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A weird question about Microsoft and EA

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ODD

ODD

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Oct 25, 2017
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I remember reading around 2004-2005 rumors about Microsoft having to give up with their sports lineup in order to convince EA to add Xbox Live features in their games. I remember that Microsoft had a strong line of licensed games like NFL, NBA, NHL, and also games like Amped, RalliSports Challenge, Links, etc. There was even a so called XSN division.

Fake edit: actually, while making this thread I googled about their old sports games and found this article: https://www.wired.com/2004/03/microsoft-benches-sports-games/

So yeah, it seems to be true, and it seems that the deal is still up, cuz Microsoft never released any sports games since then. Do you guys think that this rumor about them trying to buy EA has anything to do with this? How much Sony will be hurt by not having games like Fifa, NHL, NFL, Need for Speed, Battlefield and Titanfall?
 
Zvonimir Boban

Zvonimir Boban

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Oct 25, 2017
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I don't believe that this deal could ever happen, but if it did then there's no way games like FIFA become Xbox/Windows exclusives. There's way too much money being flushed down the toilet if that happens.
 
Kamisori

Kamisori

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Oct 26, 2017
157
France
A lot for sports licence, Need for Speed is kinda dead, Titanfall could be in jeopardy if they keep the marketing strategy of the last one and we'll see how they manage BF5.
 
jelly

jelly

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33,841
XSN games were quite decent, Rallisport was ace, Amped was cool, Top Spin, screw you Chang.
 
Falcon511

Falcon511

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Oct 27, 2017
3,148
I dont think Sony would be hurt that much. MS would still put EA's games on other platforms and I doubt they would let the NFL and FIFA contracts get away from them.

It might cause sony a small headache knowing your competition has a huge presence on your platform. They will be fine.
 
Aaronrules380

Aaronrules380

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Oct 25, 2017
22,429
I really doubt Microsoft could make the big licensed stuff exclusive even if they bought EA, since I'd imagine the licensors wouldn't keep giving the license to them if they wanted to try
 
Joeyro

Joeyro

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Oct 28, 2017
1,757
They will not be significantly hurt because sport titles are licensed by official sport committiees that will never allow exclusivity and because that deal would never happen.
 
xxracerxx

xxracerxx

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Oct 25, 2017
31,222
The real thing that would hurt is just not having the marketing/bundling deals in place for Sony.
 

Deleted member 17676

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Oct 27, 2017
2,454
DD Power said:
I remember reading around 2004-2005 rumors about Microsoft having to give up with their sports lineup in order to convince EA to add Xbox Live features in their games. I remember that Microsoft had a strong line of licensed games like NFL, NBA, NHL, and also games like Amped, RalliSports Challenge, Links, etc. There was even a so called XSN division.

Fake edit: actually, while making this thread I googled about their old sports games and found this article: https://www.wired.com/2004/03/microsoft-benches-sports-games/

So yeah, it seems to be true, and it seems that the deal is still up, cuz Microsoft never released any sports games since then. Do you guys think that this rumor about them trying to buy EA has anything to do with this? How much Sony will be hurt by not having games like Fifa, NHL, NFL, Need for Speed, Battlefield and Titanfall?
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It had nothing to do with Microsoft's sports titles because Amped 3 came out on Xbox 360 and Xbox has had tons of racers since then.

EA wanted more control around the online side of things which MS weren't prepared to do. Where as Sony at the time didn't give a toss about online.
 
Tebunker

Tebunker

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Oct 25, 2017
3,844
DD Power said:
I remember reading around 2004-2005 rumors about Microsoft having to give up with their sports lineup in order to convince EA to add Xbox Live features in their games. I remember that Microsoft had a strong line of licensed games like NFL, NBA, NHL, and also games like Amped, RalliSports Challenge, Links, etc. There was even a so called XSN division.

Fake edit: actually, while making this thread I googled about their old sports games and found this article: https://www.wired.com/2004/03/microsoft-benches-sports-games/

So yeah, it seems to be true, and it seems that the deal is still up, cuz Microsoft never released any sports games since then. Do you guys think that this rumor about them trying to buy EA has anything to do with this? How much Sony will be hurt by not having games like Fifa, NHL, NFL, Need for Speed, Battlefield and Titanfall?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Sports games would continue to be multiplatform. The leagues would yank the licensing fast. As would Disney and any other company who license with EA for basis of having wide appeal and mass market titles.

MS isn't buying EA, but if they were it would be to integrate Origin and EA access as wel as EA's own ips that aren't licensed. Odds are the licensed stuff would operate like Minecraft.
 

Deleted member 18161

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Zvonimir Boban said:
I don't believe that this deal could ever happen, but if it did then there's no way games like FIFA become Xbox/Windows exclusives. There's way too much money being flushed down the toilet if that happens.
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If I was spending $35 billion on a company then the first thing I'd do is let all my new exclusives games onto my main competitors platform, especially considering the reason I bought said company is because I'm hurting so much for exclusive games.
 
OP
OP
ODD

ODD

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Oct 25, 2017
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Simply Sami said:
It had nothing to do with Microsoft's sports titles because Amped 3 came out on Xbox 360 and Xbox has had tons of racers since then.

EA wanted more control around the online side of things which MS weren't prepared to do. Where as Sony at the time didn't give a toss about online.
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But none of these racing games were focused on any kind of sports. They're really generalistic, actually.
 

Samsquanchewans

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I wouldnt worry about sports games for Sony consoles, im sure MSFT atleast has half a brain to think that if they make all the annual sports games exclusive for the Bone. They'll lose their sports market in the European region. FIFA alone sells like pancakes. They wouldnt jeopardize that market. And make games exclusive for their system.

