Amazon has reportedly beaten the other rumored horses in the race to acquire Electronic Arts. No official confirmation that the acquisition is taking place has been made from either party just yet, nor has a potential price for the buyout been mentioned, but apparently, the deal will be confirmed later today.
The report that Amazon will acquire EA comes from GLHF. According to the site's sources, Amazon has beaten a number of other heavy hitters to the punch in order to acquire the publisher of massive titles such as FIFA, Apex Legends, Madden NFL, and The Sims. It had been rumored that other big companies such as Disney and Apple were also keen to acquire EA.
If Amazon seals the deal and does acquire EA before the day is out, or at any point, it will likely rank right up there with some of the other huge video game acquisitions made in recent years. Microsoft has been the leader when It comes to huge video game industry acquisitions as of late. Bethesda was placed under the Xbox umbrella for $7.5 billion, and the deal to do the same to Activision Blizzard for almost $70 billion continues to inch closer to completion.
Amazon has its hands in more or less everything at this point, including video games. However, it could be argued that Netflix has been inching ahead of its streaming rival in that regard. Not only via the free games Netflix now offers up to all of its subscribers, but also through the massive success of its adaptation of The Witcher. Netflix also has a BioShock movie in the works, recently revealing Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence is attached to the project.
Amazon has a few video game projects of its own in that regard. Fallout and God Of War TV shows, not to mention games like New World and Lost Ark. Acquiring EA would be a huge statement that it wants to vastly expand its gaming horizons though, and now the guessing can begin as to exactly how much Amazon has reportedly offered EA to bring the massive studio aboard.