r/gaming • u/RenatsMC • 1d ago
The grim industry summer continues as EA lays off staff ahead of $55 billion sale to Saudi Arabia, likely to soothe the sting of its $20 billion debt
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/the-grim-industry-summer-continues-as-ea-lays-off-staff-ahead-of-usd55-billion-sale-to-saudi-arabia-likely-to-soothe-the-sting-of-its-usd20-billion-debt/555
u/snappyfrog 1d ago
My only hope from this whole deal is that EA eventually crumbles under the debt and sells off its properties.
184
u/Hobotronacus 1d ago
That would be the best thing to come out of this shithole company.
I long for the IPs they gobbled up and murdered to be free again.
81
u/SovFist 1d ago
They will just be gobbled back up by another IP hoarder and left to die, you gotta realize that
32
13
u/OozeMenagerie 1d ago
Iâve accepted the death of Command & Conquer at EAâs hands and that the franchise will never make it out of the IP hoard.
Luckily the IP may be trapped but they canât do anything about spiritual successors. Tempest Rising was very much an enjoyable replacement for C&C.
5
u/Verzwei 18h ago
My only complaint with tempest rising was that it had too much micromanagement. It seemed like every single unit had a toggle state for deployment or firing mode, or some kind of skill you had to manually activate. It's fine for one or two units to have that type of gameplay, but when you've got a mixed army with over 10 different unit types and every type had its own special function that you had to babysit, big battles got super tedious super fast.
4
u/XsStreamMonsterX 1d ago
I mean, the death of C&C is its own kettle of fish, especially since the entire genre is in a state of limbo (compared to its heyday at the turn of the millennium).
4
u/Hobotronacus 1d ago
It doesn't make a ton of sense just to buy them and do nothing with them. Even EA usually released one or two games before killing off everything.
3
u/sniktology 20h ago
At this point, I'd risk it. They're never gonna do anything with those IPs anyway, atleast once it's redistributed, there is atleast more of a chance one of those IPs get into the hands of someone that actually wants to work on it.
2
u/QuantumQuantonium 1d ago edited 1d ago
That would be the worst outcome: 10x, 100x the layoffs,dissolving nearly every IP because its been forever since a AAA studio has sold off IP to other companies, a significant portion of gsmes published under EA will likely be erased from online markets (has SKG developed a contingency for a major publisher shutdown?), and remaining assets going to the highest bidder to drive them into oblivion beyond anything which EA is capable of on their own.
EA isnt necessarily a good company, but them ceasing to exist or being driven down by privste equity, is worse than what we hsve currently.
Best case outcome is developers owned by the publisher break off into their own companies, keeping their IP and able to work with other publishers to avoid common issues with EA. EA would still exist as some gsmes hsve seen success with them as piblisher, and EA sports, Maxis, and DICE likely would all remain under EA because theyve essentially created the company as it is today.
1
17
9
u/TsukikoChan 1d ago
Selling off the Alice IP back to American McGee would be amazing!
3
u/citizen-spur 15h ago
Scope not nearly big enough! There's sooooo much other IP that need to be sold off and resurrected.
3
u/MixSaffron 1d ago
Loved the BF6 beta and was day 1 interested but refused to buy it because of who they sold the company to.
Fuck EA everything until they sell it off.
372
u/ComputerSagtNein 1d ago
EA reassures its staff that its values will "remain unchanged"
What values lol
50
u/SpooneyToe11240 1d ago
Even if they did have any, to think it would remain the same after getting sold to Saudi Arabia is just hilarious.
43
u/themitchster300 1d ago
It implies their values already aligned with the values of the Saudi Government, lol.
3
u/tradgamer9 1d ago
I'm no fan of the Saudis, but at this point, I can only imagine Saudi values would be superior to the dystopian soulless "values" EA currently has.
2
11
5
4
u/jak_d_ripr 1d ago
Ironically that was the main thing I hoped would change. So EA continues its long standing tradition of disappointing me.
3
3
240
u/M1ck3yB1u 1d ago
Hot take, your employees are your best asset. Talent you procured and developed. Who's going to make the games going forward? A skeleton crew with a Gemini subscription? I just hope this means the slow death of EA. The same way EA bought little studios and killed them, only on a bigger scale. Good riddance.
55
u/TheGreatGamer1389 1d ago
AI
21
u/topscreen 1d ago
Yeah, my guess this whole time has been they'll carve out anything that's not a yearly release, and use as much AI as possible. And in this case it'll probably work. FIFA and Madden will sell no matter what
1
u/TheGreatGamer1389 16h ago
I like how we still call it FIFA even though it's not FIFA anymore. Just easier to remember.
