Industry stalwart and conglomerate Electronic Arts has been on a tear the last few years, buying developer after developer and ballooning in size. While the quality of their games has largely remained the same despite the amount of talent they’ve scooped up, their catalog has become one of the most diverse in the market. That’s not to say, however, that they’re done expanding. For a few months now, EA has been courting rival publisher Take 2 for a buyout, though things aren’t going as planned. With dollar signs in their eyes and GTA in their dreams, EA is pressing on with their conquest, and hopes to add another feather to their already crowded cap. Problem is, this could be a terrible thing for the industry.

Take 2 is the only real competition EA has in the sports game genre. Take 2 was ran out of the football market when EA secured an exclusive NFL license (at the hands of the NFL, I know, I know), but Take 2 was able to secure 3rd party exclusivity of MLB titles shortly thereafter. In fact, both companies have fairly diverse sports game profiles. While the companies overlap on hockey and basketball, EA tends to shy away from tennis and baseball, while Take 2 stays away from soccer, football and golf (not counting the arcadey Outlaw Golf games). EA has to be licking their chops at the idea of simply picking up developers and franchises already equipped with customer bases. The question is if EA would give them the same care that Take 2 does since they were quick purchases and not long term investments. These franchises have fan bases for a reason; sure there’s a chance EA could make the games even better, but why not take a stab and enter those sports on their own dime? Could it be that they’re afraid their reputation would be hurt if the Take 2 games continued to do better? The worst case scenario is a homogenization of sports titles across the board – do we really want "EA Trax" in every sports title we play?

Of course, the sports market isn’t the biggest reason EA wants Take 2. Grand Theft Auto has become quite the cash cow these days, and EA doesn’t have a comparable franchise. Most attempts to replicate the formula have met with lukewarm or tepid responses (True Crime, Saint’s Row) when compared to the king both commercially and critically, so the chances are EA doesn’t want to chance new franchise failure – they’d rather just own the real deal. One of the worries about this, however, is that EA would try to milk the franchise. Wouldn’t a new GTA every year be awesome? The company would surely make a ton of cash, which would be good for them since the company’s recently reported losses are looking pretty bad.

Cash or not, it might be a problem for gamers if the additions made to the GTA formula would be as incremental as the ones found in yearly updates of their sports games – something EA is fairly good at stretching. And given the way they charge for downloadable content (paying extra for classic jerseys? Please), there wouldn’t be any hope their, either. They’d probably charge full price for a small expansion pack with the way they handle extra content these days.

Of course, EA is an experienced and talented development house, despite their tendency to stretch content for every penny it’s worth. There’s a good chance that they could make Take 2’s franchises even better. Imagine Criterion working on an installment of Midnight Club. But think back to Black, and imagine Criterion on a Bioshock sequel. Doesn’t have quite the same feeling, does it? There’s a very real possibility that EA’s franchises and the developers that make those games, are attuned to making very different types of games.

The truth is that both companies are better off remaining separate entities. Both publishers produce quality games in mostly different genres, which means gamers have a larger selection to choose from. EA can salivate over the cash GTA would bring them, but they should take a step back and look at the good of the industry. Less competition is bad for the consumer, and if an industry gets bad enough, the consumers stop buying in. Don’t be greedy EA – you’re big enough already.