Tech Rumor: Microsoft Eyeing EA


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I don't care which console you own, this quite possibly could be the .com bubble of the gaming industry. If Microsoft bought EA, they would have a defacto monopoly on a lot of the industry, and any series gamer want's competition. I don't care how much you may hate Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. You need those three companies to exist. Otherwise there is no reason for the other to do anything at all. Do you think Microsoft would update anything if the PS3 didn't exist? And if Microsoft didn't exist would PSN even exist?

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G4 is talking about this also

Ok. So this is what we in the business call ?big news.? And even though it?s still just speculation at this point, it?s still rather stunning. The word floating around New York is that Microsoft is apparently interested in buying mega game publisher Electronic Arts, Reuters reports.

Now, this ?unsubstantiated claim? will most likely remain so until for the time being, however EA?s stock saw a 4 percent boost today when word of this potentially industry-shattering deal started to spread; and rightfully so. This deal would be so insanely massive and wide-reaching that I really can?t even begin to wrap my head around it. I mean, EA games as Xbox exclusives? How crazy is that?!

Actually, until these unconfirmed claims get some official support, it?s not worth getting too worked up over. There will be plenty of time for that if this thing actually ends up happening. And given the relationship between Microsoft and EA, specifically on the corporate side (John Schappert, Don Mattrick, Peter Moore), it might not be as unlikely as some might think. I'm currently waiting to hear back from Microsoft and EA, so I'll update if/when I hear anything.

What do you think the implications would be of a Microsoft/EA merger?

Source

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Yeah I doubt this is going to happen. Even if it did, I don't know why everyone thinks it would be the end of cross-platform EA titles. Microsoft/EA would not be maximizing profit if they stopped releasing the titles on Sony/Nintendo consoles. I doubt they would pass up that opportunity... after all, they are a business.

I do agree though that if the intention is to make all EA titles 360 exclusives, that's just bad for the consumers.

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Wow, MS might be one of the wealthiest companies, but could they even afford to buy EA?

How much is EA even worth?

From WSJ.com:

Electronic Arts (ERTS)

5,991.64 Market Cap(Mil)

Not sure if that is the best measurement of net worth (I'm not a finance person) but I know it's one measure.

For reference, also from WSJ.com:

Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)

229,628.10 Market Cap(Mil)

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I don't care which console you own, this quite possibly could be the .com bubble of the gaming industry. If Microsoft bought EA, they would have a defacto monopoly on a lot of the industry, and any series gamer want's competition. I don't care how much you may hate Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. You need those three companies to exist. Otherwise there is no reason for the other to do anything at all. Do you think Microsoft would update anything if the PS3 didn't exist? And if Microsoft didn't exist would PSN even exist?

They wouldn't have a defacto monopoly on anything. The sports game licenses already have a loophole for licensed games to be developed by platform holders and Sony has long had a habit of doing so.

Activision, Ubisoft, Take 2, Bethesda would all still be out there as major western third party publishers, which is already a stronger field than we had ten years ago in this industry (when EA really was the only third party that counted, Ubisoft was just getting started, Take 2 didn't exist except for Visual Concepts which was owned by SEGA, and Activision was essentially nowhere).

The industry can survive EA being acquired now (remember, they're the SECOND largest 3rd party publisher these days). It would be a major move for Microsoft and could bring them a lot of popular franchises, but all of those franchises have competition from the other platform holders and third party publishers.

Rock Band? Guitar Hero

Madden? Gameday (and Nintendo clearly doesn't care anymore)

Medal of Honor? Call of Duty

Need for Speed and Burnout? Please, there's plenty of competition out there for that, it just depends on how you want to define the genre

MLB? EA doesn't have one right now, but they'd be able to develop one as an MGS studio

Command and Conquer? There's a massive number of RTS games out there at the moment

Army of Two? This is already pretty much a rip off of an existing genre largely pioneered by Gears of War, but there are equivalents out there that are multiplatform

Dead Space? See Army of Two

Dante's Inferno? Ripoff of God of War

EA is a niche player in RPGs, and hasn't gotten a successful MMO off the ground in years

I'm probably forgetting some.

This combination would help both EA and Microsoft out substantially, it would reunite some former studios that developed for MGS with Microsoft (DICE, Bioware), and it would give EA the ability to produce an MLB game through the platform holder loophole, and it brings in the guys who developed Spielberg's previous games into the fold with Spielberg again to work on Natal. Honestly, this combination makes zero sense for Nintendo (where EA games are also-rans), very little for Sony (plenty of home-grown games that already compete with EA), but it makes perfect sense for Microsoft.

IIRC this would not be the first time that Microsoft attempted to buy EA either...

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Apple rumored to be buying out EA not all that long ago?

You're right and it never happened, just like this won't, but it's fun to post to see all the replies it gets ;)

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pff Teletext already has bamboozle! It needs nothing else! Shame it will die when analogue goes :(

<snipped>

Fear bamber.

Oh the memories! I do miss Bamber! :p

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Wow, MS might be one of the wealthiest companies, but could they even afford to buy EA?

How much is EA even worth?

Yeah if Microsoft can afford to buy Yahoo they can afford EA.

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Game companies don't have as much market cap as one might think. The video game market as a whole, globally is at what? $20b, Out of that EA as posted above, market wise, is $5.4billion, hardly a problem for MS if they really really wanted to get all those licenses.

It wouldn't surprise me if MS did buy a big studio, or a few smaller ones. Nothing wrong with it, and $5b out of that $20b is hardly huge per-say. I doubt it brings up any red flags and monopoly bells. MS even with EA is way off from a monopoly.

And as posted, there are loads of US, EU and Japanese publishers and devs out there. EA use to be the #1 publisher but that's been years ago. Activision takes top spot now.

