Is Mickey Mouse looking to buy the house that EA built?

EA has been known for absorbing the competition, but the absorption tables may have just been turned. According to the Wall Street Journal, Disney should look at buying Electronic Arts as a way to boost its video game avenues. As delicious as the irony sounds and as much as I hate EA’s sleazy business tactics, I’m going to have to say no to this idea. Here’s some advice for you, Wall Street Journal:  Don’t give Disney any ideas!

Electronics Arts has been guilty of a lot of shady business practices, including buying smaller development studios to capitalize on their intellectual properties and acquiring shares in competitor, Ubisoft. So for them to be bought by another company would not only be ironic, it’d be hilarious; even funnier when you consider they went from being worth $19 billion a few years ago to now being worth $7.7 billion. But when Disney is considering buying them, it’s not quite as funny.

Kotaku's totally probable logo has us terrified.

Now, most of the info I could find on this story (via The Motely Fool, GamerBlips, and even Kotaku) put a positive spin on this possibility, and how it would be a good thing…for Disney. Nothing really about how it would be good for gamers. Probably because there is no real good that could come from this, and even financial experts say this is a bad idea.

But as gamers, let’s consider this:

• Disney has strict moral policies, meaning any sequels to games like Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge, or other future titles not meeting Disney’s “standards” may never happen. But that new Hannah Montana game will.
• Even if Disney didn’t hold some video games to their “standards” and games like those listed above continued to be made, do you really want EA titles in the hands of Disney? Have fun puttering around in your Mickey Mouse car in Need for Speed: Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
• One word:  Spectrobes. This Disney Pokèmon-wanna-be sucked, big time, and is enough evidence for me that Disney should stay out of video games.
• The future of the Kingdom Hearts franchise could be in limbo, and while I don’t really care about it, I know there are gamers out there that do.
• Do you want Disney messing with or even touching WarHammer Online? Considering the lack of success Disney has had with MMOs, let me answer that for you: No, No, and Hell No!

Who's the leader of the horde that's made for you and me?

The good news, though, is that this scenario seems less likely, especially since EA CEO John Riccitiello purchased 42,500 shares in his own company (at a cost of $1.04 million) almost a month ago. As much as I dislike the soulless corporation EA has become, I don’t like the idea of them being swallowed up by another soulless corporation, especially if it’s Disney. Besides, the Disney company should be doing all they can to keep Walt Disney from rising from his frozen chamber beneath Disneyland, and buying EA would definitely do it.