What does EA’s $55 billion acquisition mean for the company's future on mobile?

• In the wake of EA's $55 billion acquisition, what does it mean for mobile?
• In essence, nothing much...yet. But that's almost certain to change
• Will Scopely take over mobile duties? And what does this mean for recent jitters around mobile?

Well, it’s official. After a lengthy news cycle, it seems that Electronic Arts has finally agreed to a whopping $55 billion all-cash buyout. But in between all the thinkpieces wondering what this means for gaming, you may instead ask, “What does this mean for mobile?” Well, you clever sausage you, I’m here to discuss just that topic.

The nitty gritty

The blunt answer is, for the moment, not all that much. After canning Plants vs Zombies 3 for the foreseeable future, we’re left with just EA’s current crop of releases. And EA overall has been very, very antsy around the subject of mobile to the point it almost seems laughable. This is despite the success of EA Sports FC and eager fans wanting to play the mobile version.

EA has seemingly been fumbling the metaphorical bag for a while now. Apex Legends, for example, was a major contender in the hero shooter genre. But despite having a mobile port ready to go, EA continued to put off the potential further development and release of this handheld spinoff, culminating in some large layoffs over at main developer Respawn Entertainment.

And this is all before we get into the usual shakeups, layoffs and restructurings that take place after buyouts such as this. So while it may not be the end for their mobile ambitions, I’d certainly not hold your breath for anything big in the near future. More than likely, we’re going to see them taking stock and behind-the-scenes work to decide on a future course.

Going private

What may, however, make a big difference is the fact that EA is now technically private. Obviously, there are a lot of fingers in the proverbial pie, what with Savvy Games Group overseeing much of this. But the fact that EA is no longer beholden to as many business interests could be good news overall. After all, one of the biggest criticisms gamers have had of EA over the years is that it seemed to care more about the bottom line than anything else.

Savvy do, after all, have Scopely under their banner, who have managed to do an admirable job with many of the mobile properties under their banner. Need I even mention the mega-hit that is Monopoly Go? And after acquiring Niantic, Scopely now technically have other big hits like Pokémon Go under their umbrella too.

I suppose in an ideal scenario, then, EA would continue to handle its seemingly preferred territory of PC and console while handing its properties off to Scopely. It’d take time, certainly, but if we ever want to see something such as Apex Legends finally see the light of day on mobile, I think it’s not unfair to say they need someone new at the helm.

Bad, good or indifferent?

Certainly, stability at EA would be very welcome. Layoffs and cost-cutting last year hit them hard, not exactly helped by the usual lacklustre performance that accompanies their mega-hits. The cash flow here would be good in the long term to help shore things up and take the focus away from shareholder concerns and back to the industry proper.

My guess is that we’ll get more info about this soon, but not too soon. By the end of the year, I’ll bet we have some sort of strategy document to dig into. And while Scopely taking on mobile duties would work out well for all involved, I reckon that would take more than a little while to come to fruition. After all, you need to make arrangements behind the scenes and figure out whether studios will make the jump or just the games themselves.

The only thing we can be sure of is that any change would be gradual. Most likely, any risky moves would only be where business folk spot potential growth, such as in their upcoming Project Rene (a new Sims mobile spin-off that’s been in soft launch). But the general consensus is that EA is seen as a ‘safe bet’ for gradual and continuous money-making.

So, good or bad? Well, that’s hard to say. Ultimately, business-wise, there’s a lot to be concerned about. But at the same time, it’ll be hard to find EA’s mobile business in a worse situation than their own self-inflicted awkwardness.