Not EA, but Zynga to buy NaturalMotion?

[Patr1ck]

As for the sports gamer, if this report is true, could imply that EA Sports will use a truly next-gen animation engine in their sports games. This would be moving from EA’s bread and butter of motion capture animation. This is the upside. The downside is that Backbreaker will never see the light of day. Backbreak could have been nothing more than tech demo to achieve exactly this. Either way the odds are not looking gooding for the football genre to get another game anytime soon.

A couple links.

http://sensiblecoasters.wordpress.com/2 ... ckbreaker/

http://www.gameplayer.com.au/gp_documen ... d=Features

I'm not sure how credible this is, but they are saying it will be announced whether EA is buying Natural Motion at Leipzeg, a gaming convention held in Germany. It started today and ends on the 24th.

[buzzy]

It's Leipzig.

[JaoSming]

I fucking hope they dont announce anything in Leipzeg, I really want BackBreaker...

[JaoSming]

Our goal from a content perspective is to create top hits that engage mainstream global audiences. Our winning aspiration is to be the industry leader by delivering more #1 games than any other competitor. To accelerate these efforts and build on our core growth strategy, I’m pleased to share the announcement that we have signed an agreement to acquire NaturalMotion, a leading mobile game and technology developer based in Oxford.

NaturalMotion expands Zynga’s creative pipeline, accelerates our mobile growth, and brings next-generation technology and tools to Zynga that will fast-track our ability to deliver consumers more hit games. Bringing Zynga and NaturalMotion together is a bold step in the right direction at the right time.

The NaturalMotion team is led by renowned technology innovators, including Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Torsten Reil and Vice President of Games Barclay Deeming. Over the last ten years, they have proven their ability to blend their breakthrough technologies like Euphoria, with high-fidelity animation to create delightful mobile hits. Their games CSR Racing in the Racing category and Clumsy Ninja in the People simulation category have both achieved top of the chart status. With NaturalMotion, we will – in total – have five top brands and capabilities in Farm, Casino, Words, Racing and People.

http://blog.zynga.com/2014/01/30/ceo-update-5/

Stolen from NeoGAF, but, ugh, known for mobile games, industry, WHY. WE'LL NEVER GET ANKLEBREAKER

[NovU]

Darn. This could have been so awesome for Fallout franchise.