EA's Controversial $55 Billion Buyout to Close Next Week

I honestly expect all single-player games from EA to cease to exist, we will get whatever is already in development (like Jedi 3) but I fully expect them to turn into a full sports live-service predatory game company that I’ll continue to not consume.

Looks like buyers didn't read how Bungie's buyout ended...

My wife has decided to give up on The Sims moving forward, and I’m happy to ditch Battlefield. Not in protest as such, nothing that dramatic. Just very, very happy to lessen the amount we contribute to people like this.

Our pensions and investments are bad enough and need altering with some thought, don’t want to needlessly add to someone’s riches so they can spread hatred.

Inadvertently is one thing, but not going to consciously do it. There’s enough stains on every community I’ve ever been a part of, without funding it to be furthered elsewhere in life.

I only list those games as those are the only two EA games we play.

And I will never forget their research into playerbase manipulation during various other court cases. It was bad enough then.

This is our line in the sand.

Anyway, that is all.

@djlard these buyers wont be here for the long run. They’ll pluck EA dry over the next 10-15 years, then throw away the corpse.

Or they’ll receive the fifa license (because of Fifa’s ties to Saudi Arabia) and become a yearly sport studio only.

Either way, we can expect a few thousand layoffs within a year.

could someone revive the ultima series?

Soon as they sold to them I was done purchasing any of their future games.

Xbox Gaming Division next. MS needs the money for AI. 🤑

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/02/microsoft-commits-2point5-billion-6000-employees-ai-implementation-unit.html?&qsearchterm=Microsoft%20ai

All that debt is going to crumble EA, that's before the new ownership starts demanding changes. Sports games, Battlefield and maybe a new live service Need for Speed is going to be all we get as they futilely try to pay that down.

I'll get the remaining games I don't have and move on. EA WRC, Grid Legends Deluxe and maybe a few F1 games to try out and that's it. NFS Unbound if I care enough.

I didn't even buy My Sims as I was like do I have to use an EA account, sigh. So I have the Wii version of Kingdom in the last few months to play. So that saved me regardless of the many discounts on Switch for the collection of the 2 games.

I have the PC version of My Sims original years ago and still have the disk. I don't think it's license locked like some were around that time I'd have to check.

Star Wars Zero Company maybe. The rest will be older EA games. I have most of the recent NFS games just the older ones to go from PS1 era besides Underground 2 or whatever other PSP/DS entries or Vita version of Most Wanted 2012, well and a working NFS MW2005 as my Black Edition PS2 copy I tried didn't work so was not keeping that $35 paper weight not working with any of the menu options.

Sims is a joke and will only play Sims 1 to 3. Collecting the console and handheld ones and had the PC version with a fair amount of expansions already for years.

Got Rallisport Challenge 1 though, got a fair amount of DICE games to still collect over time. I might get Motorhead for PS1 on Vita though and see how that fairs.

Wonder if Jedi 3 and Iron Man plus the unannounced Marvel games will be safe or they will be chopped. I would not be surprised for EA to be turned into the sports and Battlefield show

Can’t even remember the last EA game I played…

Finally, Desert Warrior - The Game!!

I don't see any good coming from this at all, quite the opposite. I won't be supporting them.

wow, look at all that money; that’s all i gotta say

Every time I read the word consortium I only think of ric flair

EA is pro slavery. Change my mind.

Anyone who patronizes EA deserves what they get. I don't care if it's lost licenses or whatever. We all know they're a ***** company and shouldn't be dealt with by anyone. Screw them. I hope they go right down the crapper with everyone who supports them.

$55 billion?!?!?
Guess it's pocket money for those filthy rich *****. That insane amount of money, could be used for something that would help mankind, like cancer research, help rebuild town/homes that have been destroyed by storms, earthquakes and war. And so much more...

Well, it’s not like EA can get any WORSE…

It’s going to destroy the company. Ask Newcastle fans, are they any better off after being propped up by blood money? The Saudis will get bored after decimating EA, there is absolutely no situation where that debt is repaid. Notice how that’s the exact same people that Infantino’s trying to sell the World Cup to as well, the Kushners. What a world we live in.

@ButteredCrumpet EA has been terrible for a while. Now it's barely short of Satanic being associated with Jared Kuchner. In the words of Smeagol, "We HATES them!" Seriously, Jared Kushner is about as big of a POS as there is on the planet except for Musk and Trump.

While this acquisition is by a consortium, I can't say I have much hope in EA's future. Just look at what's happened with WWE since it merged with the Saudi group TKO... Prepare for everything to become even more corporate focused with less creativity.

As others have mentioned, I wouldn't be surprised to see EA just become fully focused on sports titles... Which makes me wonder if there might be any desire to bring the WWE franchise games in under EA's umbrella. I'm sure there are contracts in place for the foreseeable future for 2K to keep publishing them, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was a chance to save some money with the licensing.

