Microsoft May Purchase Electronic Arts (1 Viewer)

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Scuttlebutt is going around Wall Street regarding a possible takeover of Electronic Arts at the hands of Microsoft. Talk of the potential buy has been dismissed as "unsubstantiated chatter" by Reuters, but rumors among traders have already served to drive up the stock of both companies. EA stock is up 5.24% to $19.36, while MS increased by 0.9% to $26. Some traders, at least, are banking on the possibility.

Whether purely the product of imagination or a legitimate piece of inside info, the rumor is plausible enough. The last year has seen a steady fall in videogame sales, the largest sales drop in nine years, leaving EA in a potentially weakened state. Such acquisitions have happened increasingly often, as in the case of "Activision Blizzard", and Zenimax/ID, and even EA's own attempts to acquire Take-Two.
Just how such a buy would change the face of the industry is difficult to comprehend. With EA dominating 20% game publishing market share and Microsoft 35% of hardware sales, the two combined would represent an absolute monolith. Or, at the very least, a chance to have a playable John Madden character for Halo 3: ODST's Firefight mode as DLC.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3176152
 
This would kill the PS3 if Microsoft decided to make all EA titles exclusive to the 360.
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Microsoft would not make EA stop making PS3 (or Wii) games. Microsoft would keep most of the EA brand intact. It's too valuable not to. And they would be stupid to cut off a (tiny :freak7:) market segment to spite themselves.

But LMAO @ Halo Madden.
 
I seriously doubt that this will happen. It seems once a year this rumor gets floated; at this point I think the companies do it to boost their stock prices.

EA is cheap right now and has been getting hammered all year. If there ever was a time to buy EA, now is it.

But it still doesn't make much sense. Would MS take the huge EA entity that currently provides games on numerous platforms and lop off more than half its business? If EA isn't selling to PS3, Nintendo, PSP, etc., then MS will have paid a price based on multi-platform sales numbers only to cut out +/- two thirds of the revenue stream? Doesn't make sense.

Maybe they would do timed exclusives, like 1 year on MS hardware before games go elsewhere. Then again, sony and MS cooperate elsewhere; there are sony computers running Windows operating systems. So maybe MS would just own EA and allow it to continue to release multi-platform.

MS has gotten lean with its in-house studios. There is room for EA. But I still think this is nothing but a rumor.

As soon as the NFL license was up for renewal, they'd be screwed. No way the NFL is going to license its product to a publisher working on only one system. Activision would get it.

If MS buys EA and keeps all EA games exclusive, that is the end of the playstation without a doubt. And I don't think that's a good thing for any of us.
 
They would also cut off the iphone. This is what they do. Buy and make the market come to them. Hope it's not true. If it is, Apple should step up and buy EA first.
 
Would that mean no madden for PS3?

Not Necessarily, the only thing it could mean if it happens is that Sony will have to pay royalties to Microsoft for the use of EA games. (Much like sony makes royalties off the use of Blu-Ray) I doubt any company taking over EA would want to make it exclusive to 1 console.

Hopefully Microsoft would improve EA.
 
so your saying MS will buy a majority share of EA and be a silent but persuasive partner?
 
Microsoft buying EA? plausible. even possible.

Microsoft killing Madden and other titles for the PS3 and Wii.. no chance in hades..

Microsoft Office is sold for both Windows and Mac. They have other products that work with non Microsoft platforms. IMO M$ (and Steve Ballmer) is about profit. Locking the PS3 and Wii from EA products is just going to remove revenue that they like.

I think all EA Sports titles will still be released for all three consoles. But FUTURE EA games.. now that could be a whole different ballgame.
 
i think it is just rumors. a few months ago the rumor of apple buying out EA was floating around.
although if somehow this would all translate into 2K getting the nfl license back, i'm in.
 

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