They learned their lesson from Minecraft and Platinum Games.
 
xxracerxx

xxracerxx

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Rion said:
If I was spending $35 billion on a company then the first thing I'd do is let all my new exclusives games onto my main competitors platform, especially considering the reason I bought said company is because I'm hurting so much for exclusive games.
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So they would just be flushing the money down the toilet by only releasing on XBO/PC? Nah.
 
Dinobot

Dinobot

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Oct 25, 2017
5,126
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Microsoft spent $2.5B on Minecraft and kept it multiplatform. You think they'd spend $35+ billion on EA and reduce the high sales of PC and PS4 SKUs? They'd never recuperate the costs spent acquiring EA.
 

darkazcura

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Oct 25, 2017
1,884
I'm not as confident that Microsoft would keep their games on Sony consoles as some in the other thread and here. It's not the same as Minecraft, imo, which is only one property. EA is the most powerful third party out there. Acquiring them could literally shift millions of people to their hardware and services. I know people who only game for Madden or FIFA. Microsoft could own 100% of those gamers. You are talking about owning an entire genre of sports games outside basketball.

For whatever reason, to me, it makes sense that Minecraft stayed on other consoles. I don't feel similarly about EA games if Microsoft acquired them. Minecraft is amazingly popular but millions of people aren't going to shift over to different hardware for one game. Millions of people could shift over for a stable of sports games with yearly releases, though.
 
Zvonimir Boban

Zvonimir Boban

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Rion said:
If I was spending $35 billion on a company then the first thing I'd do is let all my new exclusives games onto my main competitors platform, especially considering the reason I bought said company is because I'm hurting so much for exclusive games.
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MS makes more money from Minecraft being on every platform under the sun than it would from making it an exclusive.

The same principle applies here with FIFA.

It's one thing to create brand new games that are exclusive to your console, it's another to buy games that sells most of their copies on other platforms and then remove them from those platforms. You don't spend billions on a company just so you can decimate its revenue streams AND piss off the majority of their customers.

You keep those games multi-platform but you implement cross-play hooks like they did with Minecraft which has beneficial effects for the consumers (They can play with all of their friends, no matter what systems they own) and you get them all signing up for Xbox Live/Microsoft Accounts in order to reap those benefits which means they are now part of your own ecosystem.
 
NinjaScooter

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Oct 25, 2017
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Rion said:
If I was spending $35 billion on a company then the first thing I'd do is let all my new exclusives games onto my main competitors platform, especially considering the reason I bought said company is because I'm hurting so much for exclusive games.
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If you are MS would you authorize your gaming division making a $35 billion purchase that involves immediately cutting off the revenue stream and value of said purchase?
 
Terbinator

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Oct 29, 2017
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DD Power said:
But PES is very good now. If Sony partners with Konami, they can find their Fifa substitute with proper marketing, specially because the Champions League is officially on PES, no?
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I feel like you don't grasp the sheer gulf between games in terms of market presence, features and depending on your POV, quality.

It's like saying it's cool we've lost GTA but at least we've got InFamous for our open world fix.
 
noctix

noctix

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Oct 27, 2017
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If such event happens. I don't think microsoft will stop publishing big games on ps4 this gen. but PS5, i think microsoft can really hurt sony if all the ea games stop coming out on sony's next console.
 

dgdas9

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Nov 16, 2017
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NOTE: Perhaps I'm horribly mistaken, but if I remember correctly, the licensing deal they have for Fifa license explicitly states that they must publish at least one game on any capable platform.

And I doubt Microsoft would pass on so many Playstation and Nintendo owners, even after they buy EA they'd just have to have most games stay Multiplatform, or leave large amounts of money on the table. Which is why this supposed purchase makes very little business sense, it'd just be pointless empire building, a waste of shareholder value. EA is much better off as a leading independent game publisher.
 

Deleted member 18161

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NinjaScooter said:
If you are MS would you authorize your gaming division making a $35 billion purchase that involves immediately cutting off the revenue stream and value of said purchase?
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The whole reason they would be buying EA is to give value to their Xbox division which would in turn drive XB1S, XB1X, their next gen Xbox hardware sales, XBL Gold and Game Pass sales.

The people comparing this potential purchase to Minecraft are missing the point completely.
 
Lord Brady

Lord Brady

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Fifa and Battlefield would hurt. Titanfall sure didn't help MS much. I have no idea how big Madden or the NHL games are anymore. Anthem might be a huge get though.

But much like Minecraft, I dont see them making a purchase this big and keeping it only on their platform.
 
Segafreak

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Oct 27, 2017
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Fifa going exclusive isn't beneficial to MS either, they'd miss big revenues on Playstation and the cost of the Fifa license would go thru the roof, I'd expect it to be close to a billion/year at least.

Sony would then probably make their own footie game, or just market the shit out of PES (the king of footie games). Maybe that Fifa license would be opened to both parties.
 
NinjaScooter

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Rion said:
The whole reason they would be buying EA is to give value to their Xbox division which would in turn drive XB1S, XB1X, their next gen Xbox hardware sales, XBL Gold and Game Pass sales.

The people comparing this potential purchase to Minecraft are missing the point completely.
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It would hurt the value of those licenses and properties (that sell a lot in areas where Xbox has almost no market presence) as much as it would help the Xbox.

Don't see how it's different from Minecraft, which was one of if not the biggest gaming property in the world, played by hundreds of millions of people. Why not make that exclusive and drive XB1S and XB1X and XBL Gold and GamePass sales?
 
Kill3r7

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FIFA and Madden cannot be exclusive but if they plan to add them to XGP than it is simply an issue of making the math work. I think they can get Nintendo to agree to adding XGP but I don't see Sony doing so unless consumer demand is such that they have to cave in.
 
ZhugeEX

ZhugeEX

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This doesn't need to be a thread when the same questions are being asked and discussed in the polygon thread.
 
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