Rumor: MS to take over EA

[Zeus]

Unnamed sources have told Reuters that there is 'unsubstantiated talk' that MS is interested in buying Electronic Arts. EA's stock has gone up 5 percent as of Wednesday due to these rumors.

<blockquote>Takeover rumors are swirling around video game maker Electronic Arts, driving the company's stock up more than 5% Wednesday.

Citing information from traders, a Reuters report said there was "unsubstantiated talk" that Microsoft(MSFT Quote) is interested in buying the publisher of the Madden, Medal of Honor and FIFA series.
Shares of EA jumped 97 cents, or 5.24%, to $19.49 on the news, outpacing the Nasdaq, which grew 0.19%.

Although merely a rumor, an acquisition would boost Microsoft's presence in the video game space. The sector, however, has struggled to live up to its recession-proof billing, although this could mean an attractive valuation for M&A targets.
</blockquote>

News Source: <A href="http://www.thestreet.com/story/10602302/1/tech-rumor-microsoft-eyeing-ea.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN" target="_Blank">TheStreet</a>

[grapeape]

Well that would certainly solve their "first party" games problem...but I really hope it doesnt happen...there has been enough consolidation lately.

[FearEvil]

Oh please let this be true.

[danight]

amg!!!!!!!

That would be the end game for sony.....

Not to mention what it would mean for natel support. But they could bridge the gap between pc gaming and xbox gaming and zune.

That would be a HUGE blow...

[FearEvil]

EA's market cap is ~$6.5billion. Its going to likely cost them $7Billion+ to buy it. That's a pretty good chunk of change, even for MS.

[DEDDOA]

I hope this isn't true, this could potentially kill competition on consoles and thats a bad thing for all us gamers. Games back up to £50 as the norm along with PS3 launch price consoles. Sony may be arrogant buggers, but i'd hate to see them potentially edged out.

[iLLNESS]

EA's market cap is ~$6.5billion. Its going to likely cost them $7Billion+ to buy it. That's a pretty good chunk of change, even for MS.

you sure about that?

m$ buying EA would only mean better first party for 360 since ps3 wont be holding it back for multi plat titles.

haha

[osnoozeo]

I hope this isn't true, this could potentially kill competition on consoles and thats a bad thing for all us gamers. Games back up to £50 as the norm along with PS3 launch price consoles. Sony may be arrogant buggers, but i'd hate to see them potentially edged out.

y not? ea sports did it with madden and killed off nfl2k series all because they knew there competition was better! i see no problem with it, not like theres **** for games for my ps3 anyway. to be honest i can give 2 shits about natal. who the hell wants to swing there arms n legs to kick balls. lol! when they come out with some vegas type ****, im all in then. but it wont happen and i know it. so it dont even matter!

[danight]

You have to wonder if this wasn't a reason for peter moore going to EA when he left microsoft.

Now all microsoft needs to do is buy 51% of EA stock and the world of gaming will never be the same.

[ThreeDog]

Lack of EA has seriously harmed or killed consoles previous to this, I must admit this would be an extremely good move but if they don't stay multi-platform it would harm 'new EA' itself as well as the other consoles.

Really its the gamers that would suffer depending what licenses and studios came with the deal, MS could afford $44 billion for yahoo so this is possible but should it happen? no way!

[kcvfr400]

You have to wonder if this wasn't a reason for peter moore going to EA when he left microsoft.

Now all microsoft needs to do is buy 51% of EA stock and the world of gaming will never be the same.

If it was last gen I would agree but EA is no longer the biggest publisher and seems to be on the way down. I don't see them publishing as many titles as they did in the past. Thats why its probably a takeover target at this point.

Also a shift like this could prompt Sony or Nintendo to buy up publishers or even other publishers to go exclusive with either Sony or Nintendo or just avoid Microsoft as they know Microsoft would be hard selling EA games like they do Halo. Surely that position is similar to the games that suffer on the wii due to first party success.

I have a 360 so no loss for me but if I didn't then its only the non yearly updated games I like by EA anyway like mirrors edge and Burnout.

But if this went through surely tey would still publis on pc and so not an actual exclusive for 360 in that case.

[iLLNESS]

m$ could be smart about it. they could still allow EA to create titles for the Wii and PS3 and just pull in the money from it. Even if the other consoles sell copies like crazy m$ still gets the last laugh.

[grapeape]

If it was last gen I would agree but EA is no longer the biggest publisher and seems to be on the way down. Thats why its probably a takeover target at this point.

