Microsoft Acquiring EA Makes Xbox A Dangerous Competitor, But will it Happen?

Derrick Smith with Game Insider states - The rumored possibility that EA or Valve could become part of the Xbox eco-system has certainly peaked our interest, leading us to believe that a reality where EA games are all exclusive to the Xbox platform could mean the end of Sony’s runaway hardware advantage in the next-generation of console wars…possibly.

[Gazondaily]

Really doubt it. The cost of the acquisition would be absolutely enormous.

[Neonridr]

34 billion thereabouts. Even if it did happen, MS wouldn't be dumb. They would still have the games release on PS4/Switch. It's money in their pockets. Acquiring Mojang didn't stop them from supporting Minecraft on other platforms.

[Prince_TFK]

Yep, it is still money in their pockets. Plus, they could use all of EA’s games for their game pass service as well.

[DillyDilly]

Its money in their pocket for the standard games but all DLC etc would be Microsoft exclusive lol

[yomfweeee]

What would be the purpose of them purchasing EA if they still released on all platforms? Doesn't make sense.

[Markusb33]

Of course if it was purchased it would be for the ea infastructure and services. They could still distribute and add to game pass massively. People who think they buy EA to make the 3rd party exclusives have no idea how business works. Look at office,.it's on all major competition platforms now.

[OB1Biker]

Like for Minecraft until they innocently decide to push for crossplay and make it necessary to have an xbl account for the update.

[rainslacker]

I don't see why ms would buy ea for billions just to promote game pass. They don't need ea for infrastructure, because they have one of their own which is actually better...at least technically.

[PUBG]

The licensed sports games and Star Wars games would certainly be that way, but I'm sure that they would pick and choose from the rest of the catalogue. Also, Microsoft may have a stipulation that allows the games to go onto PlayStation or Nintendo consoles, with the catch that you would need to sign into an Xbox Live account in order to be able to play them. EA was trying to do this on Steam, but Valve said no, and that's why there have been no EA games released on Steam ever since Mass Effect 3 and Battlefield 3.

[indyman7777]

Yomfweeeeee So does Minecraft make sense? They purchased that for over a billion! Does Halo make sense? Minecraft is on everything....mobil..SWITCH... PS4...PC..and xbox one. So what you say does not correspond to reality. Even though I would normally agree with your logic.

[Retroman]

@ Neonridr

IF .....and i mean "IF" that happens i would wish MS re-hire Blackbox studio revamp NFS
Get rid of Ghost Games loot boxes,open world racing ,alldrive,autolog crap.
Bring back close circuit racing .

[Zerobalance]

Remember the PS4 version of Minecraft will not be updated to the newer version as Sony will not allow cross play. PS4 version is gimped.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Microsoft has over 100 billion in offshore tax havens they could expatriate. 36 billion ain’t that much considering they paid 18 billion for Linkendin.

[Redemption-64]

You actually think EA will only take 36 billion? You are funny. MS will have to dish out well over 50 billion for EA, seriously, you think MS is going to spend over half of their money on EA alone? Plus majority of EA's income comes from licensed games, FYI, games EA doesn't own, you know games such as FIFA, Madden, Star Wars and UFC. If am not mistaken there are clauses in these licensed games that make them multi-platform, so MS acquiring EA will have to lead to renegotiations for each of these licensed, each worth possibility 10 plus billion for the 10 or more years the game will be licensed out to MS. So just in case you can't put 2 and 2 together, MS will more than likely have to pay more than 36 billion for EA and another 10 plus billion each on the games EA doesn't own

[343_Guilty_Spark]

And if it’s $50 billion so what?

Show us these clauses danoman64, where are they?

[neutralgamer1992]

343

it will cost MS way more than 36 million. https://www.wired.com/2008/...

MS will have to pay minimum 55-60 billion and the biggest issue that you and so many other xbox fans don't realize EA will want MS stock not cash. When big companies are trying to buy other big companies the selling party wants stocks in the other company something MS wants no part of(same goes for other companies besides ms none of them want to give equity to the other company)

can MS do it yes they are big enough to afford almost any company will they i am not sure. I think they will look at EA very hard and may make an offer

Valve isn't for sale Gabe has said that

PUBG parent company was offered billions yet they rejected a Chinese Company's bid to buy them so i don't see them selling either

Fifa
NFL
Star wars
etc,

these licenses are what are known as 3rd party exclusive contracts, meaning no other 3rd party can make that game for any consoles. Now 1st party can just like sony did with MLB even though 2k had exclusive 3rd party rights for MLB games

EA can continue to make those games and use those licenses under 2 conditions:

1. develop and release those games on all platforms(MS benefits from extra sales yet to have those games be exclusive could be a huge benefit)

