Oh nice, hopefully this means they can not chase profits as much
This means they need to chase profits even harder. Someone's gotta pay that debt.
EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
221–230 of 461 posts
Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#222Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#223Like 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 am old enough to remember a time when I had positive associations with being an "EA game". The games in question were on my Commodore 64. But still, there was such a time. EA has a reputation for buying companies and draining all of their reputation for money. The first company that the EA of today did that to was EA itself. There was a time it was just a gaming company. Actually it was about up to the Origin acqui…
> 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.
Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#224Not 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…
Are there any examples where a company was purchased via a leveraged buyout and the company went on to be more profitable afterwards? Because the only examples I know of resulted in the purchased company going bankrupt fairly quickly.
Hilton's LBO essentially have saved the brand.
Twitter is yet an unfolding story but it seems to be working.
Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#225Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#226Earlier 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…
> 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 that level.
Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#227Earlier 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]
Why edit rather than reply?
Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are there any examples where a company was purchased via a leveraged buyout and the company went on to be more profitable afterwards? Because the only examples I know of resulted in the purchased company going bankrupt fairly quickly.
Hilton's LBO essentially have saved the brand. Twitter is yet an unfolding story but it seems to be working.
Was Twitter an LBO? I thought the funding came from Musk taking on the debt.
Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#229Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#230Like 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…
The company you admire died a long time ago. Their focus today isn't on these historic franchises but releasing the same FIFA every year with new forms of microtransactions to hook a new generation of teenagers. And they have already laid off several thousand employees in the last 2-3 years.