Microsoft buying EA? Or Others?

[Zandalarian Paladin]

They should definitely buy EA, so there's at least the hope they'll do just like the Xbox.

Fall and be forgotten.

[Jtbrig7390]

If it was hidden, I am sure no one would know about it. If it's not hidden, then everyone who cares knows about it.

Valve created Steam and Valve still owns Steam. Should we even talk about "no money to make game"?

I didn't say they didn't have money to make any games.

I am saying and do fallow along here, Valve does not care to make games anymore unless they are super low budget games. They barely have a game development team now. There is no point in them making a game they could lose money on when Steam makes them bank.

Half Life 3 and all other IP's Valve have are dead unless they can make some super low budget spinoff like Bridge Constructor Portal.

Accept it already.

[Rennadrel]

Taking over EA won't give them more market share, and would further drive down the sales potential of a company like EA in terms of overall market exposure. When you become a 2nd party developer, you forfeit your ability to market your games on as many platforms as possible so even though Microsoft can easily afford to fund any projects EA wants, it might not be entirely in their best interest to allow a takeover due to their games being limited to one platform and EA doesn't have any titles worth a shit that would be huge sellers on the Xbox.

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Not in valves case, Valve has gotten rid of the majority of there game development team. There isn't something hidden being made we don't know about (like HL3). Half Life and all other Valve IP's are dead unless they do like they did recent with the small portal game.

Unless Valve can keep milking money from it with little development (Look at TF2,CSGO and DOTA) they will not make it. That is why we don't have a Half Life 3, LFD3 or Portal 3. There is no money to be made there and there game development team is small to non-existent.

From a business standpoint its a smart move, Why make games that can flop when your digital store just rolls in money.

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It has one major glaring issue, Its as bad as google plays store. Its shit and filled with garbage and the UI is god awful.

Valve charges developers for every single patch or update to their games, they are making plenty of money, I am sure most of the Steam store is automated aside from updates to the client which don't happen all that regularly as far as major redesigns.

[Jtbrig7390]

Valve charges developers for every single patch or update to their games, they are making plenty of money, I am sure most of the Steam store is automated aside from updates to the client which don't happen all that regularly as far as major redesigns.

First off provide some proof to the bolded because that has only been said and proven about consoles. Last checked Valve only takes 30% of all sells. (Unless its something selling for charity)

Second you are correct most of the store is likely automated seeing how valve only has a few honderd people working for them.

[I Push Buttons]

I can see them acquiring some studios, but they aren't going to buy EA.

Something like 2/3 of EA's revenue this generation is on PS4. There is no way they would make up for that lost revenue... Obviously it would sell more Xbox consoles, but it isn't going to sell tens of millions more and make the games sell 200% more copies on Xbox/PC alone, which is how many more sales they would need on Xbox/PC to merely match their current revenue with multiplatform releases.

Ergo Microsoft would spend $20+ billion for a controlling stake in EA for the company to then lose most of its value since they would instantly cut off 2/3 of their current customers. And then it would take years of success after success for them to merely get back to where they already are in terms of value.

The only way this would work is if Microsoft was perfectly OK with EA losing hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars per year for years... And that doesn't make any business sense whatsoever. Not when they have other far more economical options when it comes to acquiring first party studios.

[Nefarious Tea]

Buying EA or Valve LMFAO, thanks for the joke.

Oh, Super Data.

Yea, thanks for the joke but that explains the absurdity of that "rumor".

At least PUBG is believable. Comparing what it would take to acquire EA or Valve to Mojang is fucking laughable. MS might technically have the money to do it but highly doubtful EA or Valve are interested in selling nor would MS investors be interested in acquiring them when they don't even want the Xbox division to begin with.

The biggest thing is that what they're worth is NOT what they'll sell for. If a company bought EA it would likely be the biggest purchase takeover in history by a fair margin.

[I Push Buttons]

The biggest thing is that what they're worth is NOT what they'll sell for. If a company bought EA it would likely be the biggest purchase takeover in history by a fair margin.

It wouldn't even be the biggest takeover from Microsoft, let alone the biggest in history.

Microsoft bought LinkedIn for almost $30 billion.

[Nefarious Tea]

It wouldn't even be the biggest takeover from Microsoft, let alone the biggest in history.

Microsoft bought LinkedIn for almost $30 billion.

Yes but if EA is WORTH $30 billion, do you think EA's executives are going to sell it for only $30B? It would easily be a triple-digit billion purchase.

[Jtbrig7390]

I can see them acquiring some studios, but they aren't going to buy EA.

Something like 2/3 of EA's revenue this generation is on PS4. There is no way they would make up for that lost revenue... Obviously it would sell more Xbox consoles, but it isn't going to sell tens of millions more and make the games sell 200% more copies on Xbox/PC alone, which is how many more sales they would need on Xbox/PC to merely match their current revenue with multiplatform releases.

