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EA As The Next Disney

Posted by timothy on from the gosh-walt dept.

ducomputergeek writes "There is an article over at Business2.0.com about how EA may just surpass Disney as the number #1 media company in the world. Considering that EA has turned out some great games over the years, including Wing Commander, many sports games for consoles, and the SIMS, it wouldn't surprise me."

8 of 322 comments (clear)

  1. Conglomeration by DoctorPhish · · Score: 5, Informative

    You mean, some great games were turned out by companies that EA syphoned up...e.g. wing commander was produced _before_ EA bought Origin.

    1. Re:Conglomeration by TC+(WC) · · Score: 5, Informative

      Pardon? There were 7 or 8 years of Wing Commander game development under Electronic Arts management... It's not like they were aiming for Ultima Online through the entire period. Either way, the cancellation of more Wing Commander development had a hell of a lot to do with the decreasing market for space-sims, as well as wanting to focus on Ultima Online style games. (A large amount of time and effort was also spent on a Wing Commander Online style game.)

  2. Re:Does EA produce their own stuff? by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's not just EA, they really are the 'Disney' of the gaming world, buying up anyone and everyone who comes along.

    Chances are, whatever you're playing, the people who made it work for EA.

    They have huge sway in the console world. Arguably one of the biggest reasons Dreamcast died was because EA refused to produce titles for it (because Sega had the gall to produce their own NHL/NFL/MLB games)

    The sports franchises themselves are perenially the best selling games. You're average Jimmy Goober has no problem shelling out 60$ a year for the same game, with updated player rosters.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  3. Re:EA is that big? by ergo98 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Is EA really that big? I mean disney seems to own or have their fingers in just about all media. EA just doesn't seem as prevalent.

    If curious check out the stats on the Nasdaq page. Disney has a market capitalization of $35 billion, whereas EA is a still very respectable $8.5 billion: Much larger than I imagined (considered how massive Disney is).

  4. Re:EA is that big? by TC+(WC) · · Score: 4, Informative

    EA bought Maxis in 1997... so they both make an equal amount of money, as they're one and the same.

  5. Re:They work their employees like dogs... by Syncdata · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ah, the memories. I worked EA/maxis and they treat their software side employees like they should be glad to work there. The legal side and marketing side gets a little more touch, but then, EA is all about the legal and marketing. Hm...quite a bit like disney, just like the parent mentioned.
    In terms of market share/quality product/market cap, I would say EA is going to have a tough time matching disney. But if the article was comparing corporate culture, then, they're probably smack dab on the target.

    --
    "Inattention makes clowns of us all" -Bean
  6. EA did NOT make Wing Commander by Richard+Mills · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hey guys, how quickly we forget our video gaming history! Wing Commander was made by Origin (anyone recall that "Lord British" guy?), which was, sadly, gobbled up by EA.

  7. Chris Roberts by asv108 · · Score: 4, Informative

    To avoid any misinformation, Chris Roberts was the mind behind Wing Commander, not Lord British. The wing commander series was way ahead of its time. I remember begging my parents back in 1990 for an 8 meg upgrade for my Compaq 286 in order to get enough "expanded memory" to play wing commander. It was really the event that got me interested in the nuts and bolts of computers. Back then you had to play around with config.sys and autoexec.bat files in order to play memory intensive dos games. BTW, that 8 meg upgrade cost $700.