RUMOUR: Polygon - Microsoft is looking to purchase EA, Valve or PUBG

What should MS do with its 90 billion dollars in cash?

  • Buy EA, remaster every EA game ever and make it available on Gamepass and Crossbuy on PC

    Votes: 87 28.9%

  • Buy Valve, fold Xbox Live into Steam and fund DOTA3, HLife 3, Portal 3, Team Fortress 3, Left4Dead 3

    Votes: 96 31.9%

  • Buy PUBG and other small studios to include in Gamepass

    Votes: 58 19.3%

  • Make a Xbox with a 3nm Zen 3+ CPU, 24GBs of HBM3, a 2.4TB SSHD and 24 TFs of GPU Horsepower

    Votes: 55 18.3%

  • Make an OASIS (akin to Ready Player One) with a 8k wireless VR headset with 120fps and 180 fov.

    Votes: 31 10.3%

  • All of the Above

    Votes: 77 25.6%

  • Make a Xboy or Steamboy that lets you play your entire xbox library and steam library on the go

    Votes: 18 6.0%

  • Partner with Valve, EA, Oculus, Blizzard and Ubi to offer a unified library with every game you own.

    Votes: 5 1.7%
  • Total voters
    301
fbutron said:
Not in reality but in accounting and finance considering the revenues congregated it can be considered as one, it is not necessary to have 100% of the market to be in fault on monopolic rules
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It still wouldn't be anything close to resembling a monopoly.
 
If MS did buy EA , MS would then go from one of big 3 having the weakest 1st party devs to the largest.

EA currently has 33 dev studios.

It certainly not as far fetched as people think, MS could go and buy and formulate devs on there own. But this might not be to easy to do and it takes time.
Purchasing EA literally solves MS gaming divisions current issues and would be quite a quick transition.
 
I don't see why buying EA would be a bad thing, just put the games out on all platforms and reap the rewards. No reason to go exclusive. Same with Valve. Sure they have their own box, but why take away the option from gamers and just put it out on all platforms.
 
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Sosokrates said:
If MS did buy EA , MS would then go from one of big 3 having the weakest 1st party devs to the largest.

EA currently has 33 dev studios.

It certainly not as far fetched as people think, MS could go and buy and formulate devs on there own. But this might not be to easy to do and it takes time.
Purchasing EA literally solves MS gaming divisions current issues and would be quite a quick transition.
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I've been thinking today while reading people's comments on this and I think it might just happen.

With Microsoft's big push towards the Gamepass this would be a purchase akin to the recent Disney/Fox acquisition but within the gaming sphere.
If you look at it from that perspective of being a video game version of Netflix, then it makes a lot of sense.

There's a lot of talk about certain games going exclusive, but like many others have stated, that's unlikely to be the case due to licensing issues as well as with Gamepass going for the Netflix approach. In that they would want it as an app on any platform, rather than restricted to their own. This doesn't mean there wouldn't be unique content, it would just be unique to Gamepass rather than Xbox. Initially of course this might prove problematic for some platforms, such as the PS4.
 
Strife In a Teacup said:
I've been thinking today while reading people's comments on this and I think it might just happen.

With Microsoft's big push towards the Gamepass this would be a purchase akin to the recent Disney/Fox acquisition but within the gaming sphere.
If you look at it from that perspective of being a video game version of Netflix, then it makes a lot of sense.

There's a lot of talk about certain games going exclusive, but like many others have stated, that's unlikely to be the case due to licensing issues as well as with Gamepass going for the Netflix approach. In that they would want it as an app on any platform, rather than restricted to their own. This doesn't mean there wouldn't be unique content, it would just be unique to Gamepass rather than Xbox. Initially of course this might prove problematic for some platforms, such as the PS4.
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It's clear that since Sony rejected EA Access and any other storefront. They will suffer the loss since logically in terms of FIFA and Madden, they would rather go for Game Pass than pay full price + PSN.
 
