EA As The Next Disney

ducomputergeek writes "There is an article over at Business2.0.com about how EA may just surpass Disney as the number #1 media company in the world. Considering that EA has turned out some great games over the years, including Wing Commander, many sports games for consoles, and the SIMS, it wouldn't surprise me."

Conglomeration

[DoctorPhish]

You mean, some great games were turned out by companies that EA syphoned up...e.g. wing commander was produced _before_ EA bought Origin.

Re:Does EA produce their own stuff?

[stratjakt]

It's not just EA, they really are the 'Disney' of the gaming world, buying up anyone and everyone who comes along.

Chances are, whatever you're playing, the people who made it work for EA.

They have huge sway in the console world. Arguably one of the biggest reasons Dreamcast died was because EA refused to produce titles for it (because Sega had the gall to produce their own NHL/NFL/MLB games)

The sports franchises themselves are perenially the best selling games. You're average Jimmy Goober has no problem shelling out 60$ a year for the same game, with updated player rosters.

Re:Incredible!

[David_Bloom]

Electronic Arts

Re:EA is that big?

[ergo98]

Is EA really that big? I mean disney seems to own or have their fingers in just about all media. EA just doesn't seem as prevalent.

If curious check out the stats on the Nasdaq page [nasdaq.com]. Disney has a market capitalization of $35 billion, whereas EA is a still very respectable $8.5 billion: Much larger than I imagined (considered how massive Disney is).

Re:EA is that big?

[TC (WC)]

EA bought Maxis in 1997... so they both make an equal amount of money, as they're one and the same.

RTFA

[Anonymous Coward]

EA may just surpass Disney as the number #1 media company in the world

The article states that the CEO of EA thinks "it's almost absurd to compare a $2 billion software maker with a $25 billion diversified media giant." I don't think they'll be surpassing Disney anytime soon.

Re:Conglomeration

[TC (WC)]

Pardon? There were 7 or 8 years of Wing Commander game development under Electronic Arts management... It's not like they were aiming for Ultima Online through the entire period. Either way, the cancellation of more Wing Commander development had a hell of a lot to do with the decreasing market for space-sims, as well as wanting to focus on Ultima Online style games. (A large amount of time and effort was also spent on a Wing Commander Online style game.)

Re:Wing Commander...

[gr0ngb0t]

Yeah EA picked up Wing Commander in about 1997-ish, it was Origin before that.

Just checked my original box to make sure that the Kilrathi saga is the first one I've got that has the EA logo on it, the earlier ones are all Origin.

Re:They work their employees like dogs...

[Syncdata]

Ah, the memories. I worked EA/maxis and they treat their software side employees like they should be glad to work there. The legal side and marketing side gets a little more touch, but then, EA is all about the legal and marketing. Hm...quite a bit like disney, just like the parent mentioned.
In terms of market share/quality product/market cap, I would say EA is going to have a tough time matching disney. But if the article was comparing corporate culture, then, they're probably smack dab on the target.

Re:Wing Commander...

[TC (WC)]

No... Oring was purchased in 1992 [bizjournals.com]. Wing Commander 3 in 1994 was most definately produced when Origin was part of EA. Otherwise they wouldn't have had the needed cashflow to pay for the budget. Privateer was also released under EA (1993)

EA did NOT make Wing Commander

[Richard Mills]

Hey guys, how quickly we forget our video gaming history! Wing Commander was made by Origin (anyone recall that "Lord British" guy?), which was, sadly, gobbled up by EA.

Re:Does EA produce their own stuff?

[miratrix]

Electronic Arts Canada Vancouver Office [ea.com]

Electronic Arts Canada (EAC), the largest development studio in the EA family, is located in beautiful British Columbia. (emphasis are mine)

The many faces of EA

[Albinoman]

EA is and owns:
EA (Medal of Honor, The Sims, 007:Nightfire..)
EA Sports (most every officially liscensed sports game)
Maxis (SimCity, SimEarth,...)
Origin Systems (Ultima series, Wing Commander, Privateer)
Bullfrog Productions (Populous, Dungeon Keeper, Theme Hospital)
Westwood Studios (all the Command and Conquer)

Now you add in all the studios:
Austin, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Irvine, Walnut Creek, Orlando, Vancouver, Tokyo, London

the co-publishing agreements:
Crave Entertainment
Digital Extremes
Digital Illusions
Disney Interactive
Fox Interactive
Krome Studios
LEGO Interactive
Pseudo Interactive
Sunflowers Interactive

affiliated label agreements:
Capcom
Delphine
Fox Interactive
LucasArts
NovaLogic
SquareSoft

This more or less means that they are the biggest game company out there, and have the foot in the door everywhere, even Disney.

All this stuff comes from a few sources, a lot of it is out of their legal documentation.

Chris Roberts

[asv108]

To avoid any misinformation, Chris Roberts [mobygames.com] was the mind behind Wing Commander, not Lord British. The wing commander series was way ahead of its time. I remember begging my parents back in 1990 for an 8 meg upgrade for my Compaq 286 in order to get enough "expanded memory" to play wing commander. It was really the event that got me interested in the nuts and bolts of computers. Back then you had to play around with config.sys and autoexec.bat files in order to play memory intensive dos games. BTW, that 8 meg upgrade cost $700.