Are EA set to dominate the Video Games market?

[Sleipner]

Though up until now EA have played a large part in the rise of video games there have always been rivals to their games. However a few interesting developments over the past few days have altered that and believe me to think that EA could very well start taking a serious monopoly of the games market.

First, a few days to a week ago we had the news that Mircosoft has canned their internal sports development team. Thats right - canned - the ones that brought the likes of Amped and Top Spin have ceased fdue to the fact Mircosoft considers no other sports franchise other then EA. With online play the EA games are getting even more popluar and now with less competition sales will go even higher.
EA are not restricted to any set genre either - in fact they make games for some genres.

Then announced a day or so ago was the news that EA have brought 19.9% share of Ubisoft, a company that (last year particularly) produced many quality titles but never had great sale figures.
www.gamespot.com/news/2004/12/20/news_6115370.html

Does anyone else have any views on the growth of EA in the games industry?

[Atma]

I don't have anything against EA, unlike many who view this as a great move to monopolize. I guess the reason why I feel that way is that I feel that sometime in the future there will be a major disagreement internally, and EA, though it will still be a major player, will have pieces of its company break off, and in turn, start up new companies. Whatever happens, EA will eventually get some major competition. Either way, I'm not totally worried about how this develops.

[Ironhorse]

I personally like EA. Most games I buy from them turns out pretty good so I have no problem with them buying a piece of Ubisoft or having exclusive rights to the NFL.

[Iain]

EA publish good and bad games much like any large games company, some of its sports titles are second to none, others are close to getting replaced as the standard for excellence (winning eleven soccer, vs FIFA 2005)EA games have always entertained us the BIG series of sports titles are still quite good quality games (NBA Street, SSX, etc) and keep many coming back for more.

EA continues to grow as it becomes a major player in the video game world.