2. use the licenses under new contracts exclusive for xbox brand consoles and other 3rd party publishers can scoop up the license to use industry wide. For example in this case 2k could start making nfl games

star wars games from EA have exclusive marketing deals with sony/ps so it wouldn't be a nice look for a ms published game to have exclusive advertisement rights and bundles for playstation branded consoles

so it's not as simple as people think

MS could do like they did with minecraft and keep releasing EA games for all platforms

how us these clauses danoman64, where are they? i know you asked him but i think i explained well. 3rd aprty exclusive deals are different from 1st party exclusive deals. Not saying MS wouldn't do it they could renegotiate with Fifa, NFL and disney to make those games exclusives but than how many extra billions are we talking about once again

and it won't stop sony from making those games under their first party banner either

it will be very interesting i do think MS will buy another publisher let's see which one they do

[StormSnooper]

It’s a match made in heaven

[rainslacker]

Ms would have to pay at the least half the worth of ea to gain controlling interest, and as soon as they start making moves, the value of their stock would jump pretty high. Then after the purchase, the value of the stock would go back to normal, or maybe even down if there's is investor doubt about the future, so before ms can even do anything with ea, they would have likely lost 10-25% of the value of ea,, essentially meaning they spent all this money, and also lost money because the assets aren't as valuable. Meaning ms shows a greater loss, meaning their next report to investors causes their overall stock to go down some, meaning they lost even more money.

All for ea, which they don't even need to purchase to achieve anything. If they just invested a quarter of what it'd cost to buy ea into new games and services , they could blow the competition out of the water.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Nuetralgamer1992

An article from 10 years ago.

Congratulations

[PUBG]

Hey Danoman64, is this Michael Pachter's N4G account?

[bleedsoe9mm]

If ms does pull the trigger on this deal you can thank Trump

[derek]

Microsoft is not the Xbox division alone. Why can't people understand this. Those type of dollars invested into a relatively small part of the company would have to show a good ROI to justify that amount of cash. 50 billion is not a small amount of money.

[gangsta_red]

I don't see it happening either but the return on investment may out weigh the cost of acquisition.

EA has a few IPs that make money hand over fist especially Madden and some of their games on mobile.

Acquiring EA, MS could also get EA Access and either keep the service separate or combine it with Game Pass and really make it desirable.

It would definitely be huge if they did.

[zerocarnage]

I think they EA are valued around the 28 billion Mark, so yeah it would be a gigantic acquisition and could cost Microsoft a purchase of up to 40 billion, could they do it of course they could they have that money.

I believe that is what Microsoft have wanted a major company and why they were closing certain drains down from other studios/games, to stop floods of money being washed away when they can put all there green in to acquiring a big guy like EA, only time will tell..

The internet seems to blowing up with rumours though..

[KickSpinFilter]

There is not enough money in the world to take EA out of the Multi-Plat business for this generation, next generation and on and on. Just no way. So much more money can be made offering games on XB, PlayStation, Nintendo, IOS and PC generation after generation.

[rainslacker]

And the worth of ea would plummet if ms went exclusive with it. It would be a terrible investment unless they keep it multi-plat and intended to capitalize on why itits worth so much to begin with

[PUBG]

This is the time for large acquisitions. When you look at the massive acquisitions that
Google https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
Amazon https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
Facebook https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
and Apple https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
have been making, I'm not sure what seems so hard about this. Microsoft is one of the big boys, and people seem to have forgotten that.

If Microsoft makes a move, this will have serious long term effects for their business. The question is, which merger would be the best investment for them?

Electronic Arts

Obviously, EA has some of the best game franchises in the industry, within their portfolio, so in that sense, it's an instant win. Battlefield, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Burnout series, Need 4 Speed, Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, Titanfall, Plants vs Zombies, Dante's Inferno, Army of Two and also all of their licensed franchises like Madden, Star Wars, FIFA, NHL, PGA and UFC.

I have to disagree with the gentleman in the video when it comes to what would happen next generation if Xbox had all of these games exclusive to their ecosystem. If Microsoft buys EA, it's going to be a blood bath next generation, even without the yearly big licensed game franchises. You can bet that Sony would try to counter with exclusivity deals for Call of Duty and Destiny, in order to try to level the playing field. I could even see Sony try to buy Sega as a countermeasure.

EA also has some very large and very valuable real estate holdings, such as Redwood City in California, which everyone knows about, and EA Vancouver in Burnaby B.C., Canada, as an example, which is a massive campus, and sits on some of the most valuable land in North America..

Microsoft would also inherit Origin, which in my opinion is a far better online market place, and has a much better and more customizable personal library for digital games than the Xbox App on PC. I'm willing to bet that Microsoft would migrate all Xbox Live services onto EA Origin, because when you look at the Xbox App for PC, they haven't done anything with the Windows Store, which is still a mess, and there is absolutely no customization whatsoever on the Xbox App. I think Origin, as a marketplace, and as a place to build a library of games, is far better than the Xbox App.

