Will Electronic Arts fall into Disney’s hands?

Recently, we are witnessing a real concentration of the video game market. After the takeover of Bethesda and Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, and Bungie by Sony, this time, it would be Electronic Arts’ turn to be the target of the big-eared giant. But what is it really?

We’re not going to lie, Disney is certainly one of the biggest companies in the world. But if its cartoons, films and series still punctuate the daily lives of young and old today, its latest productions no longer unleash the crowds as much, and the all-streaming strategy (Disney+) costs a whopping 1.5 billion dollars per year to the American company.

So much so that the venerable Bob Iger was brought out of his golden retirement just a year ago, at age 72, to put Mickey’s house in order. Would this potential takeover of EA be part of Disney’s recovery strategy?

Mickey wants his piece of cake in the video game

At a time when the video game market is working rather well, and with the takeovers continuing, we have to believe that Disney also wants to expand further. And what could be better for it than to buy Electronic Arts, one of the largest publishers in the sector?

According to BloombergDisney executives are even on the verge of making a proposal: “ Bob Iger’s deputies are pushing him to consider a bolder transformation of Disney, which would move from the status of a video game licensee to that of a giant in the sector by acquiring, for example, Electronic Arts. »

What consequences for the video game market?

If such a takeover did indeed take place, Disney could concentrate all of its flagship video game licenses under the Electronic Arts banner: Marvel, Star Wars, Kingdom Hearts or even the very recent Disney racing game Speedstorm. With what this would imply for partner studios and publishers, who would logically no longer be asked to work on the house’s numerous licenses (Ubisoft, Massive Entertainment, Warner Bros. Games, TT Games, Crystal Dynamics, etc.).

However, the merger between these two giants would not really be shocking as far as the franchise is concerned Star Wars. Indeed, until the end of this year, EA retains the exclusivity of the license titles, including the series of Star Wars Jedi, Battlefront And Squadrons.

But another piece of information rings a bell. Indeed, Electronic Arts recently restructured itself into two distinct divisions: EA Sports and EA Entertainment. The first entity brings together all sports games (FC24, NBA Live, Formula One, PGA Touretc.), and the second, the publisher’s other numerous titles, such as licenses The Sims, Need for Speed And Battlefield. Preparing for a future marriage, or for a proper dismantling?

A takeover file that whets appetites

Let’s be frank, it’s hard to imagine that the publisher decided to make this reshuffle in complete innocence, and if this takeover really were to take place and Disney were to only focus on one division, it would be that of EA Entertainment . However, Mickey shouldn’t delay too long if he really wants to get involved in this area, because he is not the only one interested in the Californian giant.

As a reminder, in 2022, Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast, made a proposal to EA in order to create a merger with the subsidiary NBC Universal. However, Andrew Wilson, the boss of EA, did not seem interested in this opportunity at the time.

In any case, for the moment, nothing has been done, and we will have to be patient before the officialization, or not, of this new concentration in video games.

Source : Bloomberg