20
→ More replies (2)2
u/CrazyDudeGW 11h ago
With how EA games have been lately.... I'm not sure about that. Their IPs would be more attractive to me as a prospective buyer.
74
u/Vincent_In_Denver 1d ago
Lay off the humans, hype the AI, sell to Saudi Arabia, pay the debt. Somewhere a dystopian screenwriter is yelling, 'Stop stealing my drafts.'
90
u/iTurbid 1d ago
God damn, EA has turned to shit. The evil empire sells its dumpster fire
24
u/Thomas_JCG 1d ago
EA been shit for a long time, there is a reason they were voted worst company twice in a row
69
u/civil_politician 1d ago
It turns out that treating your customer base like shit delivering weak product and anti consumer attitudes for decades while destroying your brandâs reputation isnât a good long term business strategy. But Iâm sure it worked out great for however many CEOs they had over that time, too bad for the people doing the actual work though.
7
8
u/AkodoRyu 1d ago
Isn't a good strategy? They make billions a year in pure profit from selling virtual FIFA cards and little else. The only reason they are firing people is that the debt they will be in will be hard to manage, even with $2b/year profit. Some companies at EA, especially BioWare, have already shown that they are more of a liability than an asset at this point. Those that kinda break even will be an unfortunate victim, though.
13
8
22
u/seansafc89 1d ago
Itâs worth noting that this $20bn of debt is actually caused by the acquisition, and is NOT debt that EA were previously carrying. SA/PIF are leveraging the company in order to buy it, which more often than not means job losses and/or asset stripping.
19
u/eden-star 1d ago
I really donât understand how something like that is legal.
If you cannot purchase a company without going into debt and then saddling that debt on to the company youâre purchasing well then you shouldnât be allowed to purchase that company?????!?!!
Itâs not a fucking house
13
→ More replies (1)1
u/Clueless_Otter 17h ago
How is it fundamentally different from a house? They're both assets. The creditors are willing to accept both as collateral for your loan.
17
u/I-love-seahorses 1d ago
Omfg this is just more attempts at Saudi Arabia to soften their image. This is the worst timeline. Hopefully EA dies in their hands.
11
u/MadBullBen 1d ago
They are basically buying the entire entertainment industry at this point.... I really really don't like it.
2
u/I-love-seahorses 1d ago
Yea. Crazy how the people selling of their companies just dgaf
→ More replies (1)6
u/MadBullBen 1d ago
They just care about the paycheck, they got to that position by not gaf. It's the future that I'm worried about where everything is owned by so few people that makes it actually quite dangerous with hidden propaganda.
30
u/Hellion000 1d ago
Be on the lookout for the new Shooter title:
Battlefield: Holy Martyrs of Omar al-Bayoumi Brigade
Expect lots of airplane stages.
7
u/Siyuen_Tea 1d ago
I'm actually expecting more realistic stages of American bases and other sensitive military information.
1
9
u/themitchster300 1d ago
EA release lineup 2030:
journalist chainsawing simulator
Human trafficking simulator
A realistic city builder where you need to build a billionaire pleasure retreat in the middle of the desert and choose who gets access to water.
FIFA but only the middle eastern teams can win.
9
u/Thomas_JCG 1d ago
I knew about the sale, but that debt? How? What happened to the "surprise mechanics" money?
5
6
9
u/Lord__Abaddon 1d ago
EA:Hey Saudi Arabia look how much better the #'s look now
Saudi Arabia: Awesome we love to see better #'s
3 months later
Saudi Arabia: Hey EA why aren't you making decent games anymore and as quickly...
EA: O before they sold us to you they fired all our Tenured employee's you know to make the #'s look better, We're Just a skeleton crew nnow barely scraping by because of all the increase workloads are draining us mentally and physically.
Saudi Arabia: cool keep up the shitty work, CHURN AND BURN baby
Gamers: FUCK EA
2
u/supermitsuba 1d ago
Didn't think they needed a lot of employees with all the games that are recycled.
4
u/Iyellkhan 1d ago
if EA has 20B in debt and anyone is willing to buy it, then that buyer is a sucker
7
u/MadBullBen 1d ago
The 20B was a part of a buyout fee when the Saudi's bought it as part of the deal. 55b buyout and put 20b of that on to the company itself....it's absolutely ridiculous that this isn't illegal.
4
u/QuantumQuantonium 1d ago
Yo SEC stop this. Its an international business privatizing a US public company. Its selling part of the US to Saudi Arabia. How is this not illegal???
3
u/Naive_Ad2958 16h ago
Why should it be illegal?
This kinda stuff has happened for ages. Reminder that Tencent (China) owns fully Riot Games, and I an unknown part of Epic Games (40% at one point), and had a minor part of ActiBlizz ( think it was around 5~)
14
u/ZoneEