Electronic Arts, one of the biggest publishers in the gaming industry, has just been bought by an investment group. Three firms--the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners--will be purchasing EA for a massive $55 billion dollars. This buyout will make EA a private company, with shareholders receiving a 25% bonus payout to their share price. As to how this will affect EA and its gaming divisions going forward, the press release and statements from the investment firms simply state that this move will help EA to expand their worldwide reach and accelerate their innovation and growth within the industry.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) (“EA” or the “Company”), a global leader in interactive entertainment, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an investor consortium (“the Consortium”) comprised of PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners in an all-cash transaction that values EA at an enterprise value of approximately $55 billion. The transaction positions EA to accelerate innovation and growth to build the future of entertainment.

The deal will close sometime in the 2027 fiscal year. Of the $55 billion dollars purchase price, $20 billion will come from debt financing between the three investment groups. This debt could lead to EA cutting even more jobs and limiting what projects the publisher decides to take on, as they pay down the balance over the next few years, according to industry analysists. Electronic Arts' current CEO, Andrew Wilson, will remain with the company after the buyout.

The revenue generated by big games like EA Sports FC, Madden and Battlefield 6 will be needed to service this debt, which may impact EA's ability to invest in new games,

Source

 

[LightBeam]

I think the issues with the Saudi administration is their history of cutting up journalists in their embassies. Call me crazy, but I think that's worse than predatory micro transactions.

Absolutely, I'm only talking about the games here, outside of that ... They like to appear as very religious in appearance, but they're nothing but depraved maniacs twisting the religion for what suits them the most. MBS is evil, simple as that.

 

[Jayro]

Good, let this be their demise. They used to make good games back in the 80's and 90's, but never again.

 

[Earthshine]

As much as I hate EA overall, here's some good games they published/made that are not super old:
- Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order
- It Takes Two
- Split Fiction
- The Dead Space Remake

Lost in Random is also excellent. But apart from all of these... Yeah. Not so much.

 

[codezer0]

Good, let this be their demise. They used to make good games back in the 80's and 90's, but never again.

Yeah, just trying to think it over myself, and I'm coming up blank.

There hasn't been a need for speed worth playing, since Most Wanted 2007.

There hasn't been a Madden to care about ever since the NFL exclusivity buyout that barred competition. And as a side effect, there too went all the arcadey sports games that were consistently more worth playing.

There hasn't been *a* battlefield worth playing, let alone enjoyable, since the classic Star Wars entries from ~2005. And the less we speak of Lootbox front 2, the better.

SWTOR is something I still play whenever I can, but tbh I fully expected for EA to axe Bioware immediately after the launch of Anthem, considering their management (still) sees Bioware as "the nerd studio" and clearly favoring their dude-brah jock clubs that make NFS and Battlefield, respectively. That it's still getting new content updates is wild.

Aside from that example? I can't think of anything made in the last 15 years, that was even worth checking out. Their reputation precedes itself.

 

[Defective1Up]

I mean, it can't be any worse than EA is now.

 

[Bladexdsl]

Aside from that example? I can't think of anything made in the last 15 years, that was even worth checking out. Their reputation precedes itself.

a long time ago in a galaxy far far away they used to make/publish quite a few good games before they turned into a sports only company

 

[Jayro]

Yeah, just trying to think it over myself, and I'm coming up blank.

There hasn't been a need for speed worth playing, since Most Wanted 2007.

There hasn't been a Madden to care about ever since the NFL exclusivity buyout that barred competition. And as a side effect, there too went all the arcadey sports games that were consistently more worth playing.

There hasn't been *a* battlefield worth playing, let alone enjoyable, since the classic Star Wars entries from ~2005. And the less we speak of Lootbox front 2, the better.

SWTOR is something I still play whenever I can, but tbh I fully expected for EA to axe Bioware immediately after the launch of Anthem, considering their management (still) sees Bioware as "the nerd studio" and clearly favoring their dude-brah jock clubs that make NFS and Battlefield, respectively. That it's still getting new content updates is wild.

Aside from that example? I can't think of anything made in the last 15 years, that was even worth checking out. Their reputation precedes itself.

The last good game from EA that I played was Burnout 3... on the OG Xbox. But Underground 2 was dope as hell too.

 

[xdarkx]

If this means we will never see another Dragon Age: The Veilguard or what EA is currently pushing into Battlefield 6, this could be a good thing.

 

[Viri]

Imagine working at EA, and finding out Trump's step son and the Saudi gov just bought your company. lmao

It's funny how we were all expecting Ubisoft to get bought out next.

 

[raxadian]

- It Takes Two
- Split Fiction

So we probably won't get another two player game then; a pity. Split Fiction is a huge improvement over It Takes Two.

Then again as those developers don't do sequel they could just move to a different company.

 

[Bladexdsl]

Imagine working at EA, and finding out Trump's step son and the Saudi gov just bought your company. lmao

this would be me fuck them

 

[codezer0]

As much as I hate EA overall, here's some good games they published/made that are not super old:
- Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order
- It Takes Two
- Split Fiction
- The Dead Space Remake

Souls likes are scientifically engineered to make a rage quit happen. The ONLY reason, Android Wilson greenlit the game is two fold: politicians were eyeing up making his loot boxes illegal, and DISNEY reminded him they could afford to hire the kind of hitmen that would eviscerate him in broad daylight and police would STILL rule it as self inflicted.

