Apple Eyeing EA? 151
yerktoader writes "There are rumors that Apple might buy EA, but some interesting counterpoints abound. File this one firmly under 'unconfirmed,' but it's nevertheless a tantalizing rumor. According to Fast Money's Guy Adami, Apple is 'eyeing Electronic Arts as a takeover target.' EA is currently the second-largest games publisher in the world and owner of the smash hit NFL-licensed series of football games. Could we be facing the possibility of an iMadden? Well, probably not. Apple has indeed been bolstering its games know-how, hiring a major Xbox strategist away from Microsoft in recent weeks. And EA is no stranger to Apple platforms: in the last year it's brought several of its major franchises to the iPhone (with more on the way), including Sim City, Tiger Woods, and Spore, with considerable success. But it's a far cry from there to a takeover, and that's putting it mildly. Video games analyst Michael Pachter seems to agree. Speaking to Gamasutra, he pointed out that if Apple was looking to make some entertainment acquisitions, it could buy Warner Music — which controls 20% of the music industry — for roughly half of EA's estimated price."
What do you get combining Apple + gaming company? (Score:4, Insightful)
Nothing.
Re:What do you get combining Apple + gaming compan (Score:1, Insightful)
You sure do get something. More DRM.
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Huh? Oh, this never happened? Well how about th
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Huh? Oh, this never happened? Well how about the fact that Apple sells DRM musicz!!@! They're obviously in love with DRM.
What? They bought the rights from record companies to distribute non-DRM tracks by giving up their pricing strategy which was valuable to them?
1. My old tracks should be removed of the DRM.
2. Since they got rid of the DRM, they jacked there prices on some songs up 30 cents. It's all about the money.
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Jacked up the price and sampling bitrate for higher fidelity (insofar as that's even possible with digital music).
Yes, they are about the money. But who isn't?
Everyone's Apple-DRM anger would make more sense if they had pioneered the per-song deal without DRM, then added a "gotcha" lower-price, lower-quality, DRM-laden product. But they did the opposite.
As for point #1, replacing your DRM-laden songs. Now that is typical Apple - typical American corporate beast. They didn't even offer the option, trade
Re:What do you get combining Apple + gaming compan (Score:4, Informative)
As for point #1, replacing your DRM-laden songs. Now that is typical Apple - typical American corporate beast. They didn't even offer the option, trade up to DRM free (with higher sampling bitrate) for 30 cents.
Incorrect, you can upgrade songs in your library to a higher quality DRM free version.
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Wow - many sincere thanks for updating me! I did not know that! OK, I'm red-faced.... :)
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[quote]As for point #1, replacing your DRM-laden songs. Now that is typical Apple - typical American corporate beast. They didn't even offer the option, trade up to DRM free (with higher sampling bitrate) for 30 cents. I or anyone could argue the problems with ensuring the old copy was gone, etc, etc, and how poor Apple would have pay again for the license because that's how the music guys would look at it.[/quote]
Did you miss the GIANT BANNER offering this exact service, to upgrade all your old DRM songs t
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Yes, I did.
I was in Cupertino just before the announcement, knew from friends it was going down soon, but rumors had started that they wouldn't do that. Next two or three months, I was in Asia, too busy with a lot of work to notice any more than a SF newpaper press release that got relayed to me - and that article suggested that no upgrade policy was forthcoming - so, I simply didn't check past the rumor stage when I got home. (And yes, some of the places I was at in Asia had decent net access, some did no
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Well, to be quite honest, Apple bricked (unable to reflash back to normal) my SuperDrive through a "security" update. The update was to prevent people from being able to rip DVDs. I did not even realize what had happened until after I replaced it.
I wanted to rip a dvd so I stuck a dvd in my replacement superdrive and the ripping process errored out. I said hmmmmm. Performed some research, and searched for a flash update to unlock my drive... which is when I ran across numerous discussions about the model nu
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Who gave you the impression making a living writing good software should be an easy ride? In the end it's the customers who buy the products, not the developers, so throwing crap out for better stuff at least benefits the people paying for the stuff. Them, and future developers who don't have to keep working with outdated API's that do not take full advantage of the latest hardware and software infrastructure.