Valve

With the largest global reach, Steam would be an instant money maker for Microsoft. Although, Steam has become a cluttered mess, and if Microsoft buys EA, they could have all of the major PC games for sale on Origin very quickly, but with a much better curated store page, and much higher standards for games that release on their service.

Left 4 Dead, DOTA, Half Life, Counter Strike and Portal would all be huge for Microsoft's first party list of games, especially when you combine them with Microsoft has right now, it begins to stack up to Sony's first party line-up extremely well. I think this would get Microsoft to where they need to be to compete with Sony's first party lineup, but i don't think it necessarily surpasses Sony by leaps and bounds, at least not like an EA acquisition would.

[Vectrexer]

It would be very expressive but Microsoft could easily do it and to have all of EA Games become Microsoft exclusive would be awesome for Microsoft!

[Smokingunz]

Microsoft has the money u moron smh this is Sony in the red we are talking about here. Me personally I wouldn't care if Microsoft acquired them because I don't play or buy EA's game so it wouldn't matter to me. As far as Valve, well, what game has they made in the last couple of years?

Lastly I don't think that'll hurt Sony one bit, and as much as EA loves money I think they rather stay 3rd party and itll be more money for them.

[Godmars290]

Where did this rumor originally come from? Some insider or a hardcore fan?

Seeing 2-3 submissions a day is both annoying and pointless.

[ShottyatLaw]

Supposedly Polygon's "source close to MS."

If it was, the leak was intentional.

[Sitdown]

The leak only makes sense if it was from EA.

[ShottyatLaw]

It could have come from either side in a normal setting, but, yeah, an EA leak would make more sense if negotiations were serious. Not to say the buyer wouldn't have some possible reasons to leak it. In this story, it would just seem odd that an EA source would also leak the Valve and PUBg interest.

If it's MS, they might be trying to push the deal through or get excitement brewing. But I don't see them in some kind of bidding war with someone else looking at EA.

I think it's just for publicity, and it probably came from MS. I personally think it was an intentional leak to show MS's support of Xbox.

[Aceman18]

I really wouldn't lose any sleep over this is it happened I dont care for any of their sports games, NFS is pretty much a dead franchise since they haven't made a good version in awhile. The one franchise (ME) I actually cared they killed with the last game even i enjoyed it.

Anthem even though it looks good it wouldn't kill me if I didn't get to play it.

[richie007bond]

LOL triggered

[Aceman18]

@richie

Actually no I honestly just don't care, I'm pretty much set gaming wise on Pro and Switch. Grabbing EA isnt going to make suddenly jump on M$ bandwagon

[Teflon02]

That's what I don't get. Funny thing is I said a few days ago is MS can only be successful buying Valve since they run the PC scene and fusing Steam with the MS Store is the only hope of taking it over. Then all of a sudden MS might buy EA or Valve. I don't think they're even remotely buying EA, MS has the money but that's not happening. Now them buying Valve is definitely a possibility. They'll make the money back with steam easily. Though I don't know about valve being okay with that and they're not in a whole so they don't have reason to sell to a bigger corp like say ATLUS did

[subtenko]

Eveyrone has a PC, so this would be nothing new and just make xbox more irrelevant... I PC game and PlayStation game...

[Teflon02]

No it would make Xbox more relevant. Change it to Windows Gaming or something, See if they can buy Valve, if they can Unify it with the MS Store and boom, everyone has a PC so they just need to produce games. They can still make consoles for whoever wants it but they'll have a bigger range of titles to play on it. Basically making consoles will be like a Steambox situation but way better. It would be a win win for everyone. Xbox is basically turning into windows anyways

[yomfweeee]

Journalistic integrity has gone out the window. Straight up lies used to generate hits and conversations hidden behind anonymous sources.

[FGHFGHFGH]

I think we are seeing these bs articles is because other than the same games we heard about for years (sea of thieves, crackdown, state of decay) xbox has nothing besides a few forza games and a halo game. Now that the xbox x has come out they have nothing else talk about. (the last year has been about the xbox x)

[george957]

EA aint that stupid to get bossed around by MS... Since going with MS and ditching PS and Nintendo will be a huge loss to them ... Also MS should focus more on developing their Xbox brand and make new IPs since they have the talents... I find it stupid that MS cant provide exclusive titles but will throw money and buy off third party devs games..

[Lennoxb63]

MS won't be bossing around EA since they pretty much have the same vision. And Xbox won't make EA's games exclusive as that would be taking money out of their own pockets.

[Newmanator]

Yes #overit let's get some real news like a Crash Team Racing remake announcement or something!

[Rude-ro]

Probably Microsoft.
A way to see the reaction and soften the blow once they start monopolizing the market.
This is the third time since the launch of the 360 that this “rumor” went around on here.
And most vocal Xbox “fans” on here are paid to do what they do and they like stirring the pot because any noise about your product is good noise. Especially when you are partnered with most media sites.