Wilson only wanted a souls like to put loot boxes for how quickly one can survive or progress. But the political pressure put the kibosh on that, too. His ass never would have greenlit JFO otherwise.

 

[Jayinem]

Madden Saudi Arabia is going to be wild

It'll be a soccer (Futbol) game.

 

[HinaNaru Cutie]

this is disturbing..... another one being bought out by this group of people again ...... should not be happy or trusting of this entire bought out.

 

[yankii]

Pro tip guise, expect nothing positive from this.

I expect nothing from EA and still come out disappointed.

this is disturbing..... another one being bought out by this group of people again ...... should not be happy or trusting of this entire bought out.

I'm bothered that they've got hands in the Big N pie, but EA can fuck off and die.

 

[Jayinem]

Yeah, just trying to think it over myself, and I'm coming up blank.

There hasn't been a need for speed worth playing, since Most Wanted 2007.

There hasn't been a Madden to care about ever since the NFL exclusivity buyout that barred competition. And as a side effect, there too went all the arcadey sports games that were consistently more worth playing.

There hasn't been *a* battlefield worth playing, let alone enjoyable, since the classic Star Wars entries from ~2005. And the less we speak of Lootbox front 2, the better.

SWTOR is something I still play whenever I can, but tbh I fully expected for EA to axe Bioware immediately after the launch of Anthem, considering their management (still) sees Bioware as "the nerd studio" and clearly favoring their dude-brah jock clubs that make NFS and Battlefield, respectively. That it's still getting new content updates is wild.

Aside from that example? I can't think of anything made in the last 15 years, that was even worth checking out. Their reputation precedes itself.

I'm all for being down on EA but not one game in the last 15 years? Dead Space 1 and 2, Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age Origins I believe came out in that time frame. Also personally I enjoyed the Criterion NFS games and Burnout Paradise, and SSX was fun. More recently the Jedi Order games were excellent. They have made good games.

Since you mentioned arcadey sports games they even came out with a new NBA Jam and NFL Blitz, too bad they never followed up with those.

 

[codezer0]

I'm all for being down on EA but not one game in the last 15 years? Dead Space 1 and 2, Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age Origins I believe came out in that time frame. Also personally I enjoyed the Criterion NFS games and Burnout Paradise, and SSX was fun. More recently the Jedi Order games were excellent. They have made good games.

Since you mentioned arcadey sports games they even came out with a new NBA Jam and NFL Blitz, too bad they never followed up with those.

15 years ago would be 2010. Mass effect and dead space came out before then. I was never into D&D so, Dragon Age has zero appeal to me.

And as I expressed in an earlier post, Jedi Order being a souls like is an instant hard pass for my mental well being.

And yes, I also blame EA for killing off the arcade sports games. Now all we have are sim games that are miserable to control and cost several times their asking price in microtransactions, from EA and 2K respectively.

 

[Jayinem]

15 years ago would be 2010. Mass effect and dead space came out before then. I was never into D&D so, Dragon Age has zero appeal to me.

And as I expressed in an earlier post, Jedi Order being a souls like is an instant hard pass for my mental well being.

And yes, I also blame EA for killing off the arcade sports games. Now all we have are sim games that are miserable to control and cost several times their asking price in microtransactions, from EA and 2K respectively.

Well ME/DS still had sequels within the 15 year time frame and you said 0 good games

Jedi Order is not a souls like game at all. I'm not a fan of Souls games and I beat both of them. What are people doing now saying anytime a game is not a cakewalk at any point (at times there's some semi-difficult puzzles) that makes it a souls like game?

 

[codezer0]

Well ME/DS still had sequels within the 15 year time frame and you said 0 good games

Jedi Order is not a souls like game at all. I'm not a fan of Souls games and I beat both of them. What are people doing now saying anytime a game is not a cakewalk at any point (at times there's some semi-difficult puzzles) that makes it a souls like game?

Regarding JFO, it absolutely is.

At the time of its release, I was fresh off a rage fest after the misery of finishing doom eternal's campaign. Game had me so unbelievably tilted that the first thing I did after seeing the end credits was alt+F4 and uninstall. Around then on Twitch, I discovered this one streamer who had the game down to a meme with how quickly he could finish ultra nightmare difficulty by comparison. Even made meme videos of his playthrough.

Well, later on, he did get to run JFO, and... With the forced traversal and unfair checkpoints, it took him three REAL HOURS to beat the first real boss the game offered. Two of those hours was the process of dying, reloading a checkpoint and traversing to the stupid thing.

That playthrough told me everything there was to tell me how much of a bad time that game would serve me.

Regarding mass effect and dead space, mass effect 2 was the last before the franchise was EA-ified. Even then, it had mandatory dlc from day one, and at least another $40 asked for in dlc before you got a "complete" playthrough. And the "pick a door, that's your ending" of mass effect 3 negated ALL of the good will ea had left. I couldn't even bring myself to bother with looking up anything past dead space 1, and even the reviews on 3 confirmed they were chasing the CoD kids with mountain dew and Doritos money. In terms of bad moves, that was one of all time right there.

In today's era, I can't even look at the remake of 1 seriously because it would require another EA account, more loot boxes and micro transactions for some reason, and of course think it's okay to turn my PC running other games at 4K into a 720p shit box like Randy did to everyone with borderlands 4.

 

[wamble]

20,000,000,000 debt financing. It's In The Game.