Electronic Arts is the publishing force behind Rock Band, so you'd think it would jump at the chance to grab franchise developer Harmonix for its own now that's confirmed to be on its own following its release from the hands of Viacom. As it turns out, EA is no longer in any rush to be coughing up for multi-million dollar business acquisitions.
Recall yesterday's article regarding EA cooling its jets over licensed movie tie-in software. Essentially EA Games' plan is to renew focus on better aligning the interests of its label developers and marketing departments, to better polish original IP. This turns out to be the driving force behind EA being a little more careful with who it plans to acquire as well.
In an interview with Bloomberg, EA CEO John Riccitiello explains that his company wants to better ripen its fruits of revenue from digital distribution, be it PC or mobile platforms. The rumored $400 million USD that EA coughed up for social gaming developer Playfish isn't exactly chump change, but it would certainly be less than what it would have had to pay if it chose to go after competitor Zynga and its masterwork, FarmVille, instead. EA may well been able to cover whatever Zynga's asking price would have been, but the publisher in fact made a point to stick with Playfish and not go after the bigger fish this time around.
"There is going to be a time when perception catches up with the facts," Riccitiello added.
