GameTopius - The Geeks Paradise.

Forwards Compatible is a weekly roundtable discussion about thoughtful and interesting topics involving videogames. Each week a spearhead topic will be put forth and several Gametopius writers, as well as other contributors, will give their thoughts.

 

Jeff Grubb; Managing Editor

 

There have been a few, huge game changing shifts throughout the history of gaming, but the Earth-shattering, face-melting, brain-punching change that would result from Microsoft purchasing EA is nearly unfathomable. There are simply too many things to consider. What is that? You didn't hear the news? Well, looks like Microsoft would like to purchase EA. Sure, Microsoft denied this when asked about it, but since when has that ever stopped something from being true?

The purpose of this Forwards Compatible is for us to put our brain power together to help figure out exactly what a world would be like if Microsoft owned EA. It is such a jarring concept. However, I do know where to start.

 

Madden Football would go with EA, but not the exclusive NFL license as it would violate the standard change of ownership clause. This whole round table could be spent discussing the possible outcomes of that. Would the NFL let EA keep it, would the NFL sell it to someone else that could develop it for all platforms, or would the NFL revert to letting multiple publishers purchase the license? The least likely outcome would be that EA would get to keep or re-buy the exclusive rights. Still, the Madden name would still belong to EA.

 

 

To say that the list of EA owned properties is staggering would be an understatement.

 

Army of Two
Battlefield
Burnout
Command & Conquer
Dead Space
Mass Effect
Mirror's Edge
Need For Speed
Rock Band
SimCity
The Sims
Skate
Spore
SSX

 

Those are only the highlights and does not include any of the licensed properties or EA Sports games. If all of those properties suddenly became Microsoft exclusives, I don't see what Sony can do to fight it. At the same time this wouldn't "end the console war." Sony has too many first party games that are important to gamers, but this would put them in a very bad position. Sony would almost certainly have to make some acquisitions of their own to insure that no more multi-platform games disappear from their stable.

 

What Microsoft would really be buying is the talent. The prospect of the Dead Space team working on new IP has to be enticing. This would take Microsoft's reliance on third parties and throw it out the window. Sure, third parties will still develop for the system, but Microsoft won't need them as much as they do now.

 

Finally, how would this strain relations between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard? Microsoft would become the exclusive console home of Battlefield, Skate and potentially Rock Band. Would Microsoft want to lock out Call of Duty, Tony Hawk, and Guitar Hero? They would be digging into sales of their own games.

 

What do you guys think?

 

Daniel Sims; News Editor - Kombo.com

 

Even though the prospect of this is looking less and less likely in my opinion, I still think it's worth discussing. Plus, a sick side of me wants to see this happen just to view the ramifications... and to see EA lose the NFL exclusivity so we can have NFL2K again.

 

But seriously, the first question many would ask in this situation is "what would EA gain?" When you look at the security they might gain compared to what they might lose, the situation doesn't seem quite so illogical.

 

It's true that EA right now is the #2 publisher in the world behind Nintendo and their sports franchise are a large part of what makes them, but the company hasn't been doing as well as usual as of late. Sales of Madden have been declining over the past couple years, and word has it that the exclusive NFL license is costing EA a lot which might be eating away at Madden's profitability.

 

Let's say EA does get bought out and all their stuff goes exclusive to Microsoft. Sure they've got fewer platforms to sell their sports games on, but this also means that they'll probably end up spending less money and fewer resources on making their sports games. With only one real build of Madden to make between Xbox 360 and PC (if they went back to making PC versions of Madden), even if they only sold most of what they sold multiplatform, the games could theoretically become more profitable.

 

EA even needing that though all probably depends on how they do this fall. Dead Space Extraction, Need For Speed Shift, NHL 10, and The Beatles Rock Band are already out, and later you've got Dragon Age Origins and the EA Sports Workout expansion. If their games sold well enough (which I imagine The Beatles alone will), then they could demand a price high enough to keep Microsoft at bay. But, we're still just talking about an "if it happens" situation rather than a "will it happen."

As for sports licenses, my instincts tell me that the NFL and FIFA licenses would just go multi-game again. Could competitors like 2K (NFL2K) and Konami (Pro Evolution Soccer) really afford those exclusive licenses? I think we can all agree that going back to the old open competition environment would in the end be better for sports gamers.

 

Concerning other licenses and studio talent, I don't think all of that would make the transition. A lot of the recently acquired developers like BioWare and Criterion are probably not quite attached at the hip to EA, so it's possible that franchises like Mass Effect and Burnout could make it out. You also really have to think about whether or not Visceral (Dead Space) would really stay. The PC-centric stuff though like The Sims, Command & Conquer, and Spore really wouldn't be effected either way. The Crysis franchise is also not owned by EA, but is simply part of EA's partners program with Crytek. What I'd worry about is stuff from Harmonix (Rock Band) and DICE (Battlefield, Mirror's Edge).

 

Lastly, concerning the impact to Sony and Nintendo, I don't think any of it would be immediate, it wouldn't greatly effect the current console generation but instead would drastically change Sony's position in the next one. That's a lot of big, recognizable stuff that Sony would lose, and I'm not sure if their current exclusive content could hold them up.

 

Most of the exclusive content Sony had last generation was in fact third party. They were just the favorite console back then, especially for Japanese developers. A lot of that stuff has gone multiplatform now and Sony has been forced to hold themselves up with Gran Turismo, God of War, Ratchet & Clank, and Uncharted. I honestly don't think that stuff would hold up well against all the third party exclusivity Sony has lost in combination with Microsoft-exclusive EA Sports. Remember Dreamcast? If Microsoft bought EA, Sony's lifespan could shrink significantly after the PS3 is done, and I don't think Sony could even afford to buy out anyone to help them.

 

Nintendo on the other hand would probably survive with minimal damage. The Wii has done just fine and EA has hardly contributed anything to it.

 

Oh, and it goes without saying that Microsoft would have to buy EA for some record-breaking numbers, like when Disney bought Pixar for $7 billion.

< Prev		Next >