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Apple Reportedly Talked With Electronic Arts About Potential Acquisition

MacRumors said:


Apple is one of several companies that have held talks with Electronic Arts (EA) about a potential purchase, according to a new report from Puck.

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EA has spoken to several "potential suitors," including Apple, Amazon, and Disney as it looks for a merger arrangement. Apple and the other companies declined to comment, and the status of the talks is not known at this time, but Apple does have an interest in gaming due to its Apple Arcade service.

Disney was a first pick for EA, and the gaming company approached Disney in March to establish a "more meaningful relationship" than licensing deals, but Disney decided not to pursue a purchase. EA also spoke with NBCUniversal and was close to a deal, but the talks dissolved due to disagreements over pricing and structure. EA CEO Andrew Wilson wants to remain at the head of the company following a merger, which could cause issues should Apple opt to purchase the company.

EA is a major game publisher and is known for gaming franchises that include "The Sims," "Battlefield," "Apex Legends," "SimCity," "DragonAge," "FIFA," and more.

There have been some questionable rumors about Apple aiming to compete in the AAA gaming space, releasing titles that rival those available on PlayStation and Xbox consoles, but so far the company has stuck to simpler games designed for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.

Since 2019, Apple has offered the $4.99 per month Apple Arcade gaming service, which has been steadily growing with new titles on a monthly basis. An EA acquisition could give Apple access to a higher caliber of game and a number of highly popular gaming franchises, but it remains to be seen if Apple is serious about getting into gaming in a bigger way.

There is a notable amount of consolidation going on in the gaming world right now, with Microsoft recently purchasing Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion, and Sony purchasing Bungie for $3.6 billion.

Article Link: Apple Reportedly Talked With Electronic Arts About Potential Acquisition
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Just anyone but Microsoft… Last thing we need is a resurgence of their 90s monopolistic bs.
 
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Wow. That would be epic. This could propel Apple Arcade to a whole new level. With FIFA finally embracing cross-console online play, and presumably their other titles do this as well, it makes a lot of sense to get the AAA versions onto Apple devices. It just makes sense that Apple would get into game streaming to compete with Microsoft, Sony, Google, and Amazon.
 
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AFAIK, I'm leaning towards Apple NOT being interested.

O1H, they get a lot of nifty franchises from such a purchase. Could be a nice boost for AA and non-AA iOS games

OTOH, I don't know if Apple wants to deal with EA's messes. Gaming on iOS is already very profitable for them, so I can't see them getting better with EA stuff (although how much they would have to spend would be a major factor). AA could use a boost, but, it may not be worth all the hoops to jump through to acquire EA.
 
francjl said:
outside of Fifa and madden EA is one of the lamest gaming studios out there.

And Fifa is not even going to be part of them any more.
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I agree on the lameness, but I’d point to Mass Effect and Star Wars as the exceptions (IMO; never cared for sports games). In a world where so many studios were either hopping onto or building our their own platform (Epic, Ubisoft, etc.) EA has long felt behind.

That might be what makes/made them an attractive acquisition — their poorer performance compared to other studios lowers the entry price for Apple.
 
I've a feeling if Apple ever DOES take gaming seriously, I mean actual AAA or at least long-form desktop gaming, then they'll take an Apple TV+ approach and just decide to throw a billion at growing their own studio and building their own IP. Why not eh?
 
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The_Gream said:
Personally, I would rather see them expand Apple Arcade by adding Apple Arcade Studio and go after/help small game developers bring their games to the ecosystem. There are a lot of games on iOS that would be great on computer if the developers brought them. Pretty much all the Final Fantasy games (I love RPGs)…
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It would be amazing if they would just purchase Nintendo for their IP. I am a huge Apple fanboy(have the Apple Designed in California book, phone, iPad, MacBook M1Max, watch, tv, HomePods, AirPods, and more along with all software including use of their reminders, calendar, and subscriptions such as Apple Music and more through Apple iCloud Plus through Apple Premiere and all….but Apple Arcade sucks. None of the games are remotely fun after just a few days. Nintendo would secure them in the gaming space and Nintendo is in-line with Apple’s own market. I would invest all my money in the company if they made this deal.
 
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The problem is FIFA (or EA football), that is the primary source of money for EA at the moment.
I don't know if Apple want to spend tens of billions of dollars for a company that primarily live on the ludopathy of their players (also kids).

I think this is more a Amazon's space than Apple. (Also they NEVER buy big company, Beats was 2.6B)
 
Already have my EA game on the iPad, PvZ 2. Many years ago I get NHL games to watch the awesome FMV intro and then never touch it until the next years edition. Started with ‘94 and stopped around ‘99. My brother played them alot thou..

Buying EA would be many billions more than their biggest acquisition, Beats, was. I doubt they will go through with this.
 
I hope Apple doesn't do it because macOS isn't currently well-suited to gaming. AMD and Nvidia cards are very performant yet Apple didn't use them for gaming on the Mac. Apple trumped up all these GPU cores in M1 Max/M1 Ultra Silicon yet macOS is still not very suited to gaming. EA will die a slow death with Apple unless Apple changes strategy and puts gaming first. All those billions of dollars, a great macOS that I use every day, and yet AAA gaming is a second class citizen, I still have a PC that I built that I use to game. Don't go to Apple EA.
 
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