[Godmars290]

Can we please stop any "paid fan" BS. Bad enough dealing with a-holes who only make "you're bias" their sole attempt at arguing even as MS or Sony confirm my my point.

[MatrixxGT]

How do i sign up to be a paid fan? How to i get that job. I dont care if its sony or MS, i just want to get paid for typing comments!

[fenome]

I was wondering the same thing, I keep seeing it pop up every other article like they actually said they were in talks or something..

[subtenko]

I got one comin up fam:

How Xbox acquiring of NIntendo could be disastrous for sony! (/s) xD

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Super doubt it

[deathtok]

Doubt it 64

[Teflon02]

doubt it gamecube

[AnubisG]

Wii doubt it. All of us.

[AspiringProGenji]

Wii and U doubt it

[XabiDaChosenOne]

I doubt they will pull the Switch

[subtenko]

Atari eddy doubted it

[OffRoadKing]

PS its not gonna happen

[Xenophon_York]

Keep dreamcasting.

[_FantasmA_]

This deal will RROD on arrival.

[PhoenixUp]

Not gonna happen

[ElementX]

MS would be more likely to purchase some of their unused ips

[ILostMyMind]

I would have no problem with that. In fact, I think that all companies that have IPs and do not use them should seal them for those who want to use them. (a lot of 'them')

[BassMan125]

Thar would make a lot more sense. I mean, MS could ressurect popular IPs like Army of Two, Dead Space, Dante's Inferno, Syndicate.

[AspiringProGenji]

It is not that symple to just buy IPs. IPs are best kept with their creators. IPs given to other devs hasn’t always yielded good results

[zerocarnage]

I think personally dig into segas vault and buy some of there games they sent using no more or never released and brought into the future, fans asked Sega time after time to release new games.

I'd love a new streets if rage..

[UCForce]

It isn’t going to be happen. Even I hate EA, but if MS acquired them, that would take a billion dollar for them to do it. Again, it isn’t going to happen. EA still want their game to be sell on multiplatforms.

[Neonridr]

it would take several billion dollars. But MS is worth much more than EA is. And MS acquiring them wouldn't mean that the games still wouldn't show up on all platforms. Look at Minecraft. It's not exclusive to MS products.

[morganfell]

Shareholders at EA know if MS purchased the company they could kiss the Sports Franchises and Star Wars titles goodbye. None of the holders of those IPs will allow their products to be restricted from Sony or Nintendo (where applicable) platforms. Basically at that point they will have to take a stock buyout - goodbye dividends - and reinvest their money elsewhere. They might make a good profit on that one time deal and then they are back to square one.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Doesn’t make sense for sport franchises to be made exclusive. Having Nintendo and Sony users buy their Sports and Star Wars stuff while making other franchises like Deadspace and Anthem is like having your cake and eat it too....money will be made from everybody.

They made back all the Minecraft money they spent and then some in a very short time.

[Yohshida]

They have the sport IPs locked down, noone actually care on what platforms those are on. If they are on Xbox and PC, they still have the largest player pool. It only needs 2 years for the main stream to turn over to XBOX to keep playing those sports games and after that Sony will be in last place. If they buy EA this means the downfall of Sony. IF they buy them that is. FIFA, Madden and Star Wars are the games most casuals play besides Activison games.

[rainslacker]

There would be nothing that dictates that MS would go exclusive with all or some of the content. It makes little sense to buy out a company for that much money, just to devalue it so quickly, so MS would have to keep the contracts they have for multi-plat games....like sports or Star Wars. If MS were considering EA, their reasons may not be solely to promote Xbox or Windows directly. Rather, it could just be to gain access to a major publishing branch and gain more control over the market, and the direction it's headed.

@VideoGameLab

The Sports franchises are required to be multi-plat. That was part of the deal when EA first acquired the rights to them. The associated sports people most definately want to maximize who can play their games, and don't play console favorites. They make money off every copy sold, and care little about which hardware sells more than another.

If I had to guess, Star Wars is in the same boat.

[morganfell]

@Rainslacker,

I doubt MS would have a choice. I explained this before.

Organizations such as the NFL do not just want to market their game. They want the right company publishing the game. They won't sell IP rights to company X and then say, "No matter who you sell to, we will not care as long as our agreement stays in place." No company is going to sign a contract such as that because they have to consider their image and a business alliance with the new buyer could present and image problem.

This is why it is almost certain that if EA were sold it would automatically trigger a renegotiation of the IP rights. Any smart company is going to want to renegotiate. First off it gives them room to back out if the new owner is someone with whom they do not want to be associated. Second, buyouts normally mean a lot of money floating around and they could potentially negotiate for a larger cut. And the odds are based on gamer hate the new EA wouldn't get it. Doubtless the NBA and NHL have similar buyout clauses. Likely the same is true for Disney. It is just smart honest business and no law firm in their right mind would advise clients otherwise.

