the pippen was not just apples baby (looks at bandi), also that was before the return of jobs, notice the diference in company.

apple planed on selling the pippin to people who wanted to develop games for their own system but did not have a system. not market it as their baby.  so blame bandi

interesting idea, it would give both something they need, ea someone who has done well in hardware, and apple someone who has done well with software, but apple hs been bitten by this offer before, see post above.  but ea is stronger than bandi, but ea would need to convince more 3rd parties to use their system that might be hard

Well EA could just start buying more companies. EA isn't hated by Japanese companies...so they can start building bridges in Japan. The only problem is Activision-Blizzard and Take-Two would most likely not work with EA. I am iffy on Ubisoft working with EA...because Ubisoft is very similar to EA.

Anyways EA with a partner would be dangerous combination. EA sports (as much as I hate it) is a powerful brand.

Google? They might :D

Hahahah,maybe even Coca-Cola!

1. True, but Nintendo still made a couple of billion dollars in profit on the Gamecube.  Thus far, Sony's been working themselves to the bone to find ways of reducing losses.  I'm not saying I agree with Warmachine, but it's definitely at aleast a slight possibility.

2. What a vengeful industry we would have, then!  Out of four competitors, three would have entered simply to stop up one of the others!

ApplespiteMicrosoftspiteSonyspiteNintendo

apple and sega... maybe toyota(kidding)

@goddog: Yeah, Pippin wasn't supposed to be a gaming platform. Still it was perceived as one. It even had a few games.
In any case, you are suggesting the way Pippin came into the market, to be used in the new console aswell.

@Acevil: Well, EA isn't going to hit hardware market either. If you look at their financials, you'll notice that they really can't afford one at the moment. Besides, EA has too much in stake, with their multi-billion franchises, in case of the console failing, their franchises would go down in value, meaning that their familiarity would suffer. Also, a number of their sports franchises are multiplatform because of license requirements, and the ones that aren't, would have a competition on rival platforms, losing their position even further. In any case, EA is successfull largely because of their multiplatform strategy, which gives them more power in the industry, than most people wants to think.

Truth is the biggest game developing companies like bungie, valve, EA, would not because they are companies that believe in either multiplats, or wide distribution.

Other than that if you have no 1st party support you are screwed.

After MS venture into the foray many companies are scared shitless by even thinking of the console market. MS has barely made anything in 7 or so years and they HAVE HAD 1st party support for many many years and have software brandname.

The ONLY possible way would be if a massive wealth bought out many game devs.
Or, with major mod community backing. Something like newgrounds.com.

FYI: There are other consoles on the market other than ps3,wii,360. You just don't know about them because that is how hard it is to compete with the big boys.

Sony's time is nearing an end? That made me chuckle.

Apple won't do it. They'll go bankrupt if they do, or become the laughing stock of the tech world when they fold out at the halfway point of their first consoles life.

I highly doubt you'll see a 4th contender in this war. There isn't room for it, and I don't see the big 3 going anywhere anytime soon.