Ergo Microsoft would spend $20+ billion for a controlling stake in EA for the company to then lose most of its value since they would instantly cut off 2/3 of their current customers. And then it would take years of success after success for them to merely get back to where they already are in terms of value.

The only way this would work is if Microsoft was perfectly OK with EA losing hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars per year for years... And that doesn't make any business sense whatsoever. Not when they have other far more economical options when it comes to acquiring first party studios.

Or Microsoft would buy them just for there IP and keep releasing stuff Multiplatform. Hell if I recall right even Phil Spencer has said he wouldn't be surprised if one day Microsoft's IP's was also on other platforms.

Minecraft is owned by Microsoft but is on every platform known to man. With the way Microsoft is doing things on there gaming side it seems like they are trying to be there own version of Steam. No longer a brand but a platform.

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Yes but if EA is WORTH $30 billion, do you think EA's executives are going to sell it for only $30B? It would easily be a triple-digit billion purchase.

Highly doubt it seeing how it wouldn't take a triple-digit billion purchase in just stock to have a majority hold on the company.

Can they do it? Yes, Will they? Who knows none of us are on the board at Microsoft or EA.

[I Push Buttons]

Yes but if EA is WORTH $30 billion, do you think EA's executives are going to sell it for only $30B? It would easily be a triple-digit billion purchase.

EA has a market cap of $40 billion and to "buy" them, they merely need a controlling stake, 51% of the shares. Their share price might go up a little if this deal turns out to be true (99% chance its not), but its not going to increase several times over.

[Rennadrel]

First off provide some proof to the bolded because that has only been said and proven about consoles. Last checked Valve only takes 30% of all sells. (Unless its something selling for charity)

Second you are correct most of the store is likely automated seeing how valve only has a few honderd people working for them.

Developers I have talked to in person have stated that a content patch is around 50k to drop on Steam. Heck, one guy I talked to said that the costs were part of the reason why they waited until their game had been around for 3 years before they launched it on Steam. It just wasn't worth it to be spending that kind of money for bi-weekly content patches to expand your product and make it better.

[S7orm]

Out of all the profitable companies you could buy, EA? What about buying up Netflix and monopolize the streaming sector by embedding it in Windows

[Tech614]

Out of all the profitable companies you could buy, EA? What about buying up Netflix and monopolize the streaming sector by embedding it in Windows

Nobody is interested in purchasing a company that has to keep raising it's sub prices due to spending loads of money and having flat sub growth. At a certain point Netflix is going to go belly up at their current pace, won't be anytime soon but it's not a smart purchase in the least until when/if they figure their shit out.

Amazon could have easily bought netflix years ago, instead they went the route of direct competition and they will eventually win that battle in the long run. No one wants to buy a company that has direct and encroaching competition from Amazon of all companies.

[Moozart]

Buying EA or Valve LMFAO, thanks for the joke.

Oh, Super Data.

Yea, thanks for the joke but that explains the absurdity of that "rumor".

At least PUBG is believable. Comparing what it would take to acquire EA or Valve to Mojang is fucking laughable. MS might technically have the money to do it but highly doubtful EA or Valve are interested in selling nor would MS investors be interested in acquiring them when they don't even want the Xbox division to begin with.

Hey remember that time Activision ended up getting that big gaming company? Help me out here I cant remember the name of it.

[Tech614]

Hey remember that time Activision ended up getting that big gaming company? Help me out here I cant remember the name of it.

In all your effort to make a funny retort all you did was put the joke on yourself.

Blizzard was owned by Vivendi. Activision was owned by Vivendi. Vivendi wondered why the fuck they where separate and merged them together.

Activision didn't buy shit.

And if you're trying to compare Vivendi to MS that is even more laughable. Vivendi is a mass media conglomerate. That's what they do, buy companies, grow their profits and sell companies off for profits. In case you didn't realize they're in the process of doing the same thing to Ubisoft that they did to Activision and Blizzard.

[Jtbrig7390]

Developers I have talked to in person have stated that a content patch is around 50k to drop on Steam. Heck, one guy I talked to said that the costs were part of the reason why they waited until their game had been around for 3 years before they launched it on Steam. It just wasn't worth it to be spending that kind of money for bi-weekly content patches to expand your product and make it better.

I need more than "A guy I talked to said" even more so when what you are saying is what has been said about console and not steam.

I have never heard anyone ever say Steam charges for Patch's even more so 50k a pop for them. Now that has been said about both PSN and XBL.

[unholytestament]

Hey remember that time Activision ended up getting that big gaming company? Help me out here I cant remember the name of it.

It is 2018 and there are people who still believe this is how that went down?

Jesus fucking Christ...

[Jtbrig7390]

It is 2018 and there are people who still believe this is how that went down?

Jesus fucking Christ...

Some people still don't know how to use google in 2018.

(Not saying u to be clear, talking about the person u replyed to)

[kail]

I can't help but see this as only some rumor. Just sounds too crazy to actually happen.

[Jtbrig7390]

Yeah and Earth is flat.

Awesome counter argument you totally got me........


/s