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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

#141

Post by mapcars »

dangus wrote: post #99
mapcars wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>bashing EA for not making enough innovative indie-style titles Its not even that, both Mass Effect and Dragon Age are fantastic series with latest games being mediocre at best. If they did the same thing as before it would be more successful, so they clearly don't know what is the right thing for the customers.

The final state of Mass Effect Andromeda was arguably a solid game after the most embarrassing well-publicized bugs got patched (“mostly positive” on Steam) The story may not be the best but there really isn’t anything wrong with the gameplay. Dragon Age: Veilguard was actually a solid game, and it got review-bombed by angry right-wingers. It does make some traditionalist fans upset but it’s not some kind of disaster…

Its not about being "solid game", it did not match EA's own sales expectations - thats all. If "angry right-wingers" can make your game fail then maybe you don't understand your target audience, which is what I am talking about.

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

#142

Post by elefanten »

khuey wrote: post #124
no_wizard wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The Sims also still prints money and there's a new version due soon-ish. But, basically, yes agreed.

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

#143

Post by Yizahi »

byronic wrote: post #131

Not referencing the Saudi Arabia portion here specifically but LBOs as documented in the book Barbarians at the Gate (covers Nabisco/RJR tobacco) gives me basically zero hope for the future of EA. EA was already rabid cost-cutters and RIF specialists, and they won the most hated company award for however many consecutive years for a reason. Giving them crushing debt to go along with their propensity to give large exe…

You had any hope for them?

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

#144

Post by CaptainOfCoit »

tapoxi wrote: post #79
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…

To their credit, the new Battlefield had an extremely well recieved beta and feedback from ongoing private tests is overwhelmingly positive. They're even shipping Godot based modding tools.

> To their credit

How much of the new Battlefield actually been coming from EA though? I feels like the relatively new "Battlefield Lab" (which EA seems to have a really hands-off approach with so far) seems to be the main credit for that.

Has there been any interviews or anything that clarifies how much EA been involved? Otherwise I'd continue give credit to the developers rather than the publisher.

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

#145

Post by NickC25 »

beepbopboopp wrote: post #78
fred_is_fred wrote: post #50

[flagged]

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…

>While not perfect, Saudi has very clearly moved "Westernly" on many ideas, most notably social and economic ones.

My man, they can kill you for drawing a stick figure.

Let that sink in.

SA is still a single-export economy, and those who are smart enough to get out of SA, do so. From personally having very close relationships with a few folks who worked on the NEOM project, the Saudi locals are not prepared to do any work at all, just spend money and export the work to consultants. It's about posturing, not rolling up their sleeves.

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

#146

Post by CaptainOfCoit »

poszlem wrote: post #15
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.

The irony really kicks in when you start to remember all the arguments for how capitalism leads to the best products. Seems we forgot to clarify "best for who?", but it's clear at least shareholders won something.

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

#147

Post by vunderba »

ecshafer wrote: post #135
byronic wrote: post #131

Not referencing the Saudi Arabia portion here specifically but LBOs as documented in the book Barbarians at the Gate (covers Nabisco/RJR tobacco) gives me basically zero hope for the future of EA. EA was already rabid cost-cutters and RIF specialists, and they won the most hated company award for however many consecutive years for a reason. Giving them crushing debt to go along with their propensity to give large exe…

EA won the most hated company award because video game players are dramatic. Charging $5 for a launch DLC is a drop in the bucket compared to the ways that some larger more critical companies can affect your life.

EA has been a target of scorn for a while because of a laundry list of issues (including pay-to-win schemes, loot boxes, treatment of employees, etc.) which is long enough to warrant its own dedicated wikipedia page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Electronic_Arts

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

#148

Post by 5f3cfa1a »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #108
deaddodo wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. Private ownership can give you the benefit of operating at a stagnate revenue since it still represents a positive income stream for the owners. This is an impossible status for public ownership as people don’t want a stock that stays at 10usd for multiple subsequent quarters. They see it as an investment. So you either have to offer significant dividends or find a way to show growth. If not, investo…

I don't understand why we would have an expectation for the owner of a company to be happy with a stagnant investment, so the players of their games can get more bang for their buck? It's something that feels good, but when you dig into the nitty-gritty of it, it's basically a "This guy should take the hit so we as a group can enjoy the fruits of it"

If the theory is that PIF's involvement is the video game equivalent of sportswashing, this is pretty much exactly what we should expect – the Saudi's expected return on their investment is improved perception and more opportunities to exercise soft power, with less concern around financial returns.

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

#149

Post by deaddodo »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #108
deaddodo wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. Private ownership can give you the benefit of operating at a stagnate revenue since it still represents a positive income stream for the owners. This is an impossible status for public ownership as people don’t want a stock that stays at 10usd for multiple subsequent quarters. They see it as an investment. So you either have to offer significant dividends or find a way to show growth. If not, investo…

I don't understand why we would have an expectation for the owner of a company to be happy with a stagnant investment, so the players of their games can get more bang for their buck? It's something that feels good, but when you dig into the nitty-gritty of it, it's basically a "This guy should take the hit so we as a group can enjoy the fruits of it"

You seem to be fundamentally misunderstanding capital and capitalism.

A “stagnant” company isn’t a failed one. It’s profitable. But perhaps it has saturated its market, or otherwise has no other avenues of growth without handicapping what it excels in. This is fine, as long as it continues to increase with inflation (as it should, if it’s increasing its prices to match so) it will stay profitable and increase your capital at a sustainable and normalized rate.

Or, you can force them to continually increase that profit rate infinitely in a closed system, an impossible ask.

This is literally the concept of “late stage capitalism”. What do you do when there is no more growth to sustain because you’ve saturated the closed system that is earth? You can either go hyperaggressive and eat into other avenues, hoping you can beat their incumbents (but either way, one is going to lose their own profit) or continually increase your profits by lowering quality and production costs. Thus why things like coke “used to taste better” or why Ford’s “used to be built better”.

Private capital isn’t beholden to that requirement. It’s an advantage, not a disadvantage. They simply need to remain competitive and everyone wins: the labor gets a stable job, the owners get a stable income, the industry gets stable (if not increasing, from better technology) products, etc.

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

#150

Post by NickC25 »

iaw wrote: post #97
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 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?

>Maybe the narrative changes when their approaches towards human rights does?

Clo$e. The narrative change$ whenever the $audi$ decide that they want it to. U$ually, thi$ involve$ $omething, but I can't figure quite what that "it" could be.

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