[Richard Loveridge]

Hmmmm. This would be a good acquisition foe their game pass vision. Like Disney are doing with their subscription service and Fox.

Microsoft looking to buy EA claim industry rumours | Metro News

[xandros9]

I personally, for better or for worse, just can't see such a big Xbox-centric, consumer-oriented deal going down under Nadella.

[JoshCaleb]

As an EA fan I hope this doesn't happen. Everything Microsoft purchases turns to ****.

[usguyver]

I disagree that everything that everything Microsoft purchases go to s***. ever since Phil got promoted and took a position and executive of games Nutella has given him more free run to do things too make a vision for Microsoft for gaming. so I could see a EA purchase where they make it better and smooth out the loot box craze.

[rollindice]

I personally, for better or for worse, just can't see such a big Xbox-centric, consumer-oriented deal going down under Nadella.

yeah me myself also, i guess time will tell.

[Richard Loveridge]

It's worth noting Trump has passed a new tax law. Meaning as a US company MS can bring back Hundreds of Billions of dollars from Off shore accounts. Effectively giving them loafs of extra free money they didn't have before. Buying EA is literally even easier for MS as a US company thanks to this new law.

It's also worth noting EA tried to sell themselves in 2012. So EA are definately open to being bought.

Sony are only worth $18.6 billion. And EA $30 billion. So Sony have no hope even competing. MS are now worth more than $800 billion. More with the new tax law.

And I have no problem with Acquiring new studios. Sony did the same to Nintendo nd Sega. Buying up loads of Studios in the 90s and 00s. They bought Naughty Dog as an example in 2001. They did not create them. They literally bought 90% of their studios.

[xandros9]

As an EA fan I hope this doesn't happen. Everything Microsoft purchases turns to ****.

I find it humorous that some hold the same opinion about EA itself!

[BajanSaint69]

I personally, for better or for worse, just can't see such a big Xbox-centric, consumer-oriented deal going down under Nadella.

Not sure I follow, didn't they just make a big bet on a new console? They seem to be all in on gaming.

[Guest_aotf]

I personally, for better or for worse, just can't see such a big Xbox-centric, consumer-oriented deal going down under Nadella.

consumer-oriented deal??
How would that be consumer oriented? XB gamers already gets these games. This may lead to other gamers not getting games or getting them late.

[Guest_aotf]

Horrible rumour!!!
I hope all these rumours are false. We already know MS's poor history with buying studios and deals making games with 3rd party studios.

Does this even bring ANYTHING more to XB1 gamers?
Just leave the 3rd party games alone. Invest that money on making YOUR OWN games and studios!!!

[vEEP pEEP]

MS could buy it and destroy it....MS and acquisitions are just not good....#history
MS and consumer devices.....#history

[Richard Loveridge]

Horrible rumour!!!
I hope all these rumours are false. We already know MS's poor history with buying studios and deals making games with 3rd party studios.

Does this even bring ANYTHING more to XB1 gamers?
Just leave the 3rd party games alone. Invest that money on making YOUR OWN games and studios!!!

The same way Sony have done all these years? Why is it ok for one company to buy studios but not others?

Sony bought not created themselves...

Naughty Dog, Guirella Games, Sucker Punch Studios, Incognito Entertainment, Psygnosis, Big Big Studios, Zipper Interactive, Media Molecule and Eidetic Games.

Just because MS can afford a bigger one shouldn't make it any different to what Sony has done.

One rule for one and one for everyone else.

[damonator98]

I truly hope these romours are false. Cause in my eyes MS has this reputation of driving bought companies straight to the ground. Coughnokiacough

[hahaman]

I hope this is true.. Ea needs it.. Come on Ms buy them

[Guest_aotf]

The same way Sony have done all these years? Why is it ok for one company to buy studios but not others?

Sony bought not created themselves...

Naughty Dog, Guirella Games, Sucker Punch Studios, Incognito Entertainment, Psygnosis, Big Big Studios, Zipper Interactive, Media Molecule and Eidetic Games.

Just because MS can afford a bigger one shouldn't make it any different to what Sony has done.

One rule for one and one for everyone else.

