It's a financial drama that has been going on for months and now it has seemingly come to its end. In an unusual Sunday afternoon press release, Electronic Arts has announced that "after careful consideration" it has abandoned its plans to take over rival game publisher Take Two Interactive.

EA proposed a buyout of Take Two way back in January but Take Two's execs rebuffed EA's advances, saying that EA's asking price for Take Two was too low. A few weeks ago EA announced that it would let its take over bid expire but today EA announced that after checking out "a management presentation and review of other due diligence materials provided by Take-Two Interactive Software Inc." they have decided to pass on buying the publisher.

Take Two's own press release states that the company remains "actively engaged in discussions with other parties in the context of our formal process to consider strategic alternatives."