How would you feel? If the only way you could play Madden was to buy a 360 or Wii, and you only own a PS3 now, what would your reaction be?

Do you think this statement would still be true?

Well they have MANY studios now......so they can

They have FIFA, NFS, MAdden which MANY would literally buy a console for

Then now they have bioware & many other studio's

ofcourse The Sims could be a killer app on their console

there's nothing but their own imagination & wallet stopping them, as far as "1st party studio's go" an EA console could have strong ones!

Please - refrain from cursing and troll posts - and please keep this on-topic or I'll hit the report button. Thanks.

Discuss!

If Microsoft buys EA, I think it would be a good move for them. I don't think that they would force EA to stop making PS3 games, it's one of EA's thing to multiplat almost everything.

However, what if MS decided to keep making games for the PS2 and the PSP, but not the PS3? Would that tick folks off?

I don't think that it happens, but IF it does, this is the way I think it would work:

MS would split EA.

EA Sports with all the sport games like Fifa, Madden, NHL, Tiger Woods would be one part of the company and this would remain independent with multiplat releases.

MS would buy the other part of EA. All the other games EA published or developed by EA would still be huge. Battlefield, Dragon Age Origins, Left 4 Dead, Dead Space, Spore, Sims, Mirrors Edge are great titles.

That would be pretty funny actually. :P

But here's the deal - why would MS do that and still keep games coming to their direct competitor?

Remember Halo 1? MS and Sony were slated to both get Halo - but MS gobbled up Bungie - and baam - Halo: CE for PS2 axed.

If MS bought EA, support for the PS3 would trickle down to nothing.

I would be interested in what would happen with the NFL exclusivity license - does Microsoft make Madden for PS3/2/P and Wii/DS or is the agreement broken and any company free to license them?

For me, personally, it wouldn't be a big deal. Of the EA franchises, I only play NHL religiously. With me owning a Wii, I can't play it anyways (at least, not at my house).

if M4 did happen to buy EA they would leave all the sports titles and such multiplat. People need to not sweat this. Honestly it would be in M$ best interests to keep the sports games and the like multiplat for one reason! its called Royalties

actually Halo CE was never slated for a PS2 release. Originally it was an Apple game and then M$ bought it and it came to the xbox. I dont think there was ever consideration for a PS2 port

EA would not retain ownership of the license for sports such as NFL and FIFA as part of their deal is a mandatory multiplatform release. They would either have to feed directly to their competition or lose the license and destroy the franchise.

EA would not be so easily bought by a first party, the revenue lost of not supporting the Wii and PS3 would be massive and certainly accounted for and calculated for ALL future profit before the share holders would consent to a total takeover.

Remember guys, Sony has 9% of Square Enix which means absolutely squat this gen when it comes to release. Even if MS somehow became a major shareholder of EA the howl of fury from the board and other shareholder will drown their agenda out.