In a conversation with Bloomberg, EA CEO John Riccitello said some pretty raw dog things in terms of who they are considering acquiring and partnering with in the future. He most specifically made very pointed comments about the question of buying the in-stores-now music game developer Harmonix:

"Moves that look like I'm doubling down on yesterday would make it harder to still convince investors that tomorrow is the Promise Land...I'm sure some smart investor will buy the business feeling they can catch a falling knife, but more people have been cut trying to catch falling knives than have benefited from getting the timing exactly right." 

Harsh, but completely valid.

" Harsh, but completely valid. "

Poor Harmonix. They were MTV's bottom bitch, who they whored out and made a killing off of, but they pushed her a little too hard so she developed some flaws and some clients got bored of her. Now they're trying to sell her to another pimp. Hopefully she finds a cool pimp daddy who treats her right, and buys her makeup, so she has the chance to prosper again. Or they could sell her to the wrong pimp, who will just use her in gang-bangs until she is all used up, never to soar again.  
 

It's a real shame that Harmonix are stuck in the position they are, but now Harmonix have done pretty much everything imaginable with the Rock Band franchise, there really isn't a whole lot of incentive for companies to buy them up.

EA couldn't catch a falling balloon, let alone a falling knife.

It just struck me that Microsoft should and might actually want to buy Harmonix. It is kind of obvious because Dance Central is the Kinect's poster child, you can't really go multi-platform with that game and the Kinect is selling well enough that it will probably be around for another year. I suspect Microsoft would want to see at least one more Dance Central game for their platform. 

" It just struck me that Microsoft should and might actually want to buy Harmonix. It is kind of obvious because Dance Central is the Kinect's poster child, you can't really go multi-platform with that game and the Kinect is selling well enough that it will probably be around for another year. I suspect Microsoft would want to see at least one more Dance Central game for their platform.  "

I'm glad they are making the choice based on how the genres doing and how tough it would be to put out a success, unlike Activision and what they did to Bizarre Creations. Hopefully Harmonix finds someway to keep developing games, they are really good at what they do, but the genre is in a decline and it would be hard for anyone to justify the purchase with that knowledge.