I, for one, look forward to Fanboy 2K10.

All of the options suggested if this buyout actually happened would be terrible for their acquisition. "Let's buy a successful company, strip away everything they do well, and shoehorn it into other development!"

Not that it hasn't happened before, but it seems like pissing money away.

Aside from changing the console wars, there would be a lot fewer "Games for windows."

I really don't see a point to this. Apple already has ties with EA; they're working on games for the iphone as we speak. To me, it seems like this would be a waste of money on Apple's part.

I think the linked-to article is much more hilarious than the original article.

I can see apple wanting EA to develop for the ipod or another portable game system they may have in development. However buying them is overkill for that. Plus there is no advantage to EA by selling.

So EA games would be twice as expensive as games from other publisher? Awesome!

It's a sham.

EA has an earnings call today after market close that is widely expected to royally suck. They're floating rumors to stave off mass dumping of their already sliding stock.

Even the biggest Apple fanboy would have to admit that in no way would MS allow Apple to take a bite from its PC / Xbox console business. Balmer at MS would spend any amount needed from ever letting this happen. The only people to win would be the EA investors. If I had money now would be a time to buy EA stock.

@bigd7387:

After the run game stocks had?

Investing is about a heck of a lot more than fundamentals.

This is interesting news, but I can't see them turning EA into an Apple-exclusive company, to be honest. If they were going that route, it'd be easier and more economical to buy up individual development houses, and use Apple's existing distribution network. I could definitely see Apple pushing EA to port its games to Mac and iPhone as well, but not making EA Mac/iPhone exclusive, as much as I'd appreciate it if they did (I hate EA).

Of course, Apple's sorely mistaken if they think that simply porting PC games to Mac will make it more attractive to gamers. No self-respecting gamer will own a system where you can't upgrade the video card, and most wouldn't be willing to get a Mac Pro just for that capability. The Mac Pro is a workstation, not a gamer machine, and it shows in its specs. The average gamer would much rather have a super-fast Core i7 chip powering their rig than dual Xeons.

I am afraid for my Sims... very afraid.

Actually, this would be a huge coup for Apple.

Some quick points:

1) The reason not a lot of people are buying apples (though that number is increasing) is because they don't have the market share. It's a catch-22 for apple.

2) One sure way to gain that initial market share push is to get the nerd market. We're the early adopters, the ones who always need the latest and greatest, most expensive (highest profit) items. We increase revenue by the largest ammount of any other individual consumer.

3) Apple can't get the nerd market because no one writes software that nerds want for macs.

4) No one writes the software that the nerds want on a mac because nerds don't own macs. Another catch 22.

5) Nerds are gamers. All of them. No exceptions.

6) Getting games would attract nerds.

7) Attracting nerds would increase market share.

8) Getting market share would attract software publishers.

8) Having more software publishers would increase the scope of software available.

9) Having a larger library of software would eliminate the above listed catch 22s, freeing Apple up to increase their market share.

#Heartburn kid:

I was going to list the problems with hardware lock-in etc as well, but it's a seperate issue in many ways, and I think apple is smart enough to allow people to make higher end video cards for their platforms.

A lot of the way apple maintains such stable systems is through hardware lockdown. Microsoft has to contend with anyone and their mother writing software drivers. Apple has just a few select vendors. However, there are many solutions to this problem, and apple is smart enough to figure them out (if necessary).

Oh, shit. I didn't see this post's source was CNBC's Fast Money. Why are you repeating this garbage. The best financial advice you can take is to ignore everything that bafoon spits out.

@WiglyWorm: 5) Nerds are gamers. All of them. No exceptions.

Which is why it's pretty easy to dual-boot Linux and Windows.

Won't happen.

@vliam: It is... I'm running Vista/Ubuntu on my box at home. Ubuntu for web development etc., Windows for the wife and for gaming.

Apple modus operandi around acquisitions is to acquire small players & leverage their knowledge. Both Logic & Final Cut are examples of these.

EA is only worth so much because they're multi-platform. Going apple-only wouldn't be in apple's best intererest (unless they think that doing so would put a mortal wound into the competition's ability to sell hardware, which I would seriously dispute).

Is this some kind of retaliation for Microsoft's buying Bungie (formerly a maker of Mac-only games)?

This could be the stupidest rumor I've yet to hear of.

Firstly EA is big because it makes games for all systems. If apple wanted to buy up EA and then remove its core business model, they'd pretty much create a worthless company.

They're better off buying somebody like POPCAP or a small developer like that who would specialize in a field that would give the itouch and iphone the particular gaming aps their core audience would most likely enjoy.

lets be honest nobody is beating Nintendo in the portable gaming market.

I REALLY doubt this would happen, but you guys are throwing out a lot of bad assumptions. There is no reason to believe that Apple would do anything to reduce or eliminate EA's Xbox and Games for Windows games. Apple is in the business of making money, and cutting out probably half of EA's software sales would lose them a lot of money. Apple already offers software to Windows users (Quicktime, iTunes, Safari), and I don't think that would change.

What it MIGHT mean, if it happened, is more and better games for Macs. And we could only hope that Apple would push EA away from the business practices that have made them one of the most hated game publishers.

@WiglyWorm: ditto

If Apple acquires EA, I hope they're smart enough to dump that SecuRom garbage.

I want my Spore and Sims rootkit-free, thank you.

@Geekybiker: Apple stock price vs EA stock price is a very lucrative move for share holders.

viability would then = Apple and not just game development EA.

I still think it's a dumb rumor and horrible idea if allowed.

@WiglyWorm: Unfortunately, not a ton of nerds NEED to play Madden '09, or any "[sports franchise][Year]" game, which cuts the "market share" that EA brings to the table in half, at least. And games for the DS (per the article above)? I checked. I've never so much as CONSIDERED buying a single title for the DS that EA made, and I doubt many have, as the vast majority appear to be shovelware.

