Current Events > Polygon: MS looking into acquire EA

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.polygon.com/2018/1/29/16930892/xbox-one-exclusive-games-analysis-microsoft
Holy fuckity fuck if it ever actually happened.
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That would sure be something
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Could you imagine Fifa and Madden becoming MS exclusive? That would be intense
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That would give them hella exclusives.

all shitty exclusives, but hella nonetheless.
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DarthAragorn posted...

That would sure be something

EA games might become good again.

Also lmao Madden/Fifa exclusive to Microsoft so much salt.
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Sonic Cannon posted...

Could you imagine Fifa and Madden becoming MS exclusive? That would be intense

On the plus side unless they go back on recent policy, Madden would end up on PC again finally
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Hardcore gamers will laugh at the idea, but having exclusive rights to EA sports games will be a game changer for Microsoft (and Sony)
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Xbox one would suddenly be the console to have for the mainstream audience.
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Trigg3rH4ppy posted...

Hardcore gamers will laugh at the idea, but having exclusive rights to EA sports games will be a game changer for Microsoft (and Sony)

It would also mean Battlefield and Star Wars games for the foreseeable future are only on Xbox and PC
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They already have a decent gig in terms of EA Access being exclusive to Xbox/PC. I own an Xbox, but I wouldn't relish EA's future games being turned into exclusives.

Though wait a second I think there's a loophole in MLB's contract where this would allow EA to make baseball games again so buy 'em up, Bill Gates!
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no way that MS would spend 35 billion on EA to bolster what is probably MS's least profitable segment. wouldnt be surprised if they bought the PUBG company though
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I may be in the minority, but I want this to happen. This is the kind of thing the industry needs.
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DarthAragorn posted...

Madden would end up on PC again finally

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Trigg3rH4ppy posted...

Hardcore gamers will laugh at the idea, but having exclusive rights to EA sports games will be a game changer for Microsoft (and Sony)

this

I can't imagine this happening, but if it did it would be the biggest business move in gaming in a long long time
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Thinking about it, wouldn't they probably lose the SW/all the sports rights if this happened? No way Disney/NFL would want their games exclusive to one platform
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That would be crazy.
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LIsJustice posted...

Thinking about it, wouldn't they probably lose the SW/all the sports rights if this happened? No way Disney/NFL would want their games exclusive to one platform

Disney has done exclusive stuff before. See Epic Mickey and a few other games.
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The end result here would probably be a series of counter-moves by Sony; they'd probably want to have PES and 2K as exclusives to match.
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Xbox is garbage and has no compelling reason for anyone to purchase it compared to the other options right now. The console is dead after this generation short of Microsoft making an acquisition like this or implementing their Netflix model that was discussed here last week.
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I have an Xbox One X and are quite pleased with it, tbh.
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I'd start playing Madden again if it came to PC.
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I'd probably get an Xbox if I had the spare cash. The exclusives of PS don't interest me at all and its controller is awful I find.

Xbox does need some exclusives though, and buying EA would be a complete game changer for the industry.
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MS is where studios go to die, so R.I.P. EA.
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zH0mPfR posted...

MS is where studios go to die, so R.I.P. EA.

EA is where studios go to die, dude
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DarthAragorn posted...

zH0mPfR posted...

MS is where studios go to die, so R.I.P. EA.

EA is where studios go to die, dude

But EA isn't acquiring MS.
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DarthAragorn posted...

zH0mPfR posted...

MS is where studios go to die, so R.I.P. EA.

EA is where studios go to die, dude

Cancels out and they'll flourish.
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DarthAragorn posted...

zH0mPfR posted...

MS is where studios go to die, so R.I.P. EA.

EA is where studios go to die, dude

Which would make it a perfect fate for EA.
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God damn that would make me embarrassed to me an Xbone owner because people will assume all I play is the shitty sports games which I wouldn't touch unless it has "Mario" in front of the sport, or is called NFL Blitz for the N64.
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Muffinz0rz posted...

God damn that would make me embarrassed to me an Xbone owner because people will assume all I play is the shitty sports games which I wouldn't touch unless it has "Mario" in front of the sport, or is called NFL Blitz for the N64.

Uh, why would this make you feel insecure about your preferred console?
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MS tried to buy out exclusives before and it didn't give them victory in the long run.

It would be a waste of money.

