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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

#331

Post by jsbisviewtiful »

this_user wrote: post #90
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…

It seems likely that they will consolidate their studios and streamline the headcoputn. Bioware may be dead for good, at least to the extent that it is still alive at this point. And there are probably other acquired studios like that.

If Bioware can squeak out one more good Mass Effect it would make for a great swan song. I don't really know what the last EA game I bought was other than the Mass Effect trilogy on Steam. I started avoiding Ubisoft games after Assassin's Creed 3 and EA followed a few years after that- so maybe 2015ish?

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

#332

Post by byronic »

vkou wrote: post #247
byronic wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jason Schreier (sp?) is probably the journalist with the best track record on covering EA and it’s generally been rotten all the way down. His recent book Play Nice focuses on just Blizzard but I wouldn’t be surprised if he does one on EA someday because they are in a league of their own when it comes to toxic workplace practices

From a cursory search, he dunks on mismanagement in EA fairly regularly, but I'm not finding a lot of evidence of him reporting on worker abuse. (Layoffs in a failing sub-studio are shitty, but aren't that. Vision whiplash is shitty, but is also not that. Management mandates to implement features that you know will tank your game are shitty, but are also not that.) Maybe it's pay walled. Do you have a source?

I'll defer to people who claim to work there now (avanderveen in the other replies). If you want my perspective, your parenthetical is describing worker abuse. Severance-avoidant layoffs and crunch are shitty and _are_ worker abuse -- in my opinion.

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

#333

Post by pluc »

slightwinder wrote: post #157
pluc wrote: post #132

Between Ubisoft selling to China and EA selling to Saudis, AAA gaming looks bleak.

Why? Both are probably also buying to participate in the media/culture-war. So it's in their interests to also have some good products to sell. The worst that might happen is that all the good games are now leaning more to Arabian/Chinese culture, instead of US/Europe, which is not even a new development, Asian culture has been quite prominent in Western Countries because of Japan and South Korea, and China has been…

I don't know about you but I don't want my entertainment money to finance slave labor, cultural oppression, military invasions or butchering journalists. Could be a Canadian thing.

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

#334

Post by lentil_soup »

mlindner wrote: post #76
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…

Except the entire idea that games should be promoted like hollywood movies is _exactly_ what precipitated this whole downfall. Games are not movies nor should they be like movies. Personally I hope there are tons of layoffs. The entire industry needs to be rinsed clean and refreshed, especially the US gaming industry.

>> Personally I hope there are tons of layoffs

Wow, I guess empathy is not a thing anymore

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

#335

Post by throaway1988 »

mapcars wrote: post #37
throaway1988 wrote: post #8

Lol. Well someone at EA saw the writing on the wall. This is going to be a bad acquisition by these vultures.

What other businesses did they buy? What happened to them?

i mean the new owners are going to jettison everything that doesn’t make money sand hyper optimize the rest even more. It’s basically the end of EA, even such as it was.

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

#337

Post by elorant »

bunderbunder wrote: post #115
pjmlp wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 recently watched a youtube video by a gamer about 20 years younger than me who had discovered older games and was reflecting on how deeply different they feel compared to modern games. The big difference she observed is that older games don't hold your hand the way modern games do. They expect you to think hard, work hard, use trial and error, and generally, in her words, "use your brain." She spent a while talking…

Elden Ring did exactly what you described and had great success. Not every game has to hold your hand.

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

#338

Post by mvdtnz »

ddtaylor wrote: post #156
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…

There was a time in the earlier days of EA where the company had value. That time has passed. The company mainly sits on exclusive licenses and makes minimal changes to the franchises in an attempt to milk cash. The cash milking part has gone downhill recently. I genuinely hope they lose ALL of their exclusive sports licenses. They shouldn't be exclusive to begin with, but enabling these companies to hold the entire…

> There was a time in the earlier days of EA where the company had value. That time has passed.

The company that just sold for $55 billion?

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

#339

Post by Nexxxeh »

boston_clone wrote: post #183
Nexxxeh wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Muhammad Bonesaw grew up on Age of Empires, and enjoys(/enjoyed) CoD. They also want to use it to shape global perspective. I think signs are good, or at least less-bad.

Could you share why you feel the Saudis buying a huge company like EA to "shape global perspective" is a good sign?

I feel that the Saudis purchasing EA is specifically a good sign that future EA games won't be profit-focused at the expense of quality.

I was talking to the GP and P comments in regards to the company's focus. They discussed the problems of current EA and whether future development would be increasingly profit-driven at the cost of quality.

>>I feel like the need for constant growth (instead of just sustainability) is what has caused much of the issues in the current gaming market.

>I'm not sure the investment group attempting to diversify Saudi oil income is going to be less profit oriented than the stock market in general

I suspect that EA was not purchased with profit as the primary motive, and that decreasing quality further would run counter to their aims.

I think their motives are more sinister and subversive. I'm not sure what the relevant equivalent term to (e)sportswashing is for this. Gamewashing or whatever. I think buying EA is going to be a prominent example of it.

My comment included calling Saudi Arabia's Crowned Prince Mohammed bin Salman by his nickname Mohammed Bonesaw. This refers to his alleged direct order to assassinate and butcher Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

The 15-person Saudi agent hitsquad used a bonesaw to dismember Khashoggi, hence the nickname.

This makes clear from tone and context that I do not feel that the Saudis buying EA is a good sign overall.

I realise that relying on tone and context clues to remove ambiguity is not good accessible writing so I apologise for that.

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

#340

Post by Workaccount2 »

deaddodo wrote: post #275
Workaccount2 wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that people should be content with an investment that has 0% real return in a very risky environment (video game development) is not a serious argument, and not one that you would respect either. If you have $100M tied up in a game company that (maybe!) returns 3% a year (matching inflation), why the hell wouldn't you sell it for $100M, and then go put that in bonds which will return 5% with much less risk a…

> The idea that people should be content with an investment that has 0% real return in a very risky environment I literally outlined the return. You are receiving the profit from a very profitable firm, which compounds year over year. Literally, you could not call that 0% (or “near 0%”) even in the most reductive of arguments. Let’s simplify it for you: I buy a magic well for 1000usd. It gives me 500usd/yr. In 10 yea…

Sorry if that wasn't clear, it would be returns matching a 3% annual inflation. So you are never growing except to cancel out inflation.

Which again circles back to the same question "Why should you voluntarily restrict growth to inflation (to appease others who want more for less) if other investments returned more (on top of inflation) with less work?"

I'd prefer you use actual examples than magic wells. We wouldn't have any problems in society if we had magic wells that printed a 50% ROI annually. We don't. Riskier assets usually land in the 10-20% ROI, but the risk dictates bad years too, so it's not really steady. Steady ROIs of 5-8% are obtainable. 50% ROI is penny stock/meme stock territory.

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