Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners

ir.ea.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 461 posts

Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners

#11

Post by AlexandrB »

AAA gaming feels so tired (and tiresome) that this news barely registers for me. The last EA game I played was the excellent C&C remaster - and EA's main contribution was getting out of the way of the project. They still own the rights to a ton of legendary IP - SimCity, Command & Conquer, Battlefield, but I don't have illusions that new iterations of that IP will be any good.

I know this is probably part of the Saudi strategy of "sportswashing"[1], but I don't really care about EA or their legacy anymore.

[1] https://www.eurogamer.net/ea-sports-fc-24-boss-on-sportswash...

Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners

#13

Post by nicce »

Mistletoe wrote: post #5
input_sh wrote: post #2

Translation: Saudi Arabia (PIF), a private equity firm, and Jared Kushner (Affinity Partners).

I didn’t think EA could get more evil but here we are. I remember when they were the good guys. I’d see that EA logo on my Commodore 64 load up and I knew I was in for something amazing like Archon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archon:_The_Light_and_the_Dark

Company is worth of 50 billion, while everyone hates it these days?

Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners

#14

Post by teeray »

AlexandrB wrote: post #11

AAA gaming feels so tired (and tiresome) that this news barely registers for me. The last EA game I played was the excellent C&C remaster - and EA's main contribution was getting out of the way of the project. They still own the rights to a ton of legendary IP - SimCity, Command & Conquer, Battlefield, but I don't have illusions that new iterations of that IP will be any good. I know this is probably part of the Saud…

> The last EA game I played was the excellent C&C remaster - and EA's main contribution was getting out of the way

I still remember the “Westwood Studios Proudly Presents…” on the RA2 intro cutscene and that pride really shined through. Even the installer for the game was a blast (full-screen, dropped you into a faux game-UX and gave you a military briefing with their kickass soundtrack while the progress bar ran). Modern AAA games lack the soul that games of this time had.

Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners

#15

Post by poszlem »

AlexandrB wrote: post #11

AAA gaming feels so tired (and tiresome) that this news barely registers for me. The last EA game I played was the excellent C&C remaster - and EA's main contribution was getting out of the way of the project. They still own the rights to a ton of legendary IP - SimCity, Command & Conquer, Battlefield, but I don't have illusions that new iterations of that IP will be any good. I know this is probably part of the Saud…

Which is ironic given the origin of the name, Electronic *Arts* once positioned themselves as a haven for “software artists,” treating games as creative works on par with music and film. Now they feel more like a licensing machine, recycling IP until it’s dry and chasing live-service revenue. The contrast between what the name promised and what the company became is kind of bleak.

Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners

#18

Post by itsoktocry »

AlexandrB wrote: post #11

AAA gaming feels so tired (and tiresome) that this news barely registers for me. The last EA game I played was the excellent C&C remaster - and EA's main contribution was getting out of the way of the project. They still own the rights to a ton of legendary IP - SimCity, Command & Conquer, Battlefield, but I don't have illusions that new iterations of that IP will be any good. I know this is probably part of the Saud…

>but I don't really care about EA or their legacy anymore.

They own the entire sports gaming genre, and it's a massive money maker.

Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners

#20

Post by Daedren »

Rooster61 wrote: post #4

Although I'm not optimistic, there's a small chance this might shake up the sorry state of EA Sports. The incessant focus on microtransactions and features that are essentially just sports themed slot machines over actual solid gameplay has kept me far away from those games for a long time. EDIT: I think I might have worded that poorly. I do NOT think a change is going to happen, at least not one for the better, espe…

It's a leveraged buyout. They're going to need to pay those billions in debt, so predatory practices should not be stopping.
Post reply on HN