Yes, maybe a lot of developers might move off the Apple platforms because they don't want to adjust
Re:What do you get combining Apple + gaming compan (Score:5, Interesting)
So exactly what have you done?
I see a post on Slashdot full of claims but no links to anything of actual substance. You almost sound like Steve Balmer claiming he's going to DESTROY GOOGLE. The fire and brimstone is there, for sure, but that's about it.
If you really want us to go along with your plan at least link to a website detailing what exactly it is you're doing. Your post is so vague that I'm not exactly sure what this 'stuff' I'm supposed to be doing entails. As far as I know, this wonderful Slashdot post is that first move you mentioned. I think you need a more defined cause before you try to rally people to it.
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I was able to see a PDF of the complaint you filed, but is there any more information available on this case? It looks like you filed in Nov/Dec 2008, but I couldn't find any updates on the case anywhere.
Incidentally, I wouldn't go so far as to say I wholeheartedly agree with your lawsuit, but I admire you for having the backbone to take on EA in a court of law over their DRM garbage. Best of luck to you.
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Like alvinrod said, I'd like to see a link..or some proof as to what your doing.
If it's there and going somewhere, I'll throw support behind it.
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Uh, yeah... Good luck with that!
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Would Apple really have money to buy EA? They're almost the largest player on gaming industry, and I dont really see Apple having that much of buying power.
Re:What do you get combining Apple + gaming compan (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What do you get combining Apple + gaming compan (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't know if it's true any longer, but I recall that Apple had some obscene amount of cash on hand that they could use to buy out a lot of decently large companies.
In fact, This recent news article [washingtonpost.com] states that they have around $29 billion just sitting around. It's no wonder everyone predicts they're going to buy company X.
The only real question is whether or not they'll be able to find a company that would be a good fit for them. Twitter and EA don't really offer Apple anything that fits with their current business strategy. They want to sell expensive high-end Mac computers and iPhones. The iPod has saturated the market to the extent that they really don't need any acquisitions in that area.
It would make more sense for them to throw a lot of money at Autodesk so that they would release a version of AutoCAD for the Macintosh. Think of how many high end workstations they'd sell to engineers and architects and other CAD users who could be convinced to try the Apple experience.
You could argue that gamers are a high end market, and to some extent that's true, but they're the type of people who like to constantly upgrade a box to stay on the bleeding edge. Apple likes to sell you new boxes, but doesn't really like you to upgrade them incrementally with parts from Newegg from which they won't see a dime.
If Apple topped out at 20% market share, but it was the professional market that purchased their top of the line, high profit margin machines, why should they care if they'll never crawl above that. Let the other PC markers enjoy their race to the bottom price wars to fight over the remaining 80%.
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They want to sell expensive high-end Mac computers and iPhones.
I doubt Apple simply wants to keep doing what It already does a great job of. Like every other business, It wants to expand it's reach, or expand into new territory where it believes it can succeed. The expansion doesn't need to fit within their current business strategy for their specific whatever. Thats the entire point of expanding, to do more.
Re:What do you get combining Apple + gaming compan (Score:5, Insightful)
My prediction is that Apple will continue to do that. They want to be a leader in the consumer electronics field, and so they are going to spend those billions in a way that helps them do that. Does buying Twitter, a company without a business model, help them be a leader in the industry? If not, they're not gonna buy Twitter. Does buying EA help them be a leader in the industry? Apple makes hardware and software to operate that hardware, but they've never been much of a software company, so it doesn't help them.
True, games is a huge market, and one that Apple has missed out on. But Jobs' ego dictates that Apple is a technology leader, not a follower. They don't want to be a 'me-too!' company by jumping into a market with a shiny white console when the console market is already saturated between the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. Apple conquered a new market with the iPod and is a serious contender in the emerging smartphone market. Apple will continue to tackle emerging technologies, not established technologies like game consoles. My guess is that Apple will (1) expanded into portable, networked electronics that fill the gap between phone and laptop, and (2) try to do for the TV what they already did for music. They've already tried that with Apple TV. It hasn't taken off yet, but it's a step in the right direction.