Valve is a private company, there's nothing Microsoft could do to force them to sell. Hopefully they prefer to continue operations on their own and recognize how problematic this would be.

There are a number of tactics EA could take to hold a takeover at bay, not sure if they could succeed against a company like Microsoft, especially with the influence they could have in pushing the sale through.

PUBG makes sense, wouldn't be such a bad thing.

In either of the first two cases, this raises tremendous anti-trust concerns but I'm not sure if there's will in Washington to prosecute if this happened. I would hope so, considering how big the gaming industry has become and the tremendous influence it has over children's spending habits.
 
EA makes most sense, by far. That way MS gets many high profile AAA exclusive studios for xbox, they lack badly now.

No idea why anyone would want to buy bluehole [1 trick ponies very rarely do great long term, would be a total waste of money imho]. Pubg will last a few more years until its replaced buy another popular game. [and very likely much better quality br game from EA Dice studio not other]

And you get nothing of value by buying Valve, if you already have EA locked. Valve doesn't even makes games anymore and #1 need for MS are exclusives.
 
New member and first time commenting.

Fun Fact: MS President Brad Smith is a Netflix board of director, and his company now launching Xbox Game Pass "Netflix of Games". The legacy of Netflix and it " The Netflix model" really changed the world. Anyway I think we can add Take-Two (GTA, Red Dead, NBA 2K, WWE) to this whispers since they were almost acquired by EA some 10 odd years ago. That leaves Activision Blizzard unless Jeff Bezos and Amazon also want to get into gaming big time. What A World we live in Today.
 
Minecraft compared to MS owning all of EA's IPs to distribute across gaming platforms isn't close to comparable, but why would gamers or the industry in general want something like that?
 
Buying EA is literally the perfect move. All of the sports games are put on game pass, and this will eliminate the entire buying a kinda new copy part. They could sell full price on the Playstation to help offset the production costs.
 
Koala Driving a Ferrari said:
An aquisition of EA would make the tail end of this generation (and next) quite interesting. If it took place, do you think that Anthem would become an Xbox exclusive?
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Yes I think titles apart from the sport titles would become Exclusives in order to address sony stronger Exclusive line up.
 
Never cared about Valve I think that company, its games and steam in general are all overrated

Hated Half-Life when it came out SiN was soooo much more fun but anyway

EA would be just what Microsoft needs to even the playing field as far as exclusives go
 
Damerman said:
I'd like to see them buy Valve... especially if they are doing it to make their first party line up more robust.(that means half life 3/episode 3)
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Buying Valve would be an excellent move to acquire Steam, and Microsoft changing their awful looking store.
 
I don't think it would be bad for the industry, nor for the gamers. It would probably put Xbox back on top, pressuring competitors to work harder.
 
Bolivar687 said:
Valve is a private company, there's nothing Microsoft could do to force them to sell. Hopefully they prefer to continue operations on their own and recognize how problematic this would be.

There are a number of tactics EA could take to hold a takeover at bay, not sure if they could succeed against a company like Microsoft, especially with the influence they could have in pushing the sale through.

PUBG makes sense, wouldn't be such a bad thing.

In either of the first two cases, this raises tremendous anti-trust concerns but I'm not sure if there's will in Washington to prosecute if this happened. I would hope so, considering how big the gaming industry has become and the tremendous influence it has over children's spending habits.
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Gabe knows what Valve is worth, Microsoft know's what it's worth. How many more billion would it take for a man to sell up? Think about it logically, he gets constant shit from PC games from not releasing games anymore what does he owe anyone? If Microsoft offered me a couple billion more for retirement and my children's futures I know which one would be the logical decision even if he hates the company.

EA couldn't stop anything, its a publicly traded company, Microsoft would offer overs on the share price. No share holders are going to turn it down, they might haggle for a bit more on the dollar but when you're guarantied such gains.

