 When the sales for his games declined, EA told him it was due to his brand depreciating and losing its value in the eyes of the consumer, so they offered to acquire the company.At a point in the video game development age where budgets were rising along with the sales aims to fund those budgets, "big publishers didn't want to have anything to do with you if they couldn't own your IP... you would basically have these deals where if you wanted to sign a $15 million development deal you were simultaneously signing an acquisition deal.