SIDEBAR: Electronic Arts' proposed $2 billion takeover of Take-Two Interactive hasn't actually happened, but it's already having an impact on the gaming landscape. Specifically, it's reportedly influencing the way Ubisoft (which is partly owned by Electronic Arts) does business.
A Tompson Financial report based on an article in French financial paper Les Echos today indicated that Ubisoft might step up its plans to expand in the wake of its partial owner's proposal. But where EA is focusing on acquisitions like Take-Two or last year's BioWare-Pandemic purchase, Ubisoft will instead focus more on acquiring licenses for games instead of developers and other publishers.
Ubisoft has had success with a number of its original owned properties like Rayman, Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, and Brothers-in-Arms. However it has also increasingly banked on big-name licenses in recent years, adding adaptations of Beowulf, Open Season, Lost, C.S.I., and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to its Tom Clancy-branded line of games.