if EA plans to do exclusive FIFA or MADDEN to the 360 I guess it would loose the licenses of both , since they want the game to be in most of the consoles. I guess

@rafichamp

Microsoft also denied trying to buy Yahoo as well as several other companies they now own. I am not saying that they are trying to buy EA, but I would imagine there is something to the rumor. If M$ came out and said outright that they plan on trying to buy them the EA stock would jump up in price by a lot. There would be a lot of people trying to profit quickly.

@gera4390

I think the NFL and Fifa both have contracts with EA to produce the game on every console. So even if M$ did take over EA that would not change their contracts in the slightest. Now after the contract is up either of those leagues could negotiate with other companies to produce the game if EA didn't want to do them on all consoles.

I would love it if Microsoft bought EA. I have no intention of getting a 360, and do not own a single EA title for PS3. The EA titles have all been sub par at best, and I do not play sports titles. Splitting the consoles along demographics is great! I do not like having the same library of games for 2 out of 3 consoles. Where is the diversity? Please Microsoft buy 2K games while you are at it too. Personally, I liked it back when there were 4-8 consoles to choose from. Consumers benefit from more choices and consoles more specialized to their own tastes. Sure, the console "cycles" will overlap and companies will enter and exit the market, but it really is better that way. And all the lip service from publishers saying that it is too expensive to release that many titles nowadays is just a way to increase their profits. They could put out more quality titles if they wanted to.

Speaking as a gamer who loves MANY different types of game format, your idea is horrible.  I don't want to be pigeonholed into one type of game by the console I buy.  And I would imagine 99% of the other game lovers out there would agree with me.  If I were forced into having to buy 1 console for FPS 1 for Sports and 1 for RPG's I wouldn't be able to pay for those and this would limit me to playing FPS's only.

I'm sure you would change your mind after you realize that the quality of your FPS titles went up, and the sports and RPGs for your FPS centric console were just as good as they are currently. Fewer console manufacturers increases the quality of your favorite games.  99% of gamers want higher quality games. Remember NFL 2K series on Dreamcast? Are you happy with multiplatform Madden now? Console exclusives are almost always better than games produced for multiplatform.

MAC not Sony.

Well i doubt this is going to happen since it doesn't seem to follow the current business strategy of MS when working with third party developeers. Were did this strange idea that NFL and FiFA liscenses with EA would be voided with any purchse by microsoft?

If a MS were to buy EA it would be purchsing the liscence agreements that EA owns as part of the deal, and as we all know the NFL has no problem with exclusive deals, there's a reason why I pay $259 a year to directv evan after they were purchased by Hughes electronics.

I honestly don't see why that would automatically make the quality of a games go up.  Look at the original xbox for instance, most people considered it to be a FPS heavy gaming console and there were only a couple "above average" FPS games made for it.  Halo, and Golden Eye.

I'm not going to derail the thread anymore with this stuff though.  Sorry guys.

This British man is correct.