What's antitrust about it? If Fox & Disney deal is capable of going through this wouldn't face any issues. Microsoft would argue they hold such little of the gaming market this allows them to compete fairly.

I see EA being highly likely to bolster gamepass, all the 360 games we're still waiting on? Automatic. All future releases? Day one. Day one future releases on game pass from EA means anyone playing FIFA & MADDEN buys an xbox. They won't take it away from Sony, but advertising, content deals etc.. We all get the idea.

If Microsoft manage to take control of Valve I don't see anything changing apart from Steam being rolled into Windows and we might actually see HL3. Microsoft get a one time offer to bring their cash to their local accounts but must purchase with it, dodging a 50% tax hit if they did otherwise or whatever the percentage is in the U.S. Them spending a few billion overs on these companies to secure them seems very likely.
 
Sàmban said:
It would have to be a hostile takeover I guess.
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A hostile takeover of a private company? Involves guns I guess...
Besides gaben is a billionaire, its not like he is wanting for money. And wouldn't he have a succession plan for Valve anyway in the event he was no longer there. MS buying Valve is the least likely i would think.
 
MS buying Valve would be weird, but on the other hand it's the only way stuff like L4D and Half-Life would continue.

Basically, if MS bought Valve because they want to beef up their support of PC gaming it'd be fine, but if they wanted to make Half-Life an Xbox exclusive or whatever, I'd be mad.

I could see it happening though as they're both Seattle based companies.
 
I think if (and it's a big IF) MS did buy EA, there is surely no way they would lock all the big IP's down as exclusives. It just does not make sense to me why any company would spend $40b on acquiring studios and IP's only to suddenly lock them down to one platform. I just can't see how the ROI would be worth it. I know it's exciting for the fans to think about suddenly having more exclusives to boast about, but I can't see it happening.

My thinking, is that this is a play for Xbox to transition itself away from just a single box/platform, and into more of a 'Netflix' (streaming & Gamepass, etc) style of gaming service, possibly across as many different platforms as possible. That sort of situation makes far more sense to me, and the recent moves by MS goes a ways to back that up.
 
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The better thought would be MS buying Take 2 / Rockstar. DLC for red dead 2 / GTA 6 exclusive to X1 for 6 to 12 months would be a kick in the tits again for Sony like with GTA 4.
 
Valve? Yeah, right. Gabe will definetly sell his (privately owned) company to the beloved Microsoft. His favourite competitor..

0% chance.

EA? Expensive. Bluehole? More likely
 
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Collingwood said:
No, you two are right. How dumb of me.

Totally explains why they made Minecraft exclusive after spending 2.5 billion dollars on them.

Completely logical train of thought to conclude that after spending 2.5 billion on Minecraft (one of the top 5 biggest games in the world) and keeping it multiplatform, they would then spend 40 billion or more on EA and prevent themselves from ever making that money back by keeping all the sports franchises exclusive to Xbox. As has been mentioned, they don't need to go exclusive when they can sell Games at full price on other platforms and add games to Xbox customers on game pass for £7.99 a month... That is an interesting strategy.

How could I be so dumb and not see this?
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JaxBriggs said:
I think if (and it's a big IF) MS did buy EA, there is surely no way they would lock all the big IP's down as exclusives. It just does not make sense to me why any company would spend $40b on acquiring studios and IP's only to suddenly lock them down to one platform. I just can't see how the ROI would be worth it. I know it's exciting for the fans to think about suddenly having more exclusives to boast about, but I can't see it happening.

My thinking, is that this is a play for Xbox to transition itself away from just a single box/platform, and into more of a 'Netflix' (streaming & Gamepass, etc) style of gaming service, possibly across as many different platforms as possible. That sort of situation makes far more sense to me, and the recent moves by MS goes a ways to back that up.
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While its plausible speculation, the bolded is not true.
Its just your speculation on certain actions made by Microsoft.
Also if what you are saying were true why would Microsoft have bothered with scorpio? It makes no sense to create more Hardware if there intentions are to go into a netflix like model.
Also If Sony does not want EA Access what makes you think they would be happy with xbox games pass which would be even worse for sony then ea access.
 