Re:What do you get combining Apple + gaming compan (Score:5, Insightful)
Steve Jobs said he wanted Apple to be the new Sony, that is, to be the leader in consumer electronics. At the time, I thought Jobs was either out of it, or being typically grandiose. But over the past ten years, this is exactly what Apple has done.
Very good point. The reason Apple is kicking Sony's ass from hell to breakfast is precisely because Sony can't decide whether they're a hardware company or a content company. They're a house divided against itself; every time the hardware guys want to do something cool, the packaged-entertainment side of the company overrules them.
So, yeah, if Apple wants to be the next Sony, then buying EA is exactly what they'd do. And that would be great news for whatever startup is waiting in the wings to take Apple's place.
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They don't want to be a 'me-too!' company by jumping into a market with a shiny white console when the console market is already saturated between the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. Apple conquered a new market with the iPod and is a serious contender in the emerging smartphone market. Apple will continue to tackle emerging technologies, not established technologies like game consoles.
IF Apple is, or is thinking off, buying EA, in order to push for broader Mac support in forth coming video games; then I don't think it would be to "become a console". PCs (and by this I mean Computes Running Windows basically) are used for a lot of different tasks, many of them the same tasks done on Macs, however a computer have a large share of games made available as well (some also works on Macs; but for the most part Windows based clients are prioritized more than Macs). What I imagine Apple would wa
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There is one major IT/electronics market segment where Apple hasn't put any effort yet: games.
Sure, the iPhone/iTouch can play games. And so can the iMac, sorta. But they've got no "game" products. You could argue that most of Apple's software products are surface products, in that they're the 'starter' version of whatever is available in the genre: there's not a terrific software selection, and arguably a lot of features are missing at times. At the least, gaming has been an afterthought for Apple's effort
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I agree, it doesn't make sense for Apple to purchase EA. EA will continue to make iPhone and Mac games regardless of whether Apple owns them or not.
The only reason it would make sense for Apple to purchase a game company is to ensure exclusive A-list games for their platform. That's why Microsoft acquired Bungie, so that they could have the Halo games exclusively on the XBox for two years before they ported them to the PC and Mac. Bungie, who was a Mac developer at the time, had originally planned to releas
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Apple cut cut a check tomorrow without breaking a sweat. And I notice that they would have enough cash left over to also cut a check for Dell, which would make for an amusing day of shopping.
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Or the New York Times or GM. What about NASA or JPL? As long as we're going shopping, lets have fun!
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Like others have said, Apple has an absurd amount of liquid capital sitting around. The could easily but EA with the money they have in the coffee machine.
If there's one thing that is certain, Apple could not sell another machine for the duration of the economic crisis and just sit in limbo until it wears off and come out the other side still with enormous wheelbarrows of cash.
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Well I think you'd at least get a high energy burst of gamma rays.
Again? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Again? (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe Apple are about to buy Slashdot?
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Maybe Apple are about to buy Slashdot?
They tried. They even sent Linus a Power Mac G5, but he won't budge. They sent Stallman some deodorant. Rookie move there!
On the other hand, they are making some headway against the Slashdot Vista Fan Club, and Windows 7 isn't going to get the cakewalk it was supposed to get after the first beta. I guess "Better Than Vista" isn't exactly high praise around here.
But to be sure, let me check with netcraft. Just a sec...
Ooh, it's not looking good for BSD!
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I can't help but think about the Cramer video [google.com] where he talks about stock manipulation. If you don't want to watch the whole thing, skip right to around the 3 minute mark, where he's talking about calling reporters to start rumors.
Now maybe this rumor is legit, or maybe it's just someone's flight of fancy, but these days, whenever I hear completely unconfirmed and seemly baseless rumors like "Apple might buy [insert company here]," it makes me think of Jim Cramer.
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How many rumours of Apple wanting to buy companies is Slashdot going to post this week?
Several. Slashdot posts news and lots of news articles are speculating about Apple acquisitions. Market analysts look at Cisco and similar companies and watch them using some of their large cash reserves for acquisitions. They look at Apple and wonder who Apple will buy. They discuss and speculate and articles are written. Slashdot readers enjoy "what ifs" and they get lots of comments.
EA might, by the way, actually be a reasonable move for Apple. We all know MS bought up their fair share of game companies
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EA might, by the way, actually be a reasonable move for Apple. We all know MS bought up their fair share of game companies and how it has worked for them.
Yeah, they got this small game that was being touted as a Mac exclusive just months before the acquisition. I think it was called "Halo".
Just imagine how different things would be today had Apple bought Bungie instead of MS.
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If Apple bought MS after MS bought Bungie...
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Well, Halo wasn't a spectacularly original FPS.
No, but it was based upon one.
The big selling point was that it was a relatively good FPS for the Xbox.
Actually it looked like it was going to be a very good game, but then it was delayed by a few years to completely rewrite most of it and "dumb it down" so it could be an XBox game as well. By the time it was released other companies had caught up to many of the new features.
Without the Xbox, Halo wouldn't have become massively popular.
Obviously console sales are a big bonus, but if it had come out two years earlier as a Mac/PC game it would have been quite popular in that market.
People wouldn't buy a Mac to play Halo...
It's funny because I knew people who bought Macs just to pla
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Market analysts look at Cisco and similar companies and watch them using some of their large cash reserves for acquisitions. They look at Apple and wonder who Apple will buy.
Maybe they should look at how those companies do after the acquisitions instead. IOW more analyzing instead of watching and wondering.
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This one makes sense to me, though. There were rumors of Apple getting into the game console market, and I can believe it.
A combination of AppleTV and a game console could be a great home theater device if they pull it off correctly. An Xbox 360 currently plays games, streams Netflix rentals, plays video files and music off your home network, etc., and is really only being marketed as a video game system. If Apple could make a similar box, make the GUI a little more fluid, and market it as an all-in-one dev
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How many rumours of Apple wanting to buy companies is Slashdot going to post this week?
I have it on good authority that Apple is looking into buying Omaha Steaks [omahasteaks.com], but for the life of me I don't see the tie-in.
Would be nice if it were true... (Score:4, Informative)
It would be really nice to see some quality EA titles for the Mac versus quick and sleazy ports - but it won't happen, and I am not saying that just because it's a rumor. Of course, if Apple really financially enticed EA to make titles for both PC and Mac - and *really* worked with developers to make games work on the Mac OS X platform to the levels of performance people come to expect from the PC only market - then EA could really make some money with games for the Mac.
Sadly, as it is right now - they are more than happy to let Aspyr hoover up the residuals making sadly ported versions of their games on the Mac platform.
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Might be good for linux gaming too...
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dunno why your moded funny, for a game to work on mac it has to use openGL, combine that with wine and most of the windows versions will run pretty well under wine.
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I remember the good ol days on the Apple II when a lot of the best games were EA. Skyfox was very nice, but there were literally dozens of others. Though they also had some of the most advanced copy protection on the market at the time. (19 clock cycles anyone?) So I wonder how that will fit in with today's DRM?
Apple has been wanting to make a solid break back into the gaming market for years, one of their main problems with switchers has long since been "but there aren't any games for mac are there?"
Re:Would be nice if it were true... (Score:5, Insightful)
It would just be nice to see some quality EA titles.
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Dead Space. It isn't particularly original, but it's highly polished and what I'd consider quality.
I'm not seeing the benefit for them to purchase EA (Score:5, Insightful)
It might be worth their while to buy a small stake in the company just to ensure that the blockbuster games get ported to Mac, but it wouldn't make much sense for them to buy the entire company. Although the gaming industry is getting bigger, I think it might be more beneficial for them to target the living room through something like their Apple TV. Otherwise they would need to release their own gaming console and even though they've got the money to burn, it's probably cost Microsoft some $8 billion just to get the point they're at now where they can start trying to make some of that back.
It would probably make more sense for them to negotiate some deals where content providers would allow Apple to rent TV shows to iTunes customers for a fraction of what they charge for a purchase and get Apple TVs into as many homes as possible. If they could work some kind of worldwide distribution as well they could easily target the huge market that Hulu leaves out due to regional restrictions.
Everyone seems to be spouting rumors about who Apple is going to acquire. I think someone saw how much coverage the Apple/Twitter buyout rumor got and decided that it'd be fun to garner a few additional hits to their blog or second rate news site. I think I'm going to go spin a rumor about Apple acquiring Adobe and pull in some ad revenue when other sites pick up the story and link to me. Of course, unlike all the other stories, this one is true. I have it on good authority from someone inside Apple and there's no reason I'd ever lie about that.
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It makes sense because not only can they ensure that major titles are made for the mac, but they can ensure that major titles are made ONLY for the mac.
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That would probably work if Apple had something like 50% of the market share. Otherwise you're just blowing tens of millions on a AAA game title that will only be able to move a few hundred thousand units because you simply don't have enough machines on which to run the games.
Apple can get a larger number of games for their system by just increasing their market share. They can't necessarily guarantee a significant increase in market share just from buying a gaming company. If they tried to make everything
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Maybe, maybe not. There is a lot of low level technology that is exclusive to mac. If there were say 100 high quality games unlike anything available for any other platform would gamers be willing to buy apple; especially given that they can dual boot to run PC games?
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The way I see it (and what i've been saying for a few years now) apple should get into gaming. Here is why.
1. Gaming now is all about graphics. Apple is already in the graphics market so it's a nice fit
2. This one is key: Games are one of the few things keeping windows alive. Most people keep upgrading because someones kids (or whoever is reading this) wants to play the latest and best games. Either way, you're pretty much locked into windows unless you're ok with playing older games ported to mac...
Gamers are going to be pissed! (Score:2, Insightful)
let me ask, how many major independent game companies are there?
Re:Gamers are going to be pissed! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Well, here's hoping the last valid reason for a home user to use Windows gets destroyed by Apple, then.
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Between EA and Vivendi/Activision-Blizzard(includes Sierra) [wikipedia.org] I don't think there are any independent game companies anymore.
Remember when Apple was going to buy Nintendo? (Score:1)
I seem to recall an article on Slashdot about Apple eying Nintendo and that was just as humourous of an idea as this one.
There's a lot of stock/business analysts out there that have either drank too much Apple flavoured kool-aid or have no clue just how big the video game industry is. At least Pachter has a clue.
Re:Remember when Apple was going to buy Nintendo? (Score:5, Informative)
How big the video game industry is? If you take 20 seconds to look it up you'd see that EA has a market cap of 6.49 billion vs Apple's market cap of 115.25 billion. Where do people keep getting the idea that EA is so big, they're literally a small fry compared to Apple.
Re:Remember when Apple was going to buy Nintendo? (Score:5, Insightful)
How big the video game industry is? If you take 20 seconds to look it up you'd see that EA has a market cap of 6.49 billion vs Apple's market cap of 115.25 billion. Where do people keep getting the idea that EA is so big, they're literally a small fry compared to Apple.
You mean they're figuratively a small fry compared to Apple. You should look up the meaning of literal.
Re:Remember when Apple was going to buy Nintendo? (Score:5, Funny)
He means literal in the figurative sense.
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I think he meant "literally" in the sense of "actually", which is the third definition for the adverb on Dictionary.com.
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You might want to look up the meaning of 'small fry' too. The term literally was correctly applied.
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Their games stink like fish eggs, so it's a strong possibility.
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So why has Microsoft not purchases EA yet? Fear of over extending its monopoly. Microsoft would have a lot to get out of EA, reduce the PS3 sales around the world by shipping all those sports games to xbox.
How valuable is gaming to Apple's Ecosystem? (Score:2, Informative)
Game developers are already writing apps for the iPhone/iPod touch.
However, Mac gaming is in a pretty sorry state.
There are also rumours that Apple will enable casual gaming on the AppleTV.
Having the #1 game developer would certain help boost Apple's gaming platforms. The question is, how much are they willing to pay to do so? Apple traditionally doesn't pay much for acquisitions, preferring to buy small companies with promising technologies.
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There are only three reasons I hear anymore for someone not purchasing a Mac. Price, specific software (AutoCad anyone?), and games. Only one of those three is both an impediment to the computer's usefulness and can in almost no way be remedied. I'd think that solving the most valid and objective argument one can generally have against buying an Apple computer would be something worth putting some major cash into.
Before anyone says anything I run XP in Boot Camp for gaming and it works wonderfully, but you
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No, no they are not. (Score:2)
If they need to do anything, it would be a manufacturing fab. Or it would be a chip designer or manufacturer, or screen company. But none of these things are really necessary to lower the parts cost, increase revenue, or increase profit.
But they really don't need to buy a games company. They make plenty from the apps store, and the games company is making plenty from the game. They are both happy.
Buy a gaming company, but not EA (Score:1)
Or at least not only EA. My reason is simple, EA doesn't make Mac games. They make PC games and then shove them into Transgaming's Cider, which is great for productivity and justifying the cost of delivering a Mac version to the market but not so great for making games which run as fast and as bug-free as they can. If they're going to buy a company outright I'd like to see Apple buy a smaller but established company who specializes at least at some level in making or porting games to the platform and then b
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Or at least not only EA. My reason is simple, EA doesn't make Mac games. They make PC games ...
And you think that wouldn't change if Apple bought them?
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My point being it wouldn't be worth it for Apple to buy the whole company outright essentially for a few core creative people, gaming marketing people, some intellectual property, and a few multiplayer servers. Everything else Apple already has or would need to build from scratch in order to make full-fledged Mac games. I don't think this company, which likes simplicity enough to have a grand total of six computer models, would waste that much money in severance packages or get into the windows game develop
Netbook (Score:2, Informative)
How do you fend of the netbook challenge, which Apple doesn't have a product in? Make sure that CPU heavy games and other applications run on your platform, but not on a netbook. Then your choice is between a netbook, or spending another $500 on a MacBook that also runs $GAME.
And even if they had a netbook product, the margins would be low and perhaps cannibalize other higher end products. I'm not sure that they want one.
I think Apple has a small problem. Now that they have finally switched over to a pe
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Well, they have the most popular netbook: the iPhone/iTouch.
Now, Postulate This... (Score:1)
Apple could, in one master stroke, change from the underdog to the top dog, as far as gaming goes.
And with E
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Look at the worth of EA versus the worth of Apple. Look at the simple fact that Parallels exists. Apple doesn't need to give a shit about the computer gaming industry.
Look at the size of the computer gaming industry vs. the console gaming industry.
Look at the difference in price between Apple's computers and their iPods and iPhones. Look at their shares of the computer m
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I imagine the stockholders would be pissed that Apple took a very successful video game company and turned it into a money pit.
Get EA & music (Score:2)
They get games, music and can fuck over a rival in the PC and console gaming market.
If they bought EA and quit making PC games and started making Mac games that would give them a huge advantage and really screw MS over with consumers.
Also apple needs to have better laptop prices and (Score:2)
Also apple needs to have better laptop prices and video cards $2000 for a 9600M GT with 256MB with 15" screen and $2,799.00 9600M GT with 512MB with 17" screen. Come on there maybe laptops that are good for gameing at $1000 and up.
Even some with 17" mate, blue ray, ati 4850 512, p9500, e-sata, hdmi and more for about $1600.
wtf is up with all these apple might buy X rumors (Score:1)
It's a load of horse manure, plain and simple, and it's not news. Now when Apple does buy someone, then it's news, but till then it's not and it doesn't matter.
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Apple has lots (I mean LOTS) of money on their account and now in current money markets situation, there might come good deals... but everyone is hoping Apple would buy a company "X" to profit etc.
Just stypid rumors...
More retarded rumors (Score:1)
Oh no! (Score:1)
If Apple aquires the EA, we end up having games where you have one button middle of the screen what allows you to shoot or jump.
All the graphics are white/chrome/black combinations and starts with i. Like iGame, iLike, iSports, iFPS, iRTS.
But games quality rises like a phoenix from ashes. That would be the only good point...
Got to love slashdot (Score:2)
We get a totally unstubstantiated rumor and then that is speculated upon by what would be a even more unlikely.
