
I HATE EA SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!
Adam @ Mar 24th 2008 10:06PM
This is a good thing.Then the ps3 rockstar exclusives will be shit.
Sell Take Two Sell Please
Xav de Matos @ Mar 24th 2008 11:13PM
It might be an April Fool's joke. But it would be a sad thing.
Why? April Fools jokes happen in April, and if the GTANet people aren't smart enough to come up with something to trick people on the right day, injecting false news is a poor approach to gaining respectable publicity.
Mayor McCheese @ Mar 24th 2008 11:47PM
an april fools joke is perfect given the popularity of GTA4 and the current hot issue of the hostile takeover bid of Take Two. The GTA forums are getting tons of hits and free publicity on top of the added hits from just the game coming out soon.
Sounds like it's a win-win either way...if it is a joke. I don't see EA buying them up before they get the IP, then paste their logo on the site like this. That's way too cokcy for even EA.
Exo @ Mar 25th 2008 12:15AM
GTA IV comes out in 1 month. if they purchased take two this second, it would not change the contents of GTA IV at all.
Chase @ Mar 25th 2008 4:33AM
Sidebar, that GTA Forum has over 183 thousand members. That's bigger than Guam and almost bigger than Samoa. O_O;
kfresh97 @ Mar 25th 2008 4:33AM
Why is everyone so upset about EA trying to buy T2? Hell, if you had billions of dollars, wouldn't you want to buy Rockstar?
Yeah, pretty sure you would.
Tom @ Mar 25th 2008 5:27AM
It's false. Tank, the owner of gtanet, bought sims3.com and used gtanet to build pagerank. a new sims game was announced, traffic was driven, 'speculation' begun on the gtaforums.com site (it's users are morons), and the admins "played along". It's a prank, I have this on the word of the girl that administrator "illspirit" thinks is his girlfriend because he's a desperate loser.
DiFiasco @ Mar 25th 2008 5:27AM
Despite everything EA has said, I think Hauser had better make backup plans to create a new brand because it looks like the big pig is not about to let Rockstar walk away as planned.
Tom @ Mar 25th 2008 5:28AM
its* users, sorry, I looked at the site long enough to lose a few IQ points.
hottnesssss @ Mar 25th 2008 10:15AM
I think this is false now as well. I just went back to the forums to see what was going on and the EA logo has been taken down. Hmmmmmm.
AndyGTANet @ Mar 25th 2008 5:42PM
Folks seem to be a bit bitter around here. I'll touch on the issue of the prank specifically, mainly because I was one of the few moderators who came up with the original concept.
It's an annual tradition at GTANet to have some sort of "prank" on/around April the 1st. Sometimes we hit early, sometimes we hit late. In response to the ongoing issue of EA attempting to take over Take Two, we thought it'd be amusing to suggest to our members that our forums had been "bought out" by Electronic Arts.
Unfortunately, some members of the community took this too far, and attempted to spread the rumours beyond the confines of GTAForums.
I would like to apologize to anyone who was gullible enough to buy into this charade.
Cheers.
derty @ Mar 28th 2008 5:00PM
Damn right. dertyjerzian represents. April Fools, Suckassss! Mwuhhahahahaha