I don't see this as bad, sure more games go 360/PC only, but EA isn't the only one that makes sports games etc out there.

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talk about pipe dreams. it won't happen.

but if it did, it wouldn't count as anti-trust. EA doesn't have a monopoly on games, and MS acquiring them also doesn't constitute forming a cartel or monopoly. it does nothing to curtail the ability of competitors to act in the market.

bottom line, this is just a nice rumor to ponder, it won't materialize.

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talk about pipe dreams. it won't happen.

but if it did, it wouldn't count as anti-trust. EA doesn't have a monopoly on games, and MS acquiring them also doesn't constitute forming a cartel or monopoly. it does nothing to curtail the ability of competitors to act in the market.

bottom line, this is just a nice rumor to ponder, it won't materialize.

I could see MS buying a big chunk of EA though, if not the whole company. What this could do is get them to get a few more Xbox exclusives down the line and or more timed exclusives on big name games like Madden, which would be a big win regardless for MS.

A big enough chunk of the pie is all you really need, if you aren't hungry for the whole thing.

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Maybe I am just romantic in my thinking and I am a bit older so perhaps that is why I have these thoughts, but one of the biggest reasons I have personally always been against which console is better, exclusives, etc. etc., is I really believe it destroys the core essence of what gaming is supposed to be about, and that is fun. Just pure fun.

I honestly grew up in a different time though. If a game was good, me and my friends never had the discussion right away "so which console is it on?" It just never happened. And its not like there were not choices back then. PS1, Super NES N64, Dreamcast, etc. But it was never a matter of you had to own one over the other. You just owned which one(s) you could, and you enjoyed the game. Yes, of course there were exclusives as Mario sure as hell was only being released on whatever console they had at the time, but it was not a matter of because someone paid someone else more money, etc.

So that's my two cents. I just think all of this kind of talk, etc., destroys the essence of gaming. And I am not naive, I realize it is a much, much bigger business than it ever was, and as such business moves will be made, I just still cannot, and ever be able to wrap my head around, the fact gamers would want one company to fail and another to succeed. I just will never get it personally.

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Maybe I am just romantic in my thinking and I am a bit older so perhaps that is why I have these thoughts, but one of the biggest reasons I have personally always been against which console is better, exclusives, etc. etc., is I really believe it destroys the core essence of what gaming is supposed to be about, and that is fun. Just pure fun.

I honestly grew up in a different time though. If a game was good, me and my friends never had the discussion right away "so which console is it on?" It just never happened. And its not like there were not choices back then. PS1, Super NES N64, Dreamcast, etc. But it was never a matter of you had to own one over the other. You just owned which one(s) you could, and you enjoyed the game. Yes, of course there were exclusives as Mario sure as hell was only being released on whatever console they had at the time, but it was not a matter of because someone paid someone else more money, etc.

So that's my two cents. I just think all of this kind of talk, etc., destroys the essence of gaming. And I am not naive, I realize it is a much, much bigger business than it ever was, and as such business moves will be made, I just still cannot, and ever be able to wrap my head around, the fact gamers would want one company to fail and another to succeed. I just will never get it personally.

Which for as much as people make jokes about, it's what EA actually do best, bring their games to every platform so everyone can enjoy. They even brought the Orange Box to PS3 owners, even although it wasn't the best port, it was better than nothing for those who didn't have a decent enough PC/360 (considering the price of a PS3 back then I would guess most people had a decent enough PC though :rofl:).

You need exclusives to make a system a viable purchase or we'd have a one console future, but EA are definitely not the ones to chase after, they provide too many games to too many platforms. MS can easily bag talent elsewhere, if the intention was to buy EA and lock up their franchises.

Things like Mirrors Edge/Dead Space would absolutely bomb being on one platform only, not that they even sold that well on 3.

John Riccitiello is doing a pretty good job of tidying up the bad EA image that's loomed for ages, Peter Moore is obviously doing a goob job as the Sports part of EA has come on bounds (FIFA is so much better nowadays), I'd rather EA carry on as they are. Activision look like they're becoming the new "old" EA with every piece of nonsense Kotick spews :/

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You need exclusives to make a system a viable purchase or we'd have a one console future, but EA are definitely not the ones to chase after, they provide too many games to too many platforms. MS can easily bag talent elsewhere, if the intention was to buy EA and lock up their franchises.

Things like Mirrors Edge/Dead Space would absolutely bomb being on one platform only, not that they even sold that well on 3.

Well, as noted above (by me) EA has been poaching Microsoft's studio partners like Bioware and DICE (Midtown Madness, Rallisport Challenge). Even Doublefine was part of Microsoft's 2nd party group (although MGS pulled the plug on Psychonauts well into development and Majesco ended up releasing it). EA's been bagging Microsoft's talent. All those small studios that Microsoft used to like to deal with are getting sucked up by Activision and EA.

They'd be on two platforms anyway (360 and PC). I like to think that DICE etc would be able to do better work since they would be "in their wheelhouse" since they came from PC development originally, and have a history of working with Microsoft.

Criterion is probably another matter. They're masters of their domain and do excellent work on all platforms, but they've always been known for their preference for working on Sony hardware.

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Microsoft says EA purchase rumor is false

Electronic Arts stock jumped 4 percent Wednesday amid talk that Microsoft might be interested in buying the major video-game publisher.

"There's talk that Microsoft might be interested in acquiring Electronic Arts. It's unsubstantiated chatter, but it's out there," Frederic Ruffy, options strategist at WhatsTrading.com in New York, told Reuters. The news agency also reported that a London-based trader has heard similar talk in Europe.

However, Microsoft spokesman David Dennis dispelled the rumor.

"There is no truth to this rumor," he said in an e-mail to seattlepi.com, "we have no plans to purchase EA."

http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/180058.asp

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