Activision to Publish Grand Theft Auto?

Rumor suggests Activision is going after Take-Two, publisher of the Grand Theft Auto games.

Avinash Bali|Feb 14, 2011, 11:54:30 IST

In what can be described as the most horrific piece of news I’ve read all week, it seems Activision is eyeing Take-Two, publisher of franchises like Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, BioShock and lots more. The reason this rather strong rumor has visibly upset me is because just last week Activision axed its Guitar Hero franchise as they felt people were over the music genre. In addition to this they even canned upcoming open world action game, True Crime Hong Kong.

Making it rain

"There are very strong rumors amongst people at a very senior level within the global business," a senior executive told MCV. "But there're not much more than that at the moment - they are just rumors. And, of course, given Activision's news this week, everyone is now looking to see what their next move is. But you can definitely put two and two together and make four-ish."

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If this indeed goes down, Activision would without a doubt become the largest video game publisher in the world with franchises like Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty and World of Warcraft under their belt. This is also spells doom from those games as Activision are very well known for running a franchise into the ground, as is evident with their Call of Duty games.

But I firmly believe that there is a God and for all our sakes, I hope he doesn’t let this deal go down.

By Avinash Bali

Nash, as he prefers being called, woke up to the wonders of gaming rather late but don't bring that up around him. It's a touchy subject. A self confessed Battlefield veteran, Nash spent a good part of 2010 on the Steam Battlefield - with Bad Company (see what we did there?). He has a zero tolerance policy towards RTS games but is currently showing an interest by picking up and moving people - who he refers to as units - in the office. Thank God he's not that enthusiastic about Angry Birds or we'd be seeing women flying all over the place. Bali... Bali, put the receptionist down now.