@ianmac47: WOOO! Bring on the new era of Mac gaming!

I'm already a mac gamer... I realize that there are less games for macs, but the ones that *are* ported are generally good ones, so it's easier to know what to pick. A merger like this will be reminiscent of the good old days of Blizzard being a mac-only company (before they were bought out by Microtheft).

@mariospants: I loved Bungie :) Used to play the Marathon games for hours!

Can someone place Fast Money in a cannon and fire it against a wall? Their hit/miss ratio is even worse than Drudge, which says volumes...

@GuinevereRucker: You mean Bungie?

@GuinevereRucker: I just run BootCamp w/ XP on my MacBook Pro and I kinda of mitigate that issue. All I care is if I can run Steam games without issues.

@GuinevereRucker: I'd *like* to be a mac gamer, but I keep a PC around for that. Fact is, I can pop in old windows 95 games and play them on my XP machine. That may not sound like a a big deal, but some Mac games *less than a year old* won't play on the latest mac OS, or only work with an intel processor, or only work *without* an intel processor - the platform is just too fragmented. Every time I buy a mac game, it's a gamble as to whether it will work. And I'm not talking cutting-edge FPS's here; I had to return 3 picture-search games for my wife too.

Mac gaming is the polar opposite of the "it just works" experience on the rest of the platform. I don't know who to blame for that - does apple make too many changes in new OS/hardware? Do developers unfamiliar with the platform write bad code?

Maybe then they'd finally do away with thier awful DRM ideas.

@Jakuub: Battlefield. Spore. Civilization. Crysis. Deadspace.

Yeah, they have plenty of franchises for their audience. My post, I suppose, was less about the virtues of apple owning EA and more about the virtues of apple owning a game publisher/developer.

@Shadowfire: Considering that EA has done that to a number of smaller game companies (Sierra, Maxis) this is almost like poetic justice

@y2julio:

Yep. And if Apple bought EA, they most definitely would have to cut out their "It just works," slogan (how anyone can play TS2 without Pescado's fixes, I'll never know).

@MaelstromRider:

You can already do this. Remove Securom (tutorial at Reclaim Your Game) and download a nocd.exe.

Oh, and Sims 3 will NOT have Securom (not that it matters; EA have pissed me off enough with previous titles that I'll be torrenting it anyway).

@WiglyWorm: And you've named the other half of my "In Half". Bravo on that.

@WiglyWorm:

Fast Money ≠ Mad Money with Jim Cramer

@WiglyWorm: EA has earned the ire of a lot of gamers with their treatment of employees (can you say sweatshop?) Their use of highly restrictive DRM, and their habit of gobbling up good game studios and gutting them for intellectual property. They may be the biggest publisher, but their corporate practice is pretty despicable.

I think what this says is that EA is facing falling revenues and fallout from their bad behavior, and need outside cash to be able to stay in business. Just like monolithic banks are failing. So are monolithic games publishing companies, and for the same reason. Greed.

I honestly the only benifit I see to this is if Apple is deciding to make their own console gaming system. I'm sorry, but with the way that Apple handles hardware and support for adding new hardware there is no way they will keep up with Windows/Linux gaming rigs. Gaming on Macs is horrible to say the least compared to PC. The selections and side by side comparisons of those games that run on Mac/bootcamp are sad. If EA made it only for Mac that would be great, but only for Mac users. Any great title they would release would probably get passed over by a majority of thier fanbase.

Please, every other week there's a rumor of Apple buying some company or another. Apple is one of the few companies that have the means to do so in the current economy and dozens of other failing companies are looking to them for help.

I don't see Apple buying EA but what I definitely could see them doing is purchasing a stake of the company or infusing them with cash to guarantee EA puts more focus on game development for the iPhone/iPod touch and OS X desktop platforms.

The 'limited' hardware configurations that hardcore PC games like to blast Apple over actually puts Apple PCs more within the realm of console systems, if you really think about it. All Apple would need to do is provide a framework (along the lines of CoreAnimation and CoreData, etc.) and better support in Xcode to assist in porting games and then woo game developers. And given the success of gaming on the iPhone, that's not much of a stretch.

@SergioDingo: Well EA may have learned their lesson after the spore fiasco. Their next title line up seems to be fairly DRM free. Of course, it took lawsuits to do it.

@Jakuub: Yeah. I did. Many of which are top selling titles. I fail to see the point of your comment.

@wgrune: Yeah that's what I was thinking of. My bad.

@SJActress: Further, given how many EA games are on Microsoft Xbox 360... I kinda wonder if Apple'd segment the console wars and buddy up to Sony or Nintendo, shunt the 360 (or other future Microsoft console development).

I can see it now... EA Sports, only on the iPhone / iPod Touch... Sports fans will be very happy when they realize the only way to play their favorite sports games is through a 5-inch screen with low-quality, non-HD graphics. Yay.

Then again, they could just be getting ready for an iConsole to compete against every game console out there.

Wrong link for the article? This is what I got:

[www.newsweek.com]

Just goes to show how many people actually read the original article.

@ianmac47:

Apple would never buy them and then stop making games for PCs. That would be moronic. What would happen is that Apple would basically guarantee Mac version releases for all the games coming out of EA which is one of the smartest moves Apple has done in a very long time. People always say the biggest mistake Apple made back in the day was to not license their OS like Microsoft did but they forget Apple is a computer company and not a software company like Mocrosoft. The biggest mistake they made was actively trying to distance themselves from gaming when they released the Mac. They have obviously finally realized that a household with a kid often has the kid picking what machine the less tech savvy mom buys.

its on "fast money"....pay no attention