This is one of the reasons that a purchase of EA is not as appetizing as some people make it out to be.

[UCForce]

@343_Guilty_Spark and @VideoGameLab Short Answer is that you two want MS to be anticompetitive.

[george957]

Good point morganfell

[Chris12]

Its not a good point at all as MS would never make the titles exclusive to Xbox. MS want to make money, not restrict it. They have already showed this with Minecraft and EA would be a far larger investment.

[george957]

its a good point Chris...

And yes every one wants to make money so why would a company or the shareholders sell it off to MS where they loose control.. Also just because MS wants to purchase third party dev to save Xbox doesn't mean those third party would agree..

[ziggurcat]

Nope, not likely. I would be very surprised if it did.

[Vasto]

Forget PUBG. Its hot now but that's going to end when the next big thing comes. EA and Valve are whats interesting.

It would make a lot of sense. MS, Valve and EA believe in digital.

[phoenixwing]

I don't think valve is a publicly traded company. Good luck trying to convince Gabe to do anything for microsoft. He's already rich and there's no point in selling a good thing.

[UCForce]

You know Valve is privately owned company, right ?

[Vasto]

@UCForce
@phoenixwing

I am not saying it will happen but it could happen.

Microsoft has always maintained a good relationship with both companies. It would not surprise me if it happened. When it comes down to it nothing moves mountains better than $$$$$$ and Microsoft has the money to buy them both if they want to..

[UCForce]

You still want MS to be anti competitive.

[Vasto]

There is no such thing.

[rainslacker]

Yeah, but PUBG being hot means the dev could just take an early cash out, coupled with the massive amount of money they've made so far which they obviously haven't spent. The dev doesn't seem that attached to the franchise that they wouldn't accept a nice payout.

[WeaseL]

Some of the Devs may have release clauses in their contracts is the case of a buyout

[GamingSinceForever]

XBox already has EA early access and it hasn’t moved the needle for them.

Besides even if they did acquire EA no way would they make everything exclusive. Why would they lose out on all those Madden dollars coming from the PlayStation? Jusy like Minecraft MS would defintely try getting them $$.

[Yohshida]

Because it pays of in the long run. Guess what people will do when you cant play EA games on Playstation? Yep, they buy XBOX to play them = more consoles sold and game sales overall also are higher. Sure they lose money in the first years, but in the end it will pay of big time

[sizeofyou]

No they won't. Delusion.
Just means the majority of people will play the alternatives OR Sony will put one of their studios onto producing an alternative. Konami, for example, will benefit. Most people will jump to PES rather than blow a 00s on a new piece of hardware. They may not be happy to start with but they won't spend more than they necessarily have to overcome that upset.
A small number will double up but there are other options to most EA offerings. And the relative expansion of user base won't cover the cost of the acquisition for decades to come.
MS would be better off focusing on a number of younger talented studios, such as the 'new' Bluepoints. Buy 'cheap' and get them working on innovative and unique 1st party software.

[Yohshida]

I think you dont understand how popular those games are. Heck, you can buy a new xbox one for 150$. Its not like anyone at this point is still held back by the high price. PES wont ever be bigger because they dont have the licences for 95% of the Teams and their is nothing that rivals Madden. Even if Sony makes a NFL game, they dont have the licence = noone cares.

[sizeofyou]

Option file faff. But I believe that the licensing for EA is tied to platform distribution. So they could be rendered invalid IF EA becomes single platform anyway.
Nevertheless, Xbox owners haven't gone out and bought a PS4 for MLB alone, which is by far and away the best baseball game available. Golf, football, basketball and shooters are generally covered. Ice hockey and American football are the exceptions - for now. With EAs current track record, the majority of people won't fork out $150, let alone $500 for the full experience, for one of their favourite sports simulation.

Get some smaller talented studios together MS. Should've done it years ago when you said you were looking at it. Do it now.

^ This from a PS4P and XBX owner.

[rainslacker]

No way that the NFL would let MS do that. Not everyone is going to convert, and without fail, a game of that nature will sell more as multi-plat. On top of that, the NFL doesn't give one damn about MS or Sony "winning" the console war. They want their money, and they would strip the contract away from MS before MS could leverage it to promote their own hardware or platforms.

EA has exclusive rights to the NFL games. That kind of exclusivity comes with heavy strings attached, and EA has to accept whatever the NFL gives them. This is actually true with most sports franchises, as they dictate heavily what is allowed, and what isn't.

[phoenixwing]

I wouldn't put it out of possibility that EA gets bought but it just seems like EA would fight back the whole time they try to buy them out. Plus, the NFL gives that license to EA expecting them to release on everything including toasters to get them money. If MS bought them the NFL (along with other sports licenses and star wars) would pull out asap and find someone else. Half the allure of EA is that they make all that bank on their yearly sports releases.

