What's with all of the massive mergers of late? Powerhouse video game production companies are joining forces left and right and we are powerless to stop them! First the record-breaking $19 billion Vivendi-Activision deal, then rumors of a Midway and Eidos merger, and now EA Games has bought out Bioware/Pandemic for a cool $860 million. The big wigs sure are throwing their money around in the wake of record-breaking video game sales in 2007. It seems to me they are positioning their metaphorical chess pieces in an attempt to take sole control of the gaming market. Or maybe I just watch too many cheesy 80's movies like Master of the Universe. Regardless, I'm not so sure these mega-mergers are beneficial to gaming in the long run.

I'm sure some of you are already thinking: "What are you talking about? It's Activision and Blizzard! We'll get sweet games like Guitar Hero World and Call of Dutycraft! And what about EA buying Bioware? Now we'll get copies of Mass Effect and Baldur's Gate every year. Sure, they'll just be new rosters tacked onto the same old game, but Mass '08 really rolls of the tongue doesn't it?" OK, so obviously I'm exaggerating a bit, but what's to stop these super-conglomerates from buying up all of the competition and forcing quality out of the picture? One of the best aspects of the current gaming market is the quantity and the level of the competition, and naturally, the more mergers we see, the less competition as a result.

Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of potential for many of these mergers, especially with Vivendi and Activision, but greatness is not a foregone conclusion. Putting two titans together on the same team does not automatically guarantee success. Just look at Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees, or Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck. I mean, the Yanks still haven't won the Series with A-Rod, and we all know what happened with Gigli. Chemistry and cohesion are more important than shear name-brand "star power". These companies were outstanding on their own, there's no arguing that, but mergers can have devastating effects if mishandled. Hopefully the emphasis will be placed on the quality of the games they produce, rather than the quantity of money they make.