Free-to-play MMO publishers Nexon "interested" in buying EA

MapleStory and Vindictus publishers Nexon are rumoured to be considering buying enormo-publisher EA, according to Bloomberg . The rumour caused a spike of 6.1 per cent in EA's shares, which have fallen by 23 per cent so far this year.

EA is the kind of company most people's grans have heard of, whereas Nexon sit firmly in the big-in-Asia category. But Nexon makes a lot of money from its free-to-play games - they reported an operating income of £714.51 million last year, which eclipses EA's mere £191.65 million.

The takeover is little more than a whisper at the moment, and both Nexon and EA have stated that they don't comment on rumours. It's still intriguing, though. Maybe Crysis 3 will turn out to be a free-to-play Facebook game with a cute dog thing taking the place of Prophet.