Edit: MS would pay to the nose for every ip EA has. They would be better served to just spend the money on new studios and actually create some decent franchises. Would definitely cost less.

[ZombieKiller]

Sorry but 2 wrongs dont make a right.
Not to mention how expensive games would be. Microsoft the creator of the $50-$60 per year online with no free games.....the online only tv box they wanted combined with the devil themselves EA....

NO....THANK....YOU. I'll stick with Sony. God of War doesnt even have a season pass.

That's almost unheard of in 2018.

[aconnellan]

Not sure what the God of War part has to do with MS or EA. There are plenty of games these days that don’t have season passes, on both PlayStation and Xbox (multiplat and exclusive)

[ZombieKiller]

"Not sure what the God of War part has to do with MS or EA."

That would coincide with the part where I said: " NO....THANK....YOU. I'll stick with Sony."

Same paragraph...it's right there in it's own place.

I am comparing MS to it's competition and showing WHY I don't agree with this buyout/merger, instead of namelessly disagreeing with people and not stating my thoughts. Saying that I will stick with the companies I trust to not nickel and dime me for things.

Sorry you don't understand.

[Yohshida]

They bought linkedin for 26 billion and that deal was actually a waste. EA is a money maker and "only" worth 27 Billion. If they want it, they get it.

[UCForce]

EA isn’t allowing their game to be sell on one platform. So yeah, they will stick with multiplatform.

[Yohshida]

If they buy EA, Microsoft says what they do

[Matrix6]

Hypothetically, it could potentially give a lot of Xbox One only exclusive contents for all multiplatform games.

[DreadGara]

They are both going down.

[Enjoigamin]

Plenty of money to do it. Would be interesting.

[Doughhead]

It never ceases to amaze me how rumors get started. I bet the "source" found some old documentation from years and years ago about them buying EA. They will probably announce and exclusive title or something along those lines and that will be it. In the end it wont effect what I buy on what console.

[RAVEN81]

I really doubt that Microsoft's even going to be able to afford to buy EA! I don't care how much Microsoft has. EA is not stupid they're just the most hated company in the world.

[Yohshida]

EA is ruled by people, people like money, do you think they give a sht if they get enough $?? Microsoft just has 150 Billion $ laying around, of course they can get EA

[UCForce]

So you want MS to be monopoly of global market ? That sound like anti competitive. And I see MS doing this by playing cheap.

[Yohshida]

Im not saying they will buy EA, but if they want, they can. Is this so much different from 90% of the people praising Sony for having the market lead and saying XBOX should go third party? I dont think so

[Donnie81]

Only way I see it happening is if the people that own the company really want to part ways with it. I'm sure there is something to these rumors but it could be ea just selling a studio like bioware perhaps. If ea really was for sale ms is one of the few that could afford it.

[Italiano1234567]

Never going to happen it was just people talkin like people talk everyday Microsoft would have to spend 36 billion dollars at least to buy them they're not going to take that huge of a gamble just on there gaming division

[BIGBOSS08]

The only EA game that would actually change anything is fifa and maybe battlefield but even if microsoft aquire EA, fifa would never go xbox exclusive. there's just too much money to be made from other platforms and microsoft love making money above everything else. The higher ups at microsoft don't give a damn about console wars.

[QuickdrawMcgraw]

Desperate times mean desperate measures....

[DialgaMarine]

Only if EA wants to be bought. A company can’t just buy another on a whim. EA would have to be facing financial troubles so bad that they either choose to sell themselves off, or they sell enough shares for a company like MS to do a hostile takeover. Neither are even remotely likely because EA is doing perfectly fine. In case people forgot, all that stock value they lost from BF2 came back pretty much over night. Plus, they’re not exactly the type of company that likes to sell; they’re more than rich enough to where they do the buying.

If anything, Disney is a far more likely company to buy out EA.

[THC CELL]

This subject again sound like xbox fans begging for something to happen

[DialgaMarine]

What they fail to realize is that if by some tiny chance this actually happened, it wouldn’t automatically make future installments of EA franchises exclusive to Xbox. No doubt, Sony and EA have contracts going for several years from now about titles coming to PlayStation. MS’s purchase would mean they would still have to honor these contracts.

Regardless, it’s highly unlikely.

[The_Sage]

Lots of wishful thinking.

[thisismyaccount]

Someone call up Mario or Luigi to fix the lead. The best plumbers in the world ...

[Father__Merrin]

Doubt fifa, battlefield and mass effect, dragon age will be xbox only

This sounds extremely desperate from some quarters, I thought EA games suck?

[Bobafret]

I really don't see MS investing nearly 40b for this, especially with the image EA has projected the past few years. Plus making that much of an investment while gaining 0 exclusives doesn't make sense either.

[OffRoadKing]

MS isn't worried about image, believe it or not for all the outrage in the comment section of this site EA still made a ton of money off BF2 and that what its about for Microsoft profits, if they see it as profitable they'll do it regardless of image. That being said them acquiring EA is highly unlikely.

