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

Post by b3lvedere » Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 5:11 PM UTC

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

Post by parineum » Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 5:16 PM UTC

CaptainOfCoit wrote: post #146

poszlem wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 .

Post by cmdli » Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 5:18 PM UTC

missedthecue wrote: post #278

cmdli wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter isn’t collapsing, but it’s hardly more profitable. In fact, the last numbers we know about them show >50% drop in revenue.

I don't think you're right. During its last fiscal year on the stock market, Twitter reported a net loss of $221 million. We don't have exact insights to X.com's books, but we have credible reports from the Financial Times that they produced over a billion dollars in ebitda in 2024. This is completely possible with a 50% revenue drop. They laid off 80% of the company, something like 6,000 people.

Post by ratelimitsteve » Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 5:18 PM UTC

rockercoaster wrote: post #173

AlexandrB wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, admittedly my perspective is that of someone who thinks sports games peaked with NBA Jam (1993). The only other sports games I play are racing sims - which are also in a bad place, but I digress.

NBA Jam; NFL 2K (and 2K1, 2K2) on the Dreamcast; the first three Tony Hawk games, the THQ "pro wrestling" games on the N64; Ice Hockey, Punch Out!, World Cup, Dodgeball (really, any of those Kunio Kun sports games) and Bases Loaded (first one only) on the NES; the Mutant League games on the Sega (especially Hockey). What the Golf?, Golf Story, the Mario Golf games. Mario Tennis (any of them, they're pretty much all g…

Post by fidotron » Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 5:21 PM UTC

Aeolun wrote: post #284

fidotron wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> EA has a reputation for buying companies and draining all of their reputation for money If you saw this from the other side you'd see just how much the reverse was true. This was one of the great mysteries of the place. It's one of those situations where in the public perception the blame all flows up to EA, but the credit is always with the studios. The truth is somewhere else.

I think this is because the credit can never be with those that purely provide money and dictate terms. Nobody thinks the investors are what make the company. It’s the founders.