EA are not ruling out further developer acquisitions. EA Partners director of business development has claimed that they are constantly looking for new IP and to work with great developers, regardless. He goes on to say that sometimes acquisitions and mergers are necessary for a company to do it's best work. He cites the example of Vivendi and Activision-Blizzard; believing that pairing Vivendi (who were "drifiting", as he puts it) with Activision-Blizzard who were doing great will produce interesting results down the line.

Following the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games, Electronic Arts has told GamesIndustry.biz that there is always a possibility of further acquisitions by the publishing giant.

Asked whether EA is eyeing developers for potential acquisitions, Button-Brown, who is director of business development for EA Partners said: "It's always possible. My primary aim is to find new IP and work with great developers whether we acquire them or not.

"It would have to work for both parties. There are no hostile takeovers, it has to be right," he said. "Look at Bizarre being bought by Activision. Bizarre were independent for so many years but then they felt like they wanted a little bit of shelter and it fitted. If we'd have been working with Bizarre, that would have been an interesting deal."

Q22 via gamesindustry.biz »