Rupture the social networking site aimed at gamers, has been purchased by EA for a reported $30 million. Rupture was founded by Shawn Fanning, creator of Napster and has never gone past the closed Beta phase.
So what does this mean for Rupture and online gamers? We’ll it’s no secret EA is making a push into MMORPGs with its upcoming Warhammer Online and Biowares untitled MMORPG. If EA is able to integrate Rupture into it’s online MMO games, it will give players greater social tools to communicate with guild members and friends when not logged in. Sorta like Steam does with telling you what games your friends are currently playing and giving you the option to chat with them, although Rupture promises to have more features.
Personally, I don’t think this was a good move by EA. I mean this is software that has never gone past closed beta, so it obviously doesn’t work right yet, and they have very few members. For $30 million, why didn’t they just create a new system from the ground up instead of fixing and changing a site that doesn’t really work yet. Can anyone say 2nd internet bubble? After all Shawn Fanning could be the poster boy for the first bubble.
I may be wrong here but I believe Shawn Fanning and Napster came a bit after the bubble burst in the late 90’s!
I definitely think they overpaid for what they got, but there’s something to be said about keeping a product or technology out of a competitor’s reach.
$30 million for something that’s never gone out of closed beta and most people have never even heard of? That seems . . . insane. If it was a released product with a strong following, then sure, I could see that. But right now it sounds like they’re buying little more than an idea (and not even an original one) for $30 million. Hey EA, I have lots of ideas (not all of them original), and I’ll sell you ALL of them at the discount rate of $15 million. What a steal. Call me.
Yeah doesn’t sound like a good EA move but mroe like somehting that sounded good on paper to a lot of board members.
p.s. I’m doing vote/contest on my blog of bloggers’ favorite game for 2008, closing at the end of this month. Then I’ll post the results and/or send them to you also if you would like.
and if you like any posts directing people to come vote are also welcome.
Please come vote, I think this could be fun to find out what the blogosphere thinks, and see which game wins
Better yet, why didn’t they just write a free app to run on Steam?
A lot of us already have it, and if they used the (free) steamworks sdk it would save them a lot of money.