[rainslacker]

MS actually is very aware of the image they have with the general public. They spoke about it almost 10 years ago. They said they wanted to improve that image, and stop being seen as this hostile company that only cares about control and money.

Granted, they didn't say they were going to stop doing things which gave them that image, just that they wanted to change that image. That's when they started up all that happy people while using MS products marketing they did.

I doubt the image that EA has would stop MS from buying them, as MS and EA have a lot of the same corporate values.

[OffRoadKing]

Its been made quite clear in the various comment sections by the xbox loyal that exclusives dont matter so why is the acquisition of EA and the hope for EA's games being exclusive the thing that makes xbox a "dangerous competitor", wasn't the X supposed to make xbox a dangerous competitor? And of all companies to make Xbox a competitor, EA? This should be marked opinion piece.

[Bobafret]

Exclusives matter, I am an Xbox fan and I have never downplayed that.

[zerocarnage]

I think it could happen but I highly doubt Microsoft would make all EA games exclusive. Microsoft are not known for acquiring and doing that, it makes no sense to even limit EA in that way since it would limit revenue from other sources unless they want to try and take away from Sony and I think ms don't even want that. Microsoft know if they do to much in this industry that it will destroy Sony and Nintendo, they know the industry needs competition even if they are not leading it like Sony are, ms know if they topple them and make nuclear moves the industry would be just ms and that wouldn't be good at all having just one dev in the console race. In fact all three of them know that any crazy move like that would be terrible for the industry of console gaming..

Like I said before I believe if ms acquire ea, valve, SEGA ->(hope) I don't think they would make games exclusive to Xbox because of the money they could make selling to all platforms..

[zerocarnage]

FIFA is to big of a game to make exclusive, but if ms did make exclusive with how many play it, that game alone could cause so many to switch to Xbox, that game has crazy fans.

[Elda]

If it was to happen they would still put those main titles on other platforms but possibly put some new unheard of titles as exclusives on the XB.

[KickSpinFilter]

LOL Nope. Never would happen.

[Petebloodyonion]

Honestly???
Why would EA go to MS?
I could understand Sega, Capcom even Konami but why would EA even consider this move?

How about we start now an official MS will buy (name a hugely profitable company) and explain why.

I'll Start:

Rumors have it that MS is talking about buying Disney so they can secure Starwars IP for the Xbox 1

[Tross]

No. Stop spamming this dumb rumour.

[ballisticvoodoo]

Complete fiction. EA's license holders would bail. No way Disney, FIFA, NFL, etc would be content selling there brands to only 35% of the market. MIcrosoft knows this.

[ShockUltraslash]

When two evil forces unite. . .

[EricLane]

Do you think being acquired by MS could improve the EA IPs?

[PUBG]

I believe it would help quite a bit actually. EA's share values hang on every little delay or problem with a game release, whereas with game studios under Microsoft, like 343 Industries, Turn 10 or The Coalition, they seem to have a bit more flexibility/protection from the shareholders.

When Microsoft has earning calls, they talk about the entire company, and they just touch on all of their divisions, leaving the game studios buried under a few layers of bureaucracy, which pads them a bit and can give them more time to develop a game. Case and point would be Sea of Thieves and Crackdown 3, which have been delayed several times, only to release when they are ready. Sony has their structure set up in a similar way.

[jc12]

i doubt it - highly doubt it.

[PUBG]

An interesting possibility, which almost makes more sense, at least from a game franchise perspective, would be 2K and Ubisoft. If you take the combined market cap of Ubisoft and 2K, it adds up to just 55% of EA's market cap. Sure, you don't get a major PC marketplace in the deal, like Origin (Uplay is a disaster), but look at all of the awesome game franchises these two companies have combined:

Ubisoft
- Ghost Recon
- Rainbow Six
- Splinter Cell
- Far Cry
- Assassin's Creed
- Watch_Dogs
- Rayman
- Rabbids
- The Division
- The Crew

2K
- Grand Theft Auto
- Red Dead Redemption
- Bully
- Midnight Club
- Borderlands
- Bioshock
- Max Payne
- L.A. Noire
- The Darkness
- XCOM
- Sid Meier's Civilization
- WWE 2K
- NBA 2K

EA Market Value
https://finance.yahoo.com/q...

Ubisoft Market Value
https://finance.yahoo.com/q...

Take Two Market Value
https://ca.finance.yahoo.co...

It would be interesting to see Valve's market cap. Even though Steam is huge, I certainly doubt it's anything that approaches EA, and probably sits somewhere among Ubisoft and Take Two. As a marketplace, Steam make a lot of money, but they don't really produce any games these days, and they've flooded their marketplace with thousands of really poor quality indie games. Also, I don't believe that they make that much money with their Source Engine. It would be interesting to know either way.

