Update: According to CNBC, there are no current plans for Amazon to make a bid for EA. The original sources of the rumour from GLHF (via USA Today) detailed below were removed from USA Today's article, due to violating their editorial standards in regards to the use of unvetted and unnamed sources.
Original article:
Amazon is apparently set to announce sometime today (26 August) that it’s planning to acquire Electronic Arts. These claims come courtesy of GLHF’s sources (via USA Today).
As of now, this is still a rumour, and neither Amazon or EA have officially responded to the situation. However, if it’s to be believed, we could be getting big news very soon.
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EA, of course, is the developer and publisher of the FIFA series (soon to become EA Sports FC). Take a look at the trailer for FIFA 23 below.
Assuming it’s true, this news hasn’t come totally out of the blue. Back in May, it was reported that EA was getting ready to sell itself or be merged into another, larger company, and Amazon would certainly fit the bill - this was suggested at the time, too. However, it seemed that Disney was the most likely candidate, thanks to EA and Disney’s previous collaborations on Star Wars games.
This year has already seen the announcements of some really significant games industry acquisitions, the main one obviously being Microsoft’s plans to buy Activision. The $68.7 billion deal will be the games industry’s largest acquisition of all time, assuming that it goes through okay. Currently, the deal is being scrutinised by regulators, who must first determine whether buying Activision would give Microsoft an unfair market advantage.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that Microsoft was attempting to defend the buyout by claiming that Activision doesn’t have any “must-have” games: “There is nothing unique about the video games developed and published by Activision Blizzard that is a ‘must have’ for rival PC and console video game distributors that could give rise to a foreclosure concern,” they wrote.