LOL Who said it was OK with Sony? The classic "Oh others are doing it so it's ok to do it.". Someone committing a crime saying "it's ok because there are others also committing crimes". Two wrongs don't make one right.

Having said that there is a bit of a difference. Sony has a much better history about buying and managing studios than MS. Most of the studios you named are making or have made games for PS4 gamers.

But in any case, even though you're probably just trying to deflect this away from MS. The real point is that would be a waste. An horrible move. I would have thought gamers would be against this. But I guess you're not one. More of a lying company "fan" than a real gamer.

[Richard Loveridge]

LOL Who said it was OK with Sony? The classic "Oh others are doing it so it's ok to do it.". Someone committing a crime saying "it's ok because there are others also committing crimes". Two wrongs don't make one right.

Having said that there is a bit of a difference. Sony has a much better history about buying and managing studios than MS. Most of the studios you named are making or have made games for PS4 gamers.

But in any case, even though you're probably just trying to deflect this away from MS. The real point is that would be a waste. An horrible move. I would have thought gamers would be against this. But I guess you're not one. More of a lying company "fan" than a real gamer.

It's not a reflection. How is a company supposed to survive in the same space against another company, if you don't so as they do? Sony own alot of studios. Because they bought them. The only way to match that is to buy them also.

To create from scratch what Sony has would take 20 years. Or MS can do what Sony did and buy companies already up and running and have a good track record of releasing games.

To expect MS to just create 10 studios in 2 years is ridiculous. It would take 20 years to achieve what SONY have in studios. And its completely unfair to say MS should create their own when the competition hasn't done that.

[Guest_aotf]

MS has been in this console gaming industry for almost 20 years. They could have done that A LONG time ago.

It's about long term. Look at the rumoured amount. They can build 10 studios and get 10 new exclusives in 3-4 years. That's what they did with 343i, coalition, turn 10. They could also buy back struggling or dying studios like Visceral Games.

It's not about fair or unfair for a company, it's about what's good or not for gamers and gaming.

You MS/XB "fans" have been praising Halos, gears, forza, Foza H, the sea design of sea of thieves... I would have thought you guys would want more of these. But no. You don't. It's not fair to ask MS to make as many games as Sony or MS.
LOL You company fans are so hilarious. So much hypocrisy...

[Richard Loveridge]

MS has been in this console gaming industry for almost 20 years. They could have done that A LONG time ago.

It's about long term. Look at the rumoured amount. They can build 10 studios and get 10 new exclusives in 3-4 years. That's what they did with 343i, coalition, turn 10. They could also buy back struggling or dying studios like Visceral Games.

It's not about fair or unfair for a company, it's about what's good or not for gamers and gaming.

You MS/XB "fans" have been praising Halos, gears, forza, Foza H, the sea design of sea of thieves... I would have thought you guys would want more of these. But no. You don't. It's not fair to ask MS to make as many games as Sony or MS.
LOL You company fans are so hilarious. So much hypocrisy...

I'll put this another way. Where would Sony be today if they didn't purchase up all their studios? More people could be playing Uncharted, Killzone, Horizon Zero Dawn, Heavy Rain etc etc. But Sony buying up all these companies means alot of gamers missed out on the chance to buy these games.

Naughty Dog were created in 1984. Sony bought them in 2001. Before Sony bought them they could release their games wherever they wanted. PC, Super Nintendo, Sega Mega Drive, N64, Dreamcast.

MS have actively created studios themselves. And those studios are great. They have bought Rare ( people believe they lost their touch, but if look back at their metacritic reviews of games they actually haven't dipped at all ) and have produced consistantly good games. But are about to release a game right up their on par with the quality of DKC and he original Perfect Dark. Sea Of Thieves is phenomenal based on the beta. People absolutely love it.

They are entitled to acquire studios, just like others did. And if in the process it stops some others playing games like Sonys acquisitions have then so be it. It's business.

For the record, I actually believe of it happens all the sports titles would still come to PS. Maybe some titles like Battlefield tx would become exclusive. But the big catch would be every EA title would be day 1 on Game Pass. Like Netflix now worth $100 billion, Services are the future. And MS are getting out in front of all other game companies first. Just as Netflix did. And with have alot of Xbox Originals on their service thanks to an acquisition like EA.