[Araragifeels]

2K is not the developer behind the game Max Payne, Grand Theft Auto, Midnight Club, Bully, Red Dead, L.A. Noire. You mean Rockstar. Take2 wouldn't sell themselves since they making money as third party and makes billion of dollars. Ubisoft wouldn't sell themselves since they millions of dollars plus they talk about always being independent especially now since Vivendi might do a take over.

[Einhander1971]

(A) I don't care about EA (B) I don't care about Microsoft, so basically I don't care if Microsoft waste there money on a stupid deal. But there ideals are the same, rip off the gamer as much as possible.

[nondescriptcitizen]

that would make for vicious competition

[Mega_Volnutt]

Instead of trying to aquire multi billionare companies, MS needs to focus on how to remain competitive by reducing their online subscription or give an option to buy a subscription that only includes online multiplayer. I'm telling you, if MS gets accesible/competitive by making gold service more cost effective to all players, millions more will jump in on Xbox and the X of course. MS has a problem with Xbox Live when they allow you to play multiplayer on Windows PC for free, but to its loyal Xbox fanbase, we have to pay for the same service, when it comes to accesing servers to play the same 1st party multiplayer games. If only they reduce price of online and focus on older ips and singleplayer games, they can be the gods once again of the gaming industry.

[Tedakin]

If they did this I think keeping games like Madden and Battlefield on all platform would be advantages. They'd make money off of Sony and Nintendo too. Then make certain games like Anthem exclusive to Xbox.

[_FantasmA_]

I can't stand EA. Only games In the past 5 years, I've only bought Battlefield 1 and 4. I avoid them and M$ like the plague so if they join forces, I'll just stop playing BF altogether because I know they would ruin the franchise even more with anti-consumer practices.

[NXFather]

No, it don't. If every EA game had extra content on Xbox then maybe they would have a little better standing but no threat.

[subtenko]

Xbox = powered by rumors and hope instead of clouds because with such a drought it cant even hold water due to no evaporation

[PurplePeopleEaters]

If we hear anything big it’ll be at E3..

I sold my Xbox One S not too long ago. Not gonna regret it if this happens

[Indo]

they paid billons but Sony made Billions. No Fanboy but i have a PS4 Pro with a 4k TV because everyone is pushing 4k, so I got all SONY. Sorry

[KryptonKronos]

Yeah never gonna happen. As much as i'd like EA to corrode from my console of choice, the PS4's Sales are vastly superior to Microsofts and EA will be digging the grave they've already dug and cementing it over.

Well....come to think of it.. Yeah go for it!

[Miacosa]

For the acqit to retain its value it would have to remain multi-platform.

[RAM0N]

I don't think so, since the majority of their sales are on ps4 and PC.

[Twinblade]

It's not gonna happen.

[Cussing]

No way. EA would be cutting their sales in less than half. FIFA not n PS4? Everywhere that isn't the US would riot.

[Grimwood]

What kind of dumb articles are here??!

[nintendoswitchfan]

This would destroy the industry.

[Artemidorus]

It won't happen the shareholders are making too much money from EA

[Ryuujinjakka]

Acquiring EA would take time because of all the sport licenses. Not the same price with a smaller userbase.

[Zerobalance]

Personally EA is a yesterday company. Sports & licensed games like Star Wars, Madden & their like are of a gone era. The future for me are games like R6S, Rime, PUBG, Subnautica games which are small, nimble & smart.

[Jayszen]

The truth is that even if Microsoft can afford it doesn't mean the subject of the interest wants to sell. It also does not mean that even if they could buy EA, or Valve or whatever, it would make sense to do so (cost-benefit analysis, etc.). Finally, even if all the stars aligned and EA or Valve was affordable and wanted to sell, it is a BIG question whether Microsoft can do anything with such a purchase. Looking at how MS has mismanaged so many former major studios that it bought suggests that such a purchase would be even a bigger headache. In the meantime, Sony and is just going to stick to its tried and tested strategy and churn out exclusive after exclusive that warrants the purchase of the PS4, or PS5 and exist in its own microclimate no matter what MS is doing.

[FreakyFox]

All this started from somone saying " wouldn't it be a good idea if Microsoft bought EA or Valve ". LOL

It just shows you how easy it is to convince and change the prospective of the human mind.

The first question from a common sense prospective, would be to find out if EA or Valve are in a position to be bought?

This just looks to me , is that because the power of the Xbox One X as fell flat on its face, and folks out there are still trying to make Microsoft seem like they are relevant, when the fact is, is that more and more people are rejecting Microsoft and their practice, so a rumour like this does not help Microsoft at all, its just makes them look worse.

If they are going to spend money, they need to fortify their exclusive library, by adding story driven games, and you dont have to look too far to see the process working, for example Uncharted, Last of US , Horizon Zero Dawn and many others.

A Alan Wake game would have gone nice right about, with its unique experience.

All that power and not enough vision.