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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

#371

Post by parineum »

CaptainOfCoit wrote: post #365
parineum wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indie games are a product of capitalism too. RimWorld, Stardew Valley, Minecraft, etc. All products a functioning market just as much as the latest AAA shovelware is. It's thanks to capitalism that you get to choose which one you want to play.

You're saying that like it's some obvious truth, and only exists because of capitalism, yet you provide no proof it is actually like that. I'd argue indie games exists despite of capitalism, not because of it. But that's my opinion, I won't claim that's some universal truth.

> You're saying that like it's some obvious truth, and only exists because of capitalism, yet you provide no proof it is actually like that.

You're statement about EA and capitalism implies that the current market is a result of capitalism. If the market is a capitalist market, as you a state, then all the products of that market can be equally attributed to capitalism, can they not?

Capitalism (the free market, more accurately) is what led to those games existing and your ability to choose to play them. You can easily imagine a world where software engineers were subject to licensing requirements (like lawyers, doctors, etc) and software that was run on your PC was subject to a state approval process.

The ability of a single person to use their time and money how they see fit to create products that other people can choose to use (or not use) based on their own personal choice is the ideal of capitalism.

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

#372

Post by overfeed »

ARandumGuy wrote: post #244
rwmj wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was Twitter an LBO? I thought the funding came from Musk taking on the debt.

IIRC Musk wanted to get an LBO, but wasn't able to find anyone willing to loan the money. Keep in mind that a LBO is actually a good deal for the bank, because if the purchased company goes bankrupt, the bank can recoup their investment by liquidating the company. However, that only works if there are assets to liquidate. This can include physical assets, valuable IPs, or favorable lease agreements. In other words, a…

> However, that only works if there are assets to liquidate

Ownership of the company itself can be sold, but this only works if there's someone who believes the company was overvalued. Unfortunately for Musk, Twitter's market cap dropped by tens of billions between the time he locked-in his offer and the deal's effective date. It's hard to find banks to fund your LBO when you're paying significantly more than what the market believes the company is worth.

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

#373

Post by overfeed »

lupusreal wrote: post #310
ummonk wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Addictive gambling for kids is hardly minor and petty. Many children have spent thousands on EA Sports games.

TBQH Valve/Steam is a major factor in this gambling in games scene but gamers love them. So I don't think this is the real reason gamers have a problem with EA.

Which Valve game involves a pay-to-win mechanic that affects gameplay?

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

#375

Post by CaptainOfCoit »

parineum wrote: post #371
CaptainOfCoit wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're saying that like it's some obvious truth, and only exists because of capitalism, yet you provide no proof it is actually like that. I'd argue indie games exists despite of capitalism, not because of it. But that's my opinion, I won't claim that's some universal truth.

> You're saying that like it's some obvious truth, and only exists because of capitalism, yet you provide no proof it is actually like that. You're statement about EA and capitalism implies that the current market is a result of capitalism. If the market is a capitalist market, as you a state, then all the products of that market can be equally attributed to capitalism, can they not? Capitalism (the free market, more…

> You're statement about EA and capitalism implies that the current market is a result of capitalism.

Why does it imply that? The only implication that is clear from what I initially said is that capitalism can turn good companies like EA into whatever it is today, not that every single product on the market is the result of capitalism.

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

#377

Post by wetpaws »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #252
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Video game players are hilariously, pitiably dramatic. I'm a gamer and I 100% agree with you. The simple fact is, AAA game prices have been stuck at $60-70 for 30 years . Despite $60 in 1995 being worth ~$127 today, games are still $60. They haven't kept up with inflation. Games are relatively cheap while development costs for AAA are ridiculously high. A typical SNES game had 10-30 people working on it and would h…

[dead]

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

#378

Post by overfeed »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #194
ecshafer wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[flagged]

> I spent that much at a bowling alley with 2 other people; once, for 2 hours of bowling and a soda

This has nothing to do with the pricing of video games - you could easily have spent 10-100x more, or 10-100x less on some other form of entertainment for the same period and same number of people, and it will have little bearing on the pricing of games.

> they could charge $400 and it would still not be any more immoral than an expensive handbag.

Charging $400 for games would change how a lot of people perceive the morality of playing cracked games for $0. Game companies aren't magnanimously charging $60 in 2025 because gamers are "dramatic" - they are doing so because that's how their bean counters are telling them to price their own games.

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

#379

Post by bunderbunder »

thegrim33 wrote: post #226
bunderbunder wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> the reason modern AAA games hold your hand is because they have to. Their target consumer now is as high a percentage of the population as possible; they aim for the lowest common denominator being able to play and thrive in the game. Hence, needing insane levels of handholding and guidance in the game. In the past, it was mostly just geeks/nerds playing video games, and so things didn't need to be dumbed down to t…

> In the past, it was mostly just geeks/nerds playing video games

This just isn't true. I was there in the 80s and 90s. To an approximation, everyone played video games. The limiting factor was wealth more so than nerdiness; games cost a lot more in real terms back then.

Some specific games, like CRPGs, tended to be aimed at nerds. But that was about fantasy RPGs more so than video games - it goes along with tabletop RPGs and Dragonlance books. But you also have people who went out and bought a new computer with a CD-ROM drive just so they could play Myst, because that game was legitimately a pop culture fad that summer.

And then in modern media we have some selective retelling because a lot of the history is being told by people who themselves are deep into geek culture and also have a case of main character syndrome.

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

#380

Post by watwut »

recursive wrote: post #222
ReptileMan wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But its buyout was lead by Michael Dell.

Why "but"?

Because the person buying it was interested in the long term health of the company.

Most of leveraged buyouts is all about putting debt on the company, selling what you sell and milking it while starving it.

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