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

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

#41

Post by Rooster61 »

jamesnorden wrote: post #27
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…

That's pretty optimistic, actually. If anything, they will double down.

Correct. I don't think a good outcome will come of this. Hence why I started off saying that I'm not optimistic about the prospects.

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

#42

Post by Thaxll »

devjab wrote: post #32
TwoFerMaggie wrote: post #12

RIP Bioware. This will probably be the final stage of its long, painful death.

Bioware died back in 2007. As I see it this can only be an improvement.

Mass effect 2, one of the best Bioware game was developed under EA.

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

#43

Post by DanielHB »

thiago_fm wrote: post #36

They basically bought FIFA (now called FC). It's a very simple money-printing machine, with plenty of people addicted to it with its gambling/gache style game. All the other IP barely make any revenue and will likely get even less attention. RIP Bioware.

I had who spent 1500 USD in one year on ultimate team. In Brazil, around 2015.

That was _quite a lot_ of money in Brazil at the time.

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

#44

Post by ksec »

I know a lot of people think FIFA is everything, but in my era it was Pro Evolution Soccer or Winning Eleven.

Modern Games also lack the Game and Fun part. They either make something super complex I no longer have the time to dive in, or pay to win.

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

#45

Post by dangus »

nicce wrote: post #13
Mistletoe wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

People don’t like to hear it but they make products people want and those products are acceptable enough in quality.

The millions of people who play FIFA, Madden, and Battlefield don’t sit around on niche forums bashing EA for not making enough innovative indie-style titles.

EA even puts out titles that are legitimately critically acclaimed every once in a while (Split Fiction as a recent example).

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

#46

Post by tnolet »

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…

next up Ubisoft. Last Assassin's Creed was also a snore fest.

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

#47

Post by fzeroracer »

nerdjon wrote: post #23

I am finding myself having some conflicted feelings on this. First, I absolutely hate who is buying them. Especially as a huge Bioware fan with a Mass Effect tattoo. That being said, putting aside who is buying them for a moment. I would actually be happy to see more gaming companies going fully private. I feel like the need for constant growth (instead of just sustainability) is what has caused much of the issues in…

A company going private is, in general, a good thing because they're less shackled by investors and capital.

However this is the rare exception because this is more about oligarchs making a play for total control over the media sphere rather than any sort of financial independence. That said, cornering the entertainment side of things is going to be much harder especially since the people that do this kind of thing have zero clue what a video game even is or how to make a profitable one.

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

#48

Post by AlexandrB »

DanielHB wrote: post #40
bob1029 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly agree about AAA, but to be fair Battlefield 1 was/is a really good game. You'll never find an experience like that in an indie studio.

Thinking about EA (or any big publisher) as a monolith is quite counterproductive to generate a mental model. In practice it is several studios with an overlord. Some studios might still be independent enough that the overlord just stays out of the way.

While that's true, there's also often a noticeable trend of games moving in a similar direction across a publisher - for example the disastrous live service attempt from Bioware (Anthem). Whether this is due to top-down pressure or just corporate vibes or culture, publishers definitely seem to have an impact on what kind of games get made.

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

#49

Post by dminvs »

itsoktocry wrote: post #18
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.

well, for football and handegg anyway

NBA Live hasn't caught up to 2K for a long time and Sony still has MLB

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