Basically, they would boost Xbox temporarily, but then eventually it wouldn't matter. The "good developers" EA has would leave, the IPs they have that are considered OK would be trashed by those who don't get to play them and their competitors would have more revenue to work with since they get sales across the systems.
You know, Activision?

Yea, this would be GREAT for Activision. Bad for gamers. Bad for EA. And eventually, not so great for Microsoft.

Look at Halo. Irrelevant. Bungie moved on and made a new IP.
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Error1355 posted...

I have an Xbox One X and are quite pleased with it, tbh.

same, the from a pure hardware perspective the whole experience is fantastic
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krazychao5 posted...

Muffinz0rz posted...

God damn that would make me embarrassed to me an Xbone owner because people will assume all I play is the shitty sports games which I wouldn't touch unless it has "Mario" in front of the sport, or is called NFL Blitz for the N64.

Uh, why would this make you feel insecure about your preferred console?

Because the vast majority of Xbowners will be the typical frat stars who just want to play Madden 2022, so people will just assume I'm one of them
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darkphoenix181 posted...

MS tried to buy out exclusives before and it didn't give them victory in the long run.

It would be a waste of money.

Basically, they would boost Xbox temporarily, but then eventually it wouldn't matter. The "good developers" EA has would leave, the IPs they have they are considered OK would be trashed by those who don't get to play them and their competitors would have more revenue to work with since they get sales across the systems.
You know, Activision?

Yea, this would be GREAT for Activision. Bad for gamers. Bad for EA. And eventually, not so great for Microsoft.

Look at Halo. Irrelevant. Bungie moved on and made a new IP.

Microsoft needs to do something to differentiate itself better. This generation's exclusives are piss poor, it loses the hardware battle squarely to the PC, it doesn't have the IP/portable markets that Nintendo does, and it doesn't have the type of niche exclusives that the PS4 does.

I'm not personally a fan of the Japanese PS4 titles, but at least those are differentiators. Literally the best two Xbox games last year were poor man's versions of PC games.
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Muffinz0rz posted...

krazychao5 posted...

Muffinz0rz posted...

God damn that would make me embarrassed to me an Xbone owner because people will assume all I play is the shitty sports games which I wouldn't touch unless it has "Mario" in front of the sport, or is called NFL Blitz for the N64.

Uh, why would this make you feel insecure about your preferred console?

Because the vast majority of Xbowners will be the typical frat stars who just want to play Madden 2022, so people will just assume I'm one of them

How old are you? Literally doesn't matter what others think.
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This would be great. Group all the garbage together to make it easy to avoid. All the real gamers can buy a PS4, the frat boys and jocks and screaming 10 year olds can buy an Xbone

The Admiral posted...

Microsoft needs to do something to differentiate itself better. This generation's exclusives are piss poor, it loses the hardware battle squarely to the PC, it doesn't have the IP/mobile markets that Nintendo does, and it doesn't have the type of niche exclusives that the PS4 does.

I'm not personally a fan of the Japanese PS4 titles, but at least those are differentiators. Literally the best two Xbox games last year were poor man's versions of PC games.

I mean, this is the way it always was for Xbox.
360 didn't get a huge push because it had better exclusives, but because it was considered the better console for third party aka games that came out on 360 and PS3.

And that was because it was harder to code for PS3 at first.
Also, people apparently enjoyed paying for online saying it worked better than free online.
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would be huge mainly for fifa and madden. then there's some star wars and need for speed and stuff as well. but that would be a lot of money to acquire EA and they'll probably even charge them more than the companies worth since the deal is gonna hurt EAs business since they'll be only making games for like 25% of the market. so i doubt anything would happen till xbone2/ps5 are coming out.

xbone2 having the exclusives to all these EA games would help them get a major boost over ps5. only hope would be for the NFL to end the exclusive deal to EA and let 2k make football games again. but if EA is giving the NFL the difference anyways then it won't happen.

Romulox28 posted...

no way that MS would spend 35 billion on EA to bolster what is probably MS's least profitable segment. wouldnt be surprised if they bought the PUBG company though

Yeah I can't see them buying something this big.
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darkphoenix181 posted...

The Admiral posted...

Microsoft needs to do something to differentiate itself better. This generation's exclusives are piss poor, it loses the hardware battle squarely to the PC, it doesn't have the IP/mobile markets that Nintendo does, and it doesn't have the type of niche exclusives that the PS4 does.

