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Businesses Entertainment Games Apple

Apple Eyeing EA? 151

Posted by Soulskill from the ever-bigger-publishers dept.
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."
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Apple Eyeing EA? More

Apple Eyeing EA?

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  • What do you get combining Apple + gaming company? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 09, 2009 @11:44AM (#27888695)

    Nothing.

    • You sure do get something. More DRM.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by onefriedrice ( 1171917 )
        Exactly. Apple loves screwing us. Like when I installed Mac OS X, I was forced to enter this long stream of characters or the software would stop working. And I was way pissed when I had to call Cupertino to "reactivate" my license after I installed a new hard drive. They obviously love implementing any anti-piracy mechanisms they can at the expense of us poor consumers. Those greedy execs will use any anti-consumer strategy just to pad their pockets.

        Huh? Oh, this never happened? Well how about th

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by XPeter ( 1429763 ) *

          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.

          • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

            by earlymon ( 1116185 )

            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)

              by cuban321 ( 644777 ) on Saturday May 09, 2009 @05:49PM (#27891651) Homepage

              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: (Score:2)

              by jo_ham ( 604554 )

              [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

              • 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

        • Where are my DRM-free movie purchases then? Or does DRM only count if it's on music?

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by strikethree ( 811449 )

          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

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sopssa ( 1498795 )

      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)

        by gravesb ( 967413 ) on Saturday May 09, 2009 @12:18PM (#27888975) Homepage
        EA has a market cap of 6.5 billion. Apple has over 20 billion in cash and short term investments. Even with a hefty control premium, they could easily acquire EA. If they were only interested in a majority share, so that they could force more consideration of their platforms, it's even easier.

      • Re:What do you get combining Apple + gaming compan (Score:5, Interesting)

        by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Saturday May 09, 2009 @01:38PM (#27889597)

        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%.

        • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward

          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)

          by flyingsquid ( 813711 ) on Saturday May 09, 2009 @02:31PM (#27890079)
          If you want to know what direction Apple is taking, look at how they got to where they are now. Quite a few years ago, in fact this may have been pre- iPod (which is so long long ago in internet years that it's practically the Ice Age) Steve Jobs made an interesting statement about the future of Apple Computer. He was trying to explain where he saw Apple going. And the company he held out as a model wasn't Microsoft, or Dell, or any other software or hardware company. 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. They've moved from being a company that just makes desktop computers, to a company that makes digital music players, smartphones, laptops and desktops- almost all the devices you need to live, work, and play in the digital age.

          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)

            by Man On Pink Corner ( 1089867 ) on Saturday May 09, 2009 @03:35PM (#27890551)

            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.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Narpak ( 961733 )

            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

          • Comment removed based on user account deletion

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )

            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

          • 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

      • Would Apple really have money to buy EA?

        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.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Gilmoure ( 18428 )

          Or the New York Times or GM. What about NASA or JPL? As long as we're going shopping, lets have fun!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jo_ham ( 604554 )

        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.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Hatta ( 162192 )

      Well I think you'd at least get a high energy burst of gamma rays.

  • Again? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Norsefire ( 1494323 ) * on Saturday May 09, 2009 @11:45AM (#27888697) Journal
    How many rumours of Apple wanting to buy companies is Slashdot going to post this week?

    • Re:Again? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Yvan256 ( 722131 ) on Saturday May 09, 2009 @12:14PM (#27888941) Homepage Journal

      Maybe Apple are about to buy Slashdot?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by node 3 ( 115640 )

        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!

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by nine-times ( 778537 )

      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.

    • 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

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by node 3 ( 115640 )

        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.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Gilmoure ( 18428 )

          If Apple bought MS after MS bought Bungie...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Lars T. ( 470328 )

        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.

    • 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

    • 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)

    by raydobbs ( 99133 ) on Saturday May 09, 2009 @11:46AM (#27888713) Homepage Journal

    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.

    • Might be good for linux gaming too...

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by RiotingPacifist ( 1228016 )

        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.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by v1 ( 525388 )

      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)

      by Hatta ( 162192 ) on Saturday May 09, 2009 @01:51PM (#27889715) Journal

      It would just be nice to see some quality EA titles.

  • I'm not seeing the benefit for them to purchase EA (Score:5, Insightful)

    by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Saturday May 09, 2009 @11:54AM (#27888767)

    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.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      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.

      • 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

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jbolden ( 176878 )

          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?

    • 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...

  • let me ask, how many major independent game companies are there?

  • 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.

  • 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.

    • 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

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • 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.

  • 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

    • 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?

      • 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)

    by Johnny Mnemonic ( 176043 )

    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

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Actually, I do RTFA ( 1058596 )

      How do you fend of the netbook challenge, which Apple doesn't have a product in?

      Well, they have the most popular netbook: the iPhone/iTouch.

  • What if Apple buys EA, ports all current titles, and then kills off the Windows versions of those titles, and does not offer Windows (or Linux) versions of any new titles? This would be similar to what Apple did when they acquired the DAW company, Logic. And Apple, with $20 bil. in the bank and no long-term debt, could easily afford to kiss-off the revenue from the Windows versions of EA titles.

    Apple could, in one master stroke, change from the underdog to the top dog, as far as gaming goes.

    And with E
    • And who's to say that Santa Claus won't perform a striptease in the Oval Office? I can pull ridiculous suppositions out of my ass, too.

      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

    • What if Apple buys EA, ports all current titles, and then kills off the Windows versions of those titles, and does not offer Windows (or Linux) versions of any new titles?

      I imagine the stockholders would be pissed that Apple took a very successful video game company and turned it into a money pit.

  • Apple can buy up EA and make a deal with Sony to not make games for MS based consoles in return for a sweet deal on Sony's music. Then they get the best of everything.

    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 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.

  • 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.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Fri13 ( 963421 )

      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...

  • Why not start some more: Apple - Tesla or worse, Apple - Chrysler Apple - Somalia Apple - MS Apple- Slashdot Apple - The GOP

  • 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...

  • 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

  • But the whole pricing fighting thing coming from the record industry is really helping Apple's credibility! Seriously, if it was Apple raising prices they'd have questions to deal with... No one likes the record industry but they have the best PR people in the world on their side generating good will(except perhaps the movie industry). Apple really needs something like the Kindle, perhaps a device that passively searches for wireless points when the user requests a song. Android of course is full of the pot
  • Yeah I heard something like this while back. Supposedly all the big console companies were thinking of buying up their own studios and divvying up the market. Nintendo was going to buy Capcom, Sony was gonna get Square, and Microsoft was going to get EA. Strange how that never came to fruition.

  • 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

  • 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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