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The only one of these I am not cringing at is PUBG Corp.

Valve is a private company making billions in revenue + the owner is against locking down the PC platform, only happens when the hell freezes over.

EA is way too expensive to take over and making most of their games MS exclusive would be one of the worst decisions they'll surely make.

PUBG Corp has one game thats popular right now, which will sooner or later fade away anyways: sure why not. Playing this on PC anyways, enjoy your X1 console exclusive I guess.


MS should take that money and launch their own in-house initiatives instead of buying up IPs or companies. You can probably hire a lot of talent with newly founded studios and an essential blank cheque. But I wouldn't be surprised if MS goes for take overs instead. Totally something I'd expect them to do to level the playing field.
 
Whatever they do they need exclusives fast and also they have to be high ranking on metacritic so consumers are interested in buying the xbox
 
JaxBriggs said:
Of course. I thought I made that fairly obvious.

Everyone here is speculating. We're discussing possibilities based on a rumour.
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When someone says "so and so backs it up" it means so and so is proof of there point.
Its like if I said "sony is committed to making the best AAA single player Exclusives, and there 2018 line up backs this up"

---------

Also on another point if ms did buy EA, how would Sony respond?

People are saying they would buy capcom and square, but personally I think they would just double down on there current strategy.
 
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Edit: You know what, never mind. It was clear I was speculating, what with starting off with "My thinking is".

The poster above can continue arguing with himself.
 
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Microsoft buying EA would certainly be a surprise. It sounds crazy, and my first thought way "I can't see that happening, not a chance". However, Microsoft have been quite forthcoming in recent months about wanting to improve their first party output, and buying EA, giving access to their studios and vast list of IP that has gone untouched for quite some time would be a great opportunity to revive some favourites. It would be great for Game Pass and Play Anywhere as well.

From those three though, I'd guess that PUBG is more likely as Microsoft could keep it as a console exclusive on the Xbox One seeing how well it's doing at the moment.
 
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JaxBriggs said:
Edit: You know what, never mind. It was clear I was speculating, what with starting off with "My thinking is".

The poster above can continue arguing with himself.
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Ok "your thinking" is backed up by somthing which is speculation.
Your post does not make this clear.

But it does not matter now you have clarified it is speculation.
 
MrMorningMan said:
Microsoft buying EA would certainly be a surprise. It sounds crazy, and my first thought way "I can't see that happening, not a chance". However, Microsoft have been quite forthcoming in recent months about wanting to improve their first party output, and buying EA, giving access to their studios and vast list of IP that has gone untouched for quite some time would be a great opportunity to revive some favourites. It would be great for Game Pass and Play Anywhere as well.
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Yeah I think buying EA does actually make sense, but not for the purpose of securing more exclusives. That sort of money in exchange for exclusives (that have traditionally been multiplat) doesn't make much sense business wise. The ROI just isn't there IMO.

There are a few Xbox fans in this thread that will argue otherwise, because console wars. Time will tell I guess, but either way I have a feeling we're going to be hearing something about this sooner rather than later.
 
I kind of hope they buy EA – it would be a hilariously clever move and really shake up the landscape. Long term momentum – PubG would only do them well for so long.
 
JaxBriggs said:
Yeah I think buying EA does actually make sense, but not for the purpose of securing more exclusives. That sort of money in exchange for exclusives (that have traditionally been multiplat) doesn't make much sense business wise. The ROI just isn't there IMO.

There are a few Xbox fans in this thread that will argue otherwise, because console wars. Time will tell I guess, but either way I have a feeling we're going to be hearing something about this sooner rather than later.
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Exclusives may not be the sole reason, but its highly likely it is one of them, if this were to happen.
 
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