News Corporation Eyes Game Industry

Is another giant forming to the game markets? According to Peter Chernin, who is the Chief Operating Officer of the company, News Corporation is seeking an acquisition in the video games market. News Corp., said Mr. Chernin, is kicking the tires of pretty much all video games companies. They have a bit of a dilemma with the divide between pricey all-in-one game companies and cheap-o all-eggs-in-one-basket game companies.

If they go for the high quality, Electronic Arts itself might be in danger. That would be nice, clean and fast sweep and News Corp. would dominate the games industry in similar manner as they do with the news. If they go for the low price, they can’t settle to one company, because the product slate won’t be variegated enough. Result would be a shopping spree. Just pulling names from the hat, maybe Activision and Eidos could be on News Corporation’s shopping list.

I welcome this development. It is always nice to get things moving, to shake up that old adage. The worst-case scenario here is that capital would summon more capital. It is really a good thing for the game industry if at least oligopoly is achieved, if no new players are introduced, EA might end up as monopoly.