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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

#121

Post by jader201 »

pjmlp wrote: post #86
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…

Being a 1970's child that grew up with games alongside the industry, nowadays I mostly play retrogaming, retrogaming inspired, or digital versions of board games. The quest for realism without gameplay of many AAA games, with exorbitant prices, and GB sized textures, is not something I care about. I may spend more time playing something with Atari 2600 graphics, and enticing gameplay than caring about latest COD. I w…

> I may spend more time playing something with Atari 2600 graphics, and enticing gameplay than caring about latest COD.

The first good console for me was the NES. I enjoyed the Atari 2600, but only because it was the best at that time. But I can still enjoy a good NES game.

There aren’t many games on the Atari 2600 that I would still consider fun today. Maybe not necessarily because of graphics, but the graphics were pretty bad too.

It’s interesting that most modern retro-style games seem to keep a higher color and resolution than even the last great 2D generation (SNES/Genesis).

There are some games that hold try to that generation’s specs, though, but I don’t see many go as far back as the NES (and especially not the 2600).

There’s a small niche of people that make/have made modern NES games (actual cartridges for the actual console or remakes of the console), and those that play them, but I’m not aware of any super popular ones. If anybody’s aware of any, let me know!

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

#123

Post by throwup238 »

burkaman wrote: post #118
beepbopboopp wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to start by saying I have no skin in the game here. While not perfect, Saudi has very clearly moved "Westernly" on many ideas, most notably social and economic ones. It can even be argued that their recent moves in that direction have made it near impossible for the other large economy companies to move too far the other way. Th At what point does the narrative about their investments on the larger stage becom…

They literally just killed another journalist after torturing him for seven years https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turki_bin_Abdulaziz_al-Jasse... Another murder last month, this one they killed for the crimes of attending protests and funerals: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde23/0239/2025/en/ Two years ago they sentenced this man to death because he tweeted something they didn't like to less than ten follower…

Wikipedia says that one of the charges was “financing terrorist activities”.

Ironic in the most morbid of ways.

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

#124

Post by khuey »

no_wizard wrote: post #94
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…

RIP Mass Effect and by extension BioWare. One of the most groundbreaking trilogies in gaming with tons of potential and it’ll get relegated to the dustbin of history no doubt. If I was absurdly rich I’d buy up lots of underused and/or abused IP and start a game studio around it. I feel like that would be a good business if you have the capital to handle game dev costs

I assume the acquisition is mostly about the sports games and Battlefield but EA really is sitting on some fantastic IP: Bioware, Westwood, and Maxis were all great studios.

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

#125

Post by chubot »

pizzathyme wrote: post #64

Like them or not, EA has been a major force in gaming for over 40 years (I used to work there). They invented the term "Game Producer". Their early vision for promoting Game Designers like hollywood Directors was ahead of its time. They have a hallway lined with gold discs of million seller hit games. They basically created the casual gaming industry (The Sims Division, Pogo, Casual Divisions) in a time when games we…

I worked there too (2002-2004), but didn't that all happen when the founder Trip Hawkins was there? It looks like he left in 1991

I don't think you can meaningfully call EA the same company -- it's more like a different company with the same name, and doesn't deserve respect for its past achievements

By the time I was there, over 20 years ago now, the management was already shitty. The people were great, but the management took advantage of employees' love for games. (I was part of the "EA Spouse" settlement)

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In fact I now remember an utterly bizarre experience when I was an intern at EA. The CFO spoke in front of 20 interns, and reminded us that our jobs was to make the stock price go up. Like whenever you do anything, you should think about the stock price as your ultimate goal. So the company isn't really about making games?

I mean I can appreciate his honesty, compared to later big tech "make the world a better place" slogans, while also just trying to make the number go up

But it's a weird thing to say to a bunch of 22 year olds, since they have little influence on the stock price, other than trying to increase their knowledge of the craft

There were a number of other shady characters in EA management. They were often brought in from outside

Even though I criticized "don't be evil", I have to say that by and large Google management was much more competent, and they came off as kinder, even though the company changed eventually too

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I do think it has to do with whether the founder still leads the company -- there has to be someone mission-driven, not just money-driven

I think Trip Hawkins was mission-driven. Larry Page was to an extent, but I think he got sick of managing the company, so he let the optimizers take over

And private equity are almost universally short-term optimizers, in favor of themselves and against customers, which tends to ruin the company in the long term. So I see this as a continuation of a multi-decade trend with EA.

Though I'd be interested in any counterexamples, i.e. private equity that actually made the company better in the long term

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

#126

Post by typpilol »

wat10000 wrote: post #120
iaw wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a well documented and known human slave trade for their laborers in the kingdom. Maybe the narrative changes when their approaches towards human rights does?

"Why does everybody have such a low opinion of this oppressive theocracy?" Gee, it's such a mystery. Remember when the current leader of Saudi Arabia lured a Washington Post journalist into a Saudi consulate, had him tortured to death, and cut into pieces to dispose of the evidence? What a bunch of merry pranksters. We really should lighten up.

Meanwhile... we have a former terrorist who posed after cutting multiple persons heads off speaking at the UN....

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

#127

Post by [deleted] »

sofixa wrote: post #88
beepbopboopp wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to start by saying I have no skin in the game here. While not perfect, Saudi has very clearly moved "Westernly" on many ideas, most notably social and economic ones. It can even be argued that their recent moves in that direction have made it near impossible for the other large economy companies to move too far the other way. Th At what point does the narrative about their investments on the larger stage becom…

[flagged]

[deleted]

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

#128

Post by KerrAvon »

hollerith wrote: post #112
sofixa wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USA isn't the only country in the "western world", please stop equating the two. Even for Britain, France, Germany, the countries with the biggest far right/reactionary political groups, where there are legitimate chances for them to end up in power, none of them are religious. Or even that socially reactionary for that matter.

Also, even the US is not in danger of becoming a theocracy.

[flagged]

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

#129

Post by wat10000 »

typpilol wrote: post #126
wat10000 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Why does everybody have such a low opinion of this oppressive theocracy?" Gee, it's such a mystery. Remember when the current leader of Saudi Arabia lured a Washington Post journalist into a Saudi consulate, had him tortured to death, and cut into pieces to dispose of the evidence? What a bunch of merry pranksters. We really should lighten up.

Meanwhile... we have a former terrorist who posed after cutting multiple persons heads off speaking at the UN....

Is that related somehow or are you just trying to diminish the awfulness of Saudi Arabia's government by bringing up the awfulness of some other guy?
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