So looking like Plants vs. Zombies Replanted will be my last EA game...and we'll get to see how much worse EA can really get.

@djlard i doubt they care i bet 55 million is like pocket money to them i dont think its even known how rich the richest people are over there.

It's disgusting the amount of wealth these governments & companies throwaway on nothing. May as well just shovel it all into a fire pit because it's basically just a massive waste at this point.

Just as BF was getting half decent as welI 😞 I don't really think they care about what we think or do, there's just as many people will be happy about this as there is disgusted by it. Just not us western folk, there's plenty of customers besides us in the world for them to make games for. Bad news I think but we'll see.

Wow they're about to be owned by The Legion of Doom 😬 unless they magically make a new Mirrors edge I will easily be able to ignore all their future games 👍🏻

I have two trains of thought on this..
1) It will suck big time for all the devs that E.A. own and exploit and when the inevitable happens I wish them all luck for the future in advance. Its a sad state of affairs for us the gamers that will ultimately come of worse when we lose our favorite games.
2) Finally E.A. will know what it's like to be bought by a conglomerate that's going to expect massive returns for their investments and when the Saudis realise they've bought a lemon and shut E.A. down I'll see it as some cosmic karma event..you killed codemasters and criterion so you get what you deserve.

Ea were a terrible developer and publisher before this takeover. Imagine how insanely invasive the next wave of monetisation will be

What makes this controversial please it says it's a controversial buyout but doesn't explain why it's controversial?

Well there goes any hope of a new burnout, hopefully star wars galactic racer can scratch that itch.

@johnedwin

You should look this up (I don't have exact details handy or I would provide them)...

I heard that Richard Garriott (Lord British) has gotten some of the rights back to the game. I can't remember exactly what but I think it was something oddly specific... like he had rights to the stories and characters but not the name Ultima. Something like that.

Personally, I would LOVE to see the Saudis and Jared Kushner lose massive amounts of money on this. And if the lenders lose money too, that might be fine with me as well.

That’s me done with EA, which I pretty much was already with the exception of the F1 games.

I fear for ‘normal’ EA employees and wonder whether the extra £8m the CEO got this last year was a last cash grab before the deep cuts/challenges come.

To have to recoup £20bn is surely going to put massive strain on their bottom line leading to staff cuts and even more monetisation.

So disgusting. That means sales from the games will help fund serious human rights crimes. I guess when enough money is involved, many people happily over look such serious crimes, but I guess I shouldn’t expect any kind of morality from humans.

From what I read about this operation, none of the people buying, selling, facilitating this are interested in games, gamers or game devs whatsoever.

Also:
https://www.eurogamer.net/ea-boss-38-million-bonus-battlefield-6-layoffs

@djlard bungie never has earned lot of money. They were aquired mostly on Potential.

@LeeBB_Art Saudi Arabia has a poor human rights record (they infamously used a bone saw on a high profile critic outside the country) but they have a lot of oil money and has been using that money to buy soft power. The fact the American president’s family is involved in this is par for the course nowadays but would have been considered unacceptable not to long ago.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45812399

On 2 October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a US-based journalist and critic of Saudi Arabia's government, walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he was murdered.

https://www.cfr.org/articles/saudi-arabias-investments-raise-questions-sportswashing

Saudi Arabia has rapidly become a global player in international sports, spending billions of dollars in recent years on several high-profile deals across the industry. Saudi officials say these government investments are part of a plan to diversify the country’s petroleum-based economy, but skeptics allege that Riyadh intends to use sports to enhance its prestige and cleanse its poor human rights record.

In order to finance this deal, pay off the debt and interest, they would somehow need to increase profits significantly above the existing level.

I'd be keen to understand how they plan to do that, at a time when consumers are running out of cash with rent and other living costs eating into an ever increasing percentage of their salaries, or by increasing their savings levels due to increasing uncertainty over the future.

It’s it’s a bold move if they think they can get a hold of more money that people do not have or are unwilling to commit.

I’d have thought that most Western markets are tapped out, and they’d be looking to expand into new regions.

Now this will be a proper disaster for the industry. They'll bleed EA dry whilst sucking every last bit of life from them before burning it all to the ground once they're done. Vultures don't leave anything behind. Prepare for the death of EA, it won't be instant, but it's coming.

The Saudi investment into boxing has been excellent in my opinion. We've seen matchups come to fruition that we wouldn't have seen otherwise.

I don't think the EA buyout will be any different. I'm looking forward to see what gets pumped out moving forward. More money injected into Battlefield and other franchises can only be a good thing.

In the wake of this, I kind of hope the Codies can separate themselves off so they can reform and produce some decent fun games rather than the ever more dreary F1 monetisation games

At least it looks like Jared Kushner isn’t getting his hands on part of the World Cup after fifa trying to sell out.

Anthem revival?

Anyone?

A man can dream. Even if that dream is stupid…

If Kushner and family are involved, I want no part of it. He and the Trump clan are probably worse than the Saudis.