[Guest_aotf]

Let me put it this way. Sony didn't buy Naughty dog and just made sequences of existing franchise.
Nope. They help create new HIGHLY successful franchises. And they totally changed the company.
Guerrilla Games was a relatively small company that was what? 4-5 years in existance. All Killzones remain exclus to PS.
Talking of Heavy rain shows how clueless you are because Quantic Dream is a second party studio. They aren't owned by Sony.

You got to be having a laugh if you're comparing Naughty dog of 2001 and Guerrilla Games of 2005 to the EA of 2017.

If this rumour is true, MS are trying to use existing franchise. They are probably not trying to help their studios grow.

Look at MS's history with who they have bought.
Rare used to make LOADS of games before MS took over. And since they took over they made few early games, a collection of average kinect game and this cartoony pirate game that was announced in 2015.
So A LOT LESS games.

You want to talk metacritic? Since 343i and coalition got Halo and Gears they made the lowest rated main games of their franchise's history.

There has been countless problems with MS and studios. Read this and educate yourself:
https://www.neogaf.com/threads/looki...-party.873707/
https://kotaku.com/how-a-small-game-...big-1696997142

And this was not talking about the mess of Twisted Pixel, Lionhead and Press Play. What happened to BigPark, Good Science, [Fun]ction Studios, Leap Experience Pioneers (LXP), and SOTA... Killing off scalebound, Xbox fitness, Project Spark, Fable Legends, project knoxville

But seriously answer this as a gamer or a consumer and not as a MS fanboy:
Would you prefer them investing 40b on EA just to make their games exclusives to XB or would you rather they invest 40b on 10-15 new studios that make amazing content for XB gamers all while keep getting EA games. Be honest for once...

[Monte Constable1]

You mean like Mass Effect and Star Wars Battlefront 2? Oh wait EA did that to themselves.

[neilbey]

With Phil Spencer as SVP in charge of gaming, it's unlikely that an acquisition like this would go to s*** like some one had said earlier. Nadella may not be guiding MS in a consumer-centric direction, but the fact that Phil was appointed to his current position in the company shows that MS is serious about their gaming department.

I'd like to see MS buy EA and put a stop to this stupid lootbox craze. MS needs to turn an EA acquisition into a turnaround story: MS buys EA (the latter, a widely despised and money-hungry company known for shady practices - promoting in-game gambling and pushing out incomplete games at times), push out the EA executives that are responsible for such anti-consumer practices, and start injecting $$ and nurturing the IPs that are on shaky ground right now (Battlefront2, anthem), all the while helping nurture the independent developers. I just want a studio and developer to show the amount of love for it's consumers as CD Projekt Red has shown with Witcher 3.

This could be a really good thing for consumers, and for MS in the eyes of some butt-hurt consumers. Whether we like it or not, EA has their greedy little mitts on A LOT of really good game IP, and if MS can reverse this horrible trend of unfairly squeezing as much money out of consumers, then it'll only look good for MS.

[randyoaks187]

I would prefer that they buy Steam.

[neilbey]

I doubt that they will turn these games into xbox-exclusives. It think - and it shows with MS's agnostic approach to platforms as of late - that they will keep most of the EA catalogue cross platform (maybe even use it to push through cross-platform multiplayer as they have shown recently).

[Awhispersecho]

So a "software" company that releases broken games, buys other developers and inherits franchises only to ruin them or abandon them altogether is going to be bought by a "software" company that doesn't have 1 piece of the software they write that actually runs like it should and abandons 80% of everything they release. Sounds great.

Even though they are a perfect fit for eachother, maybe they should each get their own crap straightened out before worrying about anything else.

[ThaKrazyOne]

No, I don't think MSFT should buy EA, but I do suggest this. Maybe MS can guy some of their studios i.e. Respawn, PopCap, Criterion to name a few. If not the studios, maybe som IP's that need to be brought back to life. An article I read was that MS was working on remaking NBA Jam, which EA I believe owns the right from the old Midway. So maybe IP's can be picked up. If that is the case, they should buy the Burnout franchise and bring it back to life.