Also a shift like this could prompt Sony or Nintendo to buy up publishers or even other publishers to go exclusive with either Sony or Nintendo or just avoid Microsoft as they know Microsoft would be hard selling EA games like they do Halo. Surely that position is similar to the games that suffer on the wii due to first party success.

I have a 360 so no loss for me but if I didn't then its only the non yearly updated games I like by EA anyway like mirrors edge and Burnout.

But if this went through surely tey would still publis on pc and so not an actual exclusive for 360 in that case.

After thinking about it a little, this could actually be a good thing for everyone...including Sony. Sony and Nintendo might loose some titles but it in doing so it would breach EA's sports contracts with Nascar, PGA, NCAA, NHL and NFL opening them back up for other publishers again. Im sure Sony and Sega wouldnt mind having 989studios and SegaSports back in the mix at a real level of competition.

[kcvfr400]

After thinking about it a little, this could actually be a good thing for everyone...including Sony. Sony and Nintendo might loose some titles but it in doing so it would breach EA's sports contracts with Nascar, PGA, NCAA, NHL and NFL opening them back up for other publishers again. Im sure Sony and Sega wouldnt mind having 989studios and SegaSports back in the mix at a real level of competition.

I did also wonder how the license for these sports would fair under this. It would also I think then effect FIFA also if true which is a very big seller for EA.

Would like to see a revival of both those studios as they have produced some great games in the past.

[danight]

If it was last gen I would agree but EA is no longer the biggest publisher and seems to be on the way down. I don't see them publishing as many titles as they did in the past. Thats why its probably a takeover target at this point.

Also a shift like this could prompt Sony or Nintendo to buy up publishers or even other publishers to go exclusive with either Sony or Nintendo or just avoid Microsoft as they know Microsoft would be hard selling EA games like they do Halo. Surely that position is similar to the games that suffer on the wii due to first party success.

I have a 360 so no loss for me but if I didn't then its only the non yearly updated games I like by EA anyway like mirrors edge and Burnout.

But if this went through surely tey would still publis on pc and so not an actual exclusive for 360 in that case.

nintendo is still rather small in the grand scheme of things... yes wii made them a but load of cash but they arent a major player....
Keep in mind microsoft considered buying them, but opted to build xbox instead.

Sony really isnt in shape to buy up any major studios. ps3 has sucked them dry and sony turned in a loss as a company recently. I doubt stock holders will be willing for sony to gamble more money away.

If microsoft was smart they would just sit tight and allow EA stock to go down after this surge. They can get the company for cheaper and they would be instantly the major player in gaming like they are in the pc market.

But with natel and sony doing motion controls... you have to wonder what nintendo can do next gen to counter whats already been done. Nintendo makes fun first party games... but lets be honest. We see a major nintendo game once a blue moon.

Sony put all their cash into blu ray that still hasnt took off.

While activision/blizzard may be big dogs atm... wow is gonna lose impact 1 day and thats gonna hurt them bad. EA just has to many already established franchises under their belt.

This news has to scare the crap out of sony......Imagine waking up in a week and finding out all EA games and EA sports are all exclusive... this late in the gen would kill ps3.

While sony is a major player... operating as bad as they have the last 3 years + losing one of the most dominate 3rd party devs as well as game publishers in EA, microsoft could force them out of gaming. This would be like hd-dvd losing WB to blu ray....

[msanchez]

I don't know seems to me EA and MS together would be very bad for the whole of the gaming community. Now granted I don't like EA games much, but for some reason that eludes me, the crap does sell. Now if these 2 companies were to merge they alone would probably dictate what goes on in the gaming industry. I think the FTC would make a big deal out of such a deal. In the grander scheme of things, this could potentially add greatly to the already too great # of unemployed people.

Seems some of you think it's not a big deal, but 5 - 10 years down the road, if such a thing were to happen, you might ask yourself "what the hell was I thinking?".

[Calcu]

http://www.ethioplanet.com/news/2009/09/23/microsoft-to-acquire-electronic-arts-analysts-say-no/


it will never happen + EA workers will not be happy to work under microsoft hence why bungie & bizarre left greedy microsoft.