EA, trying so hard to shake the title.of Worst Company ever... By being bought out by some of the worst people. It's somewhow poetic.

Should we even care?

I havnt read into this deal much but it sounds like they are trying to toys r us EA by buying them with what amounts to EAs own money.

If that is the case, I cant imagine much good for the consumer out of this. Unless we get nfl2k back, in which case im all for the demise of ea.

The best thing that could come of this is they break up EA and sell off studios and their IP.

My dream outcome is that Larian buys BioWare and the related IP, BioWare gets infused with the right kind of people from Larian and we get both Dragon Age and Mass Effect back on track... It won't happen, but a man can dream.

Please sell the Burnout, SSX, NFS, Dante's Inferno, Medal of Honor and Dead Space rights to me. I'll pay top dollar and hire a fantastic local team to reverse engineer, remake and continue each series for all to enjoy.

"I'm going to buy this thing, half with money I need to borrow, but I'll never actually own the debt, I'll just pass it on to the thing I don't own yet."

Yeah, no need for more regulation here folks! It might interfere with the "creativity" of the market!

@Carnage the article needs to explain why it's controversial as I had no idea 🤷

@ButteredCrumpet I find it hilarious that people have a fit over saudi human rights breaches, but not over American human rights crimes.

People refuse to give money to Saudi's but are only too happy to give money to the country that brought us guantanamo bay.

@dodgykebaab For myself, it’s due to how you simply can’t avoid American influence. Without supporting America in some way I wouldn’t be able to have much of a bank account, a pension, investments, many car parts, TV, film, some food products, much of the internet, servers for cloud storage, game storage, game streaming, some oil, some petrol and so the list goes on.

To not support America, sadly means I’d have to not exist other than to live out in the wild.

And after living in America, I can say I’d hate to live there again, but I’d do it a thousand times over rather than Saudi Arabia.

If you don’t know the differences in how life is in the two countries you’re very misinformed. My wife can actually choose to do anything she wants to do if we were to live in America again for example.

Hell, in America I had more freedoms than I did in the UK haha.

And as far as I see, no one is having a fit.

@dodgykebaab So, anything else you want to discuss and single me out for, even though many others agree, or are we done?

@djlard I know man they even faked their real value Bungie really didn't bring anything to the table a long time.

@ButteredCrumpet The same goes for Europe and a lot of other continents, countries. Freedom to be yourself and freedom to have control of your own body. Oh wait that part is not free in tons of states in the US.

@Flaming_Kaiser Exactly, it’s got nuance to it. Which is why it isn’t a blanket catch all argument.

The States I lived in, myself and my partner had the same and in some cases more rights than here in the UK, and Spain and so forth.

All my original comment was that we, as in myself and my wife wish to limit the amount we fund to the Saudi’s, Kushner’s and so forth.

We also don’t support much in the way of American companies many chances we get either, but of course, people don’t stop to ask things like that do they?

So, we done? Or shall we all have a lengthy nuanced conversation about global politics, where we don’t know how one another lives, our world experiences and instead just throw cheap stones peppered with sarcasm?

If I buy Madden or NHL, it will be used

@LeeBB_Art they probably don't themselves.

@ButteredCrumpet What could you do in the USA that you can't do here?

@dodgykebaab Quite a few things, have you not travelled or lived anywhere other than the UK? Surely you’re aware of the differences and how surprise surprise, there’s positives and negatives to many a country.

There’s literally nothing I have in the UK that I didn’t have in America, so then literally anything America offered in addition was more than, not less than.

Same with people who throw around the abortion argument. Of course, I want my wife to have body autonomy. However, the States in which we lived abortion was legal.

So I’m just confused as to why an average Brit would think they have less rights and abilities in many other countries than they do here in the UK, there’s so many more restrictions on what I do and how I do it compared to America.

I can’t even bulk buy ibuprofen in the UK as a 40 year old bloke, because God forbid I’m one of the few people the world that’s managed to consume enough in one go to kill myself. So many of our laws and regulations impact our lives so much more than I ever felt intruded upon in Spain, America and a few other locations.

Us Brits need to be more like our French counterparts and realise they work for us. I mean we even tax sugary items instead of concentrating on educating younger children to be responsible.

So we tax the fat people yet don’t care to teach them how to not get fat in the first place. It’s all just so ridiculous.

You can do so much more on your land, in your home, go shooting easier if that’s your thing, you can actually have freedom of speech (not something the English constitution has by the way).

I mean the list is endless. Britain has lots of great and much better elements to it. Like UK food, far better, food standards, far better.

For example in the UK milk and eggs actually taste like milk and eggs.

But as far as freedoms and rights and ways of life, Britain is so far behind many a country around the world.

Just travel more, and you’ll see, if you open your mind up to the cultures you’re experiencing there’s a lot, lot more options than the one Britain chooses on many a way of life that works!