I'm not personally a fan of the Japanese PS4 titles, but at least those are differentiators. Literally the best two Xbox games last year were poor man's versions of PC games.

I mean, this is the way it always was for Xbox.
360 didn't get a huge push because it had better exclusives, but because it was considered the better console for third party aka games that came out on 360 and PS3.

And that was because it was harder to code for PS3 at first.
Also, people apparently enjoyed paying for online saying it worked better than free online.

Well it DID work better than PSN
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DarthAragorn posted...

Well it DID work better than PSN

Idk man, I had all three (ps3, pc and 360) and they were basically the same.
I guess it was a nice UI though.
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krazychao5 posted...

Muffinz0rz posted...

krazychao5 posted...

Muffinz0rz posted...

God damn that would make me embarrassed to me an Xbone owner because people will assume all I play is the shitty sports games which I wouldn't touch unless it has "Mario" in front of the sport, or is called NFL Blitz for the N64.

Uh, why would this make you feel insecure about your preferred console?

Because the vast majority of Xbowners will be the typical frat stars who just want to play Madden 2022, so people will just assume I'm one of them

How old are you? Literally doesn't matter what others think.

I'm aware of that. I don't care that they will stereotype me as a boring sports game lover. But I don't like being lumped into something I'm not (i.e. All millennials are shitty with money when actually I'm quite good with money, etc.)

this is a dumb route to walk down anyways since this is entirely and extremely hypothetical
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darkphoenix181 posted...

The Admiral posted...

Microsoft needs to do something to differentiate itself better. This generation's exclusives are piss poor, it loses the hardware battle squarely to the PC, it doesn't have the IP/mobile markets that Nintendo does, and it doesn't have the type of niche exclusives that the PS4 does.

I'm not personally a fan of the Japanese PS4 titles, but at least those are differentiators. Literally the best two Xbox games last year were poor man's versions of PC games.

I mean, this is the way it always was for Xbox.
360 didn't get a huge push because it had better exclusives, but because it was considered the better console for third party aka games that came out on 360 and PS3.

And that was because it was harder to code for PS3 at first.
Also, people apparently enjoyed paying for online saying it worked better than free online.

Halo 3, Gears of War and Mass Effect were huge games and came out in the first two years of the 360's life. It also got games like BioShock and Oblivion first. While the 360 probably would have beat the $599 PS3 anyway these games most certainly helped them.
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I thought the bigger suggestion I saw there was Valve. Forget EA. That would be huge.
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So the company that turns respected and acclaimed developers to shit is going to buy another that does the same? And people actually want this?
Isn't it enough that we lost Rare and Visceral to these greedy and incompetent corporate stooges?
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creativeme posted...

would be huge mainly for fifa and madden. then there's some star wars and need for speed and stuff as well. but that would be a lot of money to acquire EA and they'll probably even charge them more than the companies worth since the deal is gonna hurt EAs business since they'll be only making games for like 25% of the market. so i doubt anything would happen till xbone2/ps5 are coming out.

xbone2 having the exclusives to all these EA games would help them get a major boost over ps5. only hope would be for the NFL to end the exclusive deal to EA and let 2k make football games again. but if EA is giving the NFL the difference anyways then it won't happen.

Tbh, this would have been a better deal before the last Mass Effect came out and was exposed as an unfinished beta pretty much.

Having an exclusive ME that was hyped would have been huge.

Now an exclusive ME will be met with "meh, the last one wasn't very good."
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Maybe this is Microsoft maneuvering towards somehow finally convincing PC gamers to actually pay for Xbox Live, by cornering Origin as well.

EA also gives MS access to Origin as the starting point for it's proposed Netlfix-type game service. I know the reaction was generally mixed to that, but I think it'd be great. If the hardware was decent, that would get me to buy a MS console next generation.
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Corrik posted...

I thought the bigger suggestion I saw there was Valve. Forget EA. That would be huge.

It'd be funny to see the Steam community react.
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DarthAragorn posted...

That would sure be something

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Darmik posted...

Halo 3, Gears of War and Mass Effect were huge games and came out in the first two years of the 360's life. It also got games like BioShock and Oblivion first. While the 360 probably would have beat the $599 PS3 anyway these games most certainly helped them.

I am not saying it didn't have exclusives, but when you list the three biggest 360 exclusives without considering the ps3 ones, it doesn't tell much of the story.

But between those, 360 had the edge of also the third parties.
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