Amazon’s Not Buying EA, But Should It? Should Anyone?

Games Amazon’s Not Buying EA, But Should It? Should Anyone? Paul Tassi Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. News and opinion about video games, television, movies and the internet. New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories.

Got it! Aug 28, 2022, 09:41am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Apex Legends Respawn This week brought with it a very fast, and very bizarre news cycle in which GLHF, a Swedish media group, published an article on USA Today saying that Amazon was about to buy EA, quite literally by the end of that day. But as markets were about to open, CNBC had a segment where they cited their own sources saying the deal was not happening, essentially laughing off the rumor. The acquisition report…did not pan out.

Amazon did not buy EA on Friday and USA Today was forced to issue a retraction and the original piece was butchered with edits. But there are true aspects to this story. EA has been looking to sell, and megacorps, Amazon among them, have been looking to buy, as have Meta, Apple, Disney and of course Sony and Microsoft always being on the prowl for new publishers in this age of enormous acquisitions and gaming industry consolidation.

Amazon buying EA probably does make the most sense out of any possible pairing there. Unlike Meta, Apple and Disney, Amazon has expressed an explicit interest in gaming the last few years with their purchase of Twitch and the work at their own first party studios. The problem is that they have produced few meaningful results.

New World, a struggling MMO, and Lost Ark, a successful port of a Korean MMOARPG, but one currently facing a bot infestation problem. New World Amazon Amazon scooping up EA would give them access to a massive amount of successful IPs from day one, making them a player in the space by acquiring what is the biggest remaining independent publisher after Activision Blizzard was bought by Microsoft for $70 billion, which is still undergoing regulatory approval. I doubt Microsoft could also buy EA, as that would trigger some much more serious anti-trust alarms.

Sony meanwhile, would probably not be ready to acquire a company worth a third of its own $100 billion market cap. MORE FOR YOU ‘Demon Slayer’ Season 2 Finally Has An Actual 2021 Release Date Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Not A Sure Thing, Says Director ‘Genshin Impact’ Still Refuses To Increase Anniversary Rewards, Despite Fan Outcry EA has been trying to shake its “Worst Company in the World” moniker from years ago when it was among the most hated brands not just in gaming, but anywhere, for a while there. While I would venture a guess that few would say they explicitly love EA, there have been plenty of other gaming publishers to hate the last few years besides them, and Activision Blizzard has taken the cake for the most mistakes and scandals.

EA still has close to a monopoly on the sports game market, something that they have grown somewhat complacent with, judging by reviews on the latest Madden. But Ultimate Team makes billions, and elsewhere, EA has a lot of successful IPs to their name. Apex Legends is one of the biggest shooters in the world.

BioWare has new Dragon Age and Mass Effect games in the works. Respawn is making a sequel to the only Star Wars game anyone has liked in recent memory. It feels like they have more going for them than say, Activision or Ubisoft, these days.

Still, again, it’s hard to match a potential buyer with EA that isn’t Amazon. Meta, Apple and Disney all feel too random and disconnected from gaming. Microsoft is busy with Activision and Sony isn’t big enough.

So I think there’s a reason that Amazon and EA keep being mentioned in the same sentence. If I was a company with close to unlimited money and an interest in gaming, there are worse giant publishers I might buy, and EA seems like a more likely pick than say, Ubisoft, Square Enix, Capcom, SEGA or CDPR in the current market. So even if this specific rumor fell flat, I cannot rule this out conceptually, at least.

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