[Trashcat]

Ms could potentially improve the quality of the game-diarrhea EA had since the 90s and may put some old franchises to good use, too bad a lot of it would become 360 exclusive with PC getting left-overs and ps3 getting crap. The best thing about EA over the years has been their PC support, even if ports like FIFA are of craptacular quality these days they are doing more for PC than Ms so far even though PC is technically Ms' own platform. So until Ms reconsider their strategy for PC I don't want them buying EA.

it will never happen + EA workers will not be happy to work under microsoft hence why bungie & bizarre left greedy microsoft.
Failed troll is failed, Ms treats its employees so much better than EA I bet every single EA worker except for higher ups would leave EA for Ms if they were hiring.

[Xenogears V]

Yeah. In this way moor€ have the ass in two chairs.

[Calcu]

Failed troll is failed, Ms treats its employees so much better than EA I bet every single EA worker except for higher ups would leave EA for Ms if they were hiring.

Love it when the ULTIMATE TROLL calls others trolls. crazy world :D

so if M$ treats employees good then why did Bungie & Bizarre Creation Leave ???? or is it just your fanboy rubbish talk again ????

[ThreeDog]

http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=12834 simple i think it was being able to exercise their creativity outside of halo.

http://www.bizarrecreations.com/article.php?article_id=5277#pressrelease from what i can tell they were always second or third party just working though microsoft games studios and wanted more cash.

IIRC there was another studio first or second party that are known to ms as the 'rts guys' they found it so hard to pitch a game outside of the genre it took ages for them to get what they wanted published.

Can't ignore it though EA's game quality would improve a lot if MGS had proper control i still don't believe this is a good idea though id rather see EA games work on PS3/360/WII/PC since at least one of those versions has to be less buggy.
As for analysts well we all know what they're like, They predicted PS3 price cuts every month of 2008 and 2009, MS wouldn't go for yahoo and yahoo would accept the offer straight off the bat.

[danight]

sony may be able to buy sega or something small.


but would hardly be a match for microsoft owning EA.
As far as sports game... they could charge sony to make them... most EA sports games are just xbox 360 ports anyways.

but id expect more a toshiba getting the new wb sided with blu ray approach. Sony wouldn't last long and would probably throw in the towel.
But this would finally open cross platform play between xbox 360 and pc.

But like wb for blu ray that would only be the start. square enix and capcom etc etc have been in bed with microsoft the entire gen. It would just encourage other exclusive deals.

[EL_CAD]

nintendo is still rather small in the grand scheme of things...
Nintendo has long been one of the top publishers of games. Sometimes they're number one and at other times it's EA who is on top. It doesn't get much bigger than Nintendo or EA in the world of gaming.

[grapeape]

Love it when the ULTIMATE TROLL calls others trolls. crazy world :D

so if M$ treats employees good then why did Bungie & Bizarre Creation Leave ???? or is it just your fanboy rubbish talk again ????

Bizarre left because it felt like the red headed step child when compared to the Forza team. Every single interview with them whined that MS gave more attention to Forza over PGR. In the end it wasn't so much Bizarre leaving as MS letting them go as they were never first party to start with.

Bungie was independent pre-MS and missed being independent. They haven't had much negative to say other than not liking corporate structure which is something that EA studios are already used to. Part of Bungies contract structure allowed them to "buy" their freedom and based on the sucess of Halo they were able to do just that.

[danight]

Nintendo has long been one of the top publishers of games. Sometimes they're number one and at other times it's EA who is on top. It doesn't get much bigger than Nintendo or EA in the world of gaming.


I was more stating as a company in size. Nintendo is small to sony and sony is small comparable to Microsoft.
ex: would it be shocking to see Nintendo buy out Microsoft or Microsoft to buy Nintendo?

Its nothing the big N has done as a game company, its just a smaller company. Much like sega was to Nintendo and Sony.

EA has been a scary prospect though... think if they made their own system. With their library of games they could probably hold their own vs sony and microsoft and Nintendo. But to have EA bought out is just plain scary.

This gen has been defined by 3rd party games and EA is 1 of the worlds largest. To have them under 1 roof is insane.

[harryisme]

Bizarre was never and has never been owned by M$, it's always been an independant developer up until Activision brought them out...so sayng Bizarre left M$ is well Bizarre.

As for Bungie, well they might as well still be a First party they are still making Halo games and M$ have first refusal on all their games so most likely their games will be M$ exclusive anyway.

Don't think working for EA is any better than M$, most of their developers appear to work on a tighter schedule than M$ developers, with games due for release annually.

I doubt this is all true anyway, EA itself wouldn't be a big loss to lose as a multi-platform developer but EA owned developers like Bioware and DiCE would be a huge blow to the industry.

[msanchez]

...
Can't ignore it though EA's game quality would improve a lot if MGS had proper control i still don't believe this is a good idea though id rather see EA games work on PS3/360/WII/PC since at least one of those versions has to be less buggy...

Why do you think this? ms seems just as pushy as ea is about release dates from what I can see. I do guess that after chopping a few heads things could get better though. Well games published by ms are definitely of better quality (most, maybe not all) than ea games, but I'm still skeptic about them changing around the crap producing factory that is ea.

[danight]

If this does happen this year... i doubt it will be in the next month or 2 because both companies stock just went up thanks to this rumor.
But if it did happen... this will probably mark 1 of the single biggest deals in gaming history and could very well reshape the console wars.

To be honest only google or apple is probably big enough to go against Microsost and EA or Disney and WB. You have to wonder if google wouldn't go after nintendo if wii 2 doesn't do well.

But you would have to wonder how ps3 could even survive?

But if EA is gonna sell out controlling shares.. and it would probably be best if microsoft did get them. You dont want a outside corp like Disney taking over. Atleast microsoft makes consoles and is involved in the gaming business.

while microsoft could be scare...it could be worse.
like what if wb bought EA and made another console... i mean really 4 consoles in 1 gen plus pc`s...sheesh....

[Blades]

Yep, this seems just as likely as when MS wanted to buy Yahoo!

Not holding my breath.......



;

[RYU81]

Microsoft says EA purchase rumor is false

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

[ThreeDog]

Why do you think this? ms seems just as pushy as ea is about release dates from what I can see. I do guess that after chopping a few heads things could get better though. Well games published by ms are definitely of better quality (most, maybe not all) than ea games, but I'm still skeptic about them changing around the crap producing factory that is ea.EA was always a major publishing/developing brand to me in the distant past i actually looked to them for quality games, Many of these remain my favourites today. Examples: Syndicate, Magic Carpet, Crusader: no regret and no remorse, Theme park, Theme hospital, Sim City, Populous, Road Rash, The Strike Series (i could keep going for weeks)

Right around windows 98 when EA was seemingly getting bigger things started going downhill but was still acceptable further along with associate studios under further contractual conditions EA developed this attitude of money now quality later and release now fix never ideal this has been getting worse and worse some of these games are not fixed not because the developer was lazy but because EA refused to give the extra funds for them to continue supporting their games.

My point is since Xbox 1 most of the games from MGS and the studios affiliated with them have had a great feeling of polish, of completion and continued support where needed. I truly feel that if every game under EA license was forced to go through MGS the standards would have to be raised or they wouldn't come out or at the very least would be tailored to work properly on the hardware they were designed for.

The only studios that have the balls to say no to the demands of modern EA have developed fantastic products Criterion Games and Visceral Games come to mind. It seems MS has no plans for this which is both a shame and a relief.

[*StoneCold*]

This will never happen + if it actually did then EVERY ONE of EA's licences becomes null and void, and these licenses would rather have their games / sponsors / whatever multi-platform.

[msanchez]

EA was always a major publishing/developing brand to me in the distant past i actually looked to them for quality games, Many of these remain my favourites today. Examples: Syndicate, Magic Carpet, Crusader: no regret and no remorse, Theme park, Theme hospital, Sim City, Populous, Road Rash, The Strike Series (i could keep going for weeks)

Right around windows 98 when EA was seemingly getting bigger things started going downhill but was still acceptable further along with associate studios under further contractual conditions EA developed this attitude of money now quality later and release now fix never ideal this has been getting worse and worse some of these games are not fixed not because the developer was lazy but because EA refused to give the extra funds for them to continue supporting their games.

My point is since Xbox 1 most of the games from MGS and the studios affiliated with them have had a great feeling of polish, of completion and continued support where needed. I truly feel that if every game under EA license was forced to go through MGS the standards would have to be raised or they wouldn't come out or at the very least would be tailored to work properly on the hardware they were designed for.

The only studios that have the balls to say no to the demands of modern EA have developed fantastic products Criterion Games and Visceral Games come to mind. It seems MS has no plans for this which is both a shame and a relief.

Yeah I see your point, ms might be pushy about things, but it seems that they're just constantly on devs cases to make sure they don't fall behind. EA on the other hand just seems to start pressuring when it's already too late to do so. At least that seems to be the problem; that or something similar.

[nokia7610i]

10_full_bengali_xxx_movie_download_link_from_rapid shar

[rony1434]

Hi.
Well this would really be a good blow for MS.

[carlton0910]

Lol Please let this be true. :D