The sale of Electronic Arts has been finalized
Comments
tomkarho
vunderba
Well at least as far as gaming companies go, Blizzard always seems willing to throw its hat in the ring.
Aardwolf
I guess it'll keep existing with the name EA? "Public investment fund" doesn't sound too fitting for a game company
gspr
Won't Saudi ownership of something bad make it even worse? The era goes on!
LocalH
I disagree. They're not gonna give up the brand recognition to rename it. They specifically wanted "Electronic Arts". EA has Battlefield, FIFA, The Sims, and Madden. Those four alone are probably responsible for 90% of the company's revenue.
If anything, now you can say that EA is doubly the worst company, especially in gaming.
krige
EA lost FIFA a few years ago. The games are now "FC". They still sell though.
LocalH
Shit. I had a feeling I was fucking up on one of those. The other three are still massive franchises, though.
krige
Because the Saudis leveraged this buyout via a massive loan from JP Morgan, EA's debt is now 10 times higher than it was when it was a publicly traded company: $2.2b to $22b.
Turns out the notion that they wouldn’t need humans to make games and they would use AI for most things was a pipe dream and firing staff to be profitable with the huge loan didn't work.
Now they are fucked.
Every company that spends money to buy up companies died and goes defunct because they keep failing to realize that they have to keep spending loads of money to make money and it doesn’t just roll in after acquiring IPs. Not even mobile slop or live service can save them anymore.
neilfrndes
Bending Spoons seems to be doing fine
krige
I meant in the videogame industry.
whatever1
Fuck this corrupt system.
You want to buy a company? Bring your own fucking money. Why do we have to pay for this shit?
hgomersall
What? This is JP Morgan on the hook for it if the loan goes bad.
lazide
Too big to fail eh? Do you really think if it blows up, the public won’t get sucked in?
rockskon
What a waste of Saudi money.
bestouff
It's not a financial investment. They're buying influence.
nick486
>They're buying influence.
Buying EA for influence? With the reputation EA has in gaming? They're a joke - they're not influencing anything. Its like buying a violin to fix a flat tire.
gambiting
>>With the reputation EA has in gaming?
Do you think your average EA Sports FC or Battlefield player is even aware of that reputation? These games still sell tens of million of copies. Positive influence in Battlefield alone would be huge.
charcircuit
>They're a joke
They are known for making games that sell to a mass audience and monetizing them well.
It's like calling McDonald's a joke. It doesn't take away that they are a successful business affecting many people in the world.
Morromist
I agree they're good at making games that sell to a mass audience - but I really think that a lot of franchises have wasted a ton of money partnering with EA, which makes poor quality games that are exactly the same as the one they printed out 12 months ago. I haven't heard anyone talking about an EA sports game since the PS1 era and they seem to have completely missed the e-sports era where DOTA and Fortnight made vast sums of money. Don't get me wrong, they've made a ton of money, but I think they could have made still far more in more competant hands.
Fabulously greedy FIFA seems to have realized this and is no longer partnering with them.
nick486
Yes, and buying McDonald's to influence anything would be a joke too. In fact EA is the McD of gaming, thats a perfect metaphor.
If you want influence, there are waaay better value propositions.
DimmieMan
The 'core gamer' bubble has always been bad for this.
Sports games sell like hotcakes and have people buy them every year religiously but you never hear about them, sims too. Their other titles were heavy hitters.
Their just a seperate audience; EA certainly has influence, just not with people that talk about games.
krige
If they sold games and were well monetized (not to be confused with heavily monetized), they wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.
ReactiveJelly
They make all the sports games. Have you noticed all the sports and Mr. Beast type slop that's like "Wow and here we are inn Dubai / Saudi Arabia whatever and it's beautiful and luxurious and we're driving in Lambos waooowww"
If product placement didn't work it wouldn't be an industry
kidfiji
Didn't realize gameswashing was a thing like sportswashing, but here we are
gmerc
This. See Bobby Kotik and the Epstein files.
LarsDu88
Does this mean we'll finally get a new Sim City?
Morromist
You'll take Skylines 2 and you'll like it.
johanvts
SimCopter really should have priority IMO.
waste_monk
Don't @ me until they bring back Sid Meier's SimGolf
_carbyau_
Between Saudi and right wing influence it seems one publisher will be trying to influence social commentary.
lovich
This is being bought by Affinity Partners, the same Kushner led group that’s trying to buy out FIFA?
Is the Trump family just going to own all of our entertainment and military companies?
End of an era. Who do we vote as the worst company ever now?