Apple buying EA. Okay, the idea behind that would make some sense. After all MS has been selling of its gaming companies and Sony is doing so well owning both hardware and media... on which note, what idiot then goes on to claim buying Warner is a better idea? Because it is cheaper? EA would give Apple games for its hardware, of course EA already puts a lot of its games on the mac so the advantage
Warner Music (Score:2)
Just like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. (Score:2)
"Warner Music" suggestion is a joke, Jobs not dumb (Score:2)
Steve jobs knows the writing is on the wall for the big record labels. They pay them lip service and make decent money through the itunes store, but the statistics are out there and the major music studios have lost an entire generation, who will ingrain the same hatred into their children. They are dying of self inflicted wounds, a death protracted by their use of political corruption to thrash about at everything they see.
He would NEVER buy a music label. Video games are quickly eating the music and mov
Eh. (Score:2)
I don't see how this could make EA any more evil than they already are. It just means developers will go from 90 hours work weeks and sustenance on glue and cardboard to 95 hours a week and a hearty regimen of wheat germ and gluten free cheese. With the extra calories they will be able to polish games between fainting spells.
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A commenter above indicates that they could pay cash. Twice.
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To answer your question: "To drive Mac sales."
Compared to the PC gaming market, the Mac gaming market is nearly non-existent, to the point where it's the largest reason for the people who actually buy high-end PCs to skip Mac.
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While I mentioned just the high end before, I keep forgetting that EA includes Maxis, whose products target the mainstream.
Products such as The Sims, Spore, etc...
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Apple buying EA doesn't automatically mean that EA would stop making Windows games.
The Sims must be doing something right or they wouldn't continue making expansions for it. Seriously, there's like 30 expansions for The Sime 2.
The Sims 3 comes out sometime next month, too.
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What do they get by buying EA?
A major games software firm to help them sell their new Apple games console.
Apple is very good at selling easy to use hardware to consumers. A games console/media center box fits in with their strategy.
They already have a marketplace to sell the games from.
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Re:Apple needs much better gameing hardware at a b (Score:1)
Apple needs much better gameing hardware at a better price the mac pro is joke and comes with a very week video card for it's price and the video card upgrades are a rip of as well. ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB [Add $200.00] on top of the base NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB at $150.00 makeing it 200+150 = 350 for a 4870 512???. also the imacs at $1,199.00 and $1,499.00 used to come with a better video card now they come with the week 9400m Also the $1,799.00 needs to have much better then a NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 256MB. The mac pro should be about $1000 less with x2 the ram and better base video. The mini at $800 should have it's own video card as well with 2-4gb of system ram.
This is a complete non-sequitur to the question as to whether Apple should purchase EA.
.000005% of the PC gaming market even plays into the "must-have-fa
And your whining about the Mac Pro (which is decidedly NOT aimed at "gamers") and its list price is just gratuitous Apple-bashing, for Apple-bashing's sake.
Except for the Mac mini growing some sort of ridiculously high-end video card (due to size and cooling constraints), all of your issues can be easily addressed. Plus, you do realize that only about
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but apple can do better then 9400m that uses system ram and at least put a 9500 / 9600 in the $800 mini and the $1200 and up imac should have at least a 9600 level video card with 256 or more. I am not talking about high end video cards. I am talking about being more in line with other pc systems.
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Last I checked, you could run Crysis at a pretty damn good clip with 2Gb RAM and a GF9400. What's your beef?
I'd like you to spec a nice system, parts only, from somewhere like NewEgg and tell me how much it costs comparable to what Apple offers in the iMac line. You wouldn't be able to get close without open box parts. I say this, having just done it. When you include the case, the 20-22" monitor, the keyboard, and support (for simple security of mind) you're not going to be able to do it. Apple offers a ve
pro users have been asking for a $1000 - $1500 tow (Score:2)
pro users have been asking for a $1000 - $1500 tower like apple had in the g4 / g5 days and what do they get a system that is about $1000 more then that you can get with a pc that will have x2 the ram and a better base video card that does not need a $30 $100 add on just to use 2 screens. Also a gaming console will not work they need a gameing desktop. gaming consoles are to limited for most gamers and cut out free games / open software.