January 1^st, 2005 (2:42pm) - According to the Wall Street Journal, Electronic Arts is eyeing a number of competing third party publishers for investment. Electronic Arts recently acquired 19.9 percent of French videogame publisher Ubisoft and is now looking to expand its overseas business. With $2.5 Billion in the safe for investments, the company is looking towards American and English competitors Activision, THQ, Midway and Eidos, and Japan’s Capcom and Namco.

Just last month Electronic Arts announced several business ventures that caused an incredible uproar in the videogame community. EA announced a deal of exclusivity with the NFL, which prevents all other videogame makes from developing NFL-branded videogames with real teams and players, and aside from the purchase in Ubisoft, is attempting to force a buy out of games developer Digital Illusions CE.