Yesterday we ran a story about a GameIndustry.biz interview with Oddworld Inhabitant's head honcho, Lorne Lanning. The interview was full of fireworks and really got the gaming community riled up, especially when Lorne claimed that he told EA “F*ck you very much” when they attempted to buy them out. According to EA, this never happened.
Gameindustry.biz has a follow-up on their encounter with Lanning, only this time it's from EA's side. According to representative and corporate spokesman for Electronic Arts, Jeff Brown, he states that...
"We wish Lorne luck on the game and recommend Lithium for the paranoia and Tourette Syndrome. Nobody here remembers a jet, a Ferrari or an offer to buy his company,
The Ferrari statement wasn't literally just about Ferraris...it was in regards to spending ventures (i.e., spending the returns of investment on silly things instead of using it for assets on the next project). I'm not sure what the dig is for regarding Tourette syndrome and paranoia...seems like something an educated fanboy would say who wasn't slick enough to come up with an intelligent comeback.
Anyway, this isn't the first time EA has had to do some PR damage control. They had a similar thing going on for the comments about Gears of War having some of the worst writing in the game industry.
The thing is, given EA's horrible track record it's really, really hard to believe that they didn't stoop to the levels that Lorne mentioned in the interview to acquire Oddworld Inhabitants. I mean, this is the same company who bought up and gutted a number of studios over the years and are draining the life-force out of BioWare and PopCap at this very moment (who will inevitably join the graveyard ranks of Pandemic, Westwood and Origin sooner rather than later). In fact PopCap Dublin recently just shutdown [via Rapid-News]. So yeah, I wouldn't put it past EA to want to pick up a studio like Oddworld to take control of the Oddworld brand and milk until it's a skinny, pencil-thin cow.
However, if EA says they weren't buying out Oddworld Inhabitants and they don't roll with jets and Ferraris, then I guess we have to take their word for it...for whatever their word is worth.
