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."
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.
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.
Re:What do you get combining Apple + gaming compan (Score:5, Informative)
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.
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 performance delivering CPU architecture, the market is starting to discover it doesn't really need that much CPU and is looking at tinier and tinier platforms. They came a little late to the performance party, when it's starting to lose it's relevance and portability (and price) are starting to dominate as the deciding factors. So Apple needs to make sure that you still want performance-demanding applications, games included, so people continue to have a reason to buy desktops and even laptops.
Seriously, I work in front of a computer all day, and the only application I ever open is my browser--it has my email, my calendar, my documents, and my chat client. Also, my workflow manager. I also sometimes use a terminal window. I could seriously work all day in the computer business on a smartphone--except for the screen and less, the keyboard--both of which could be fixed by a smart docking solution.
Once in a great while I open a PDF reader, and about once a month I need to open Word or Excel--and only cause my collaborators are behind the curve and not using an online document system.
But if all I need is a browser, then really all I need is a smartphone or a netbook, and for convenience a dock to a monitor and a full size keyboard. I don't need a Mac to do that, which has got to be keeping Apple up at night.
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.
Re:Can apple afford it (Score:1, Informative)
A fair question unfairly mod'd troll.
Re:What do you get combining Apple + gaming compan (Score:3, Informative)
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 number of my previous drive. These discussions centered around a security update Apple pushed in November 2007 (iirc) which bricked that particular model number. Obviously, the intention was NOT to brick the drive, however, the drive was indeed bricked.
I have bought 2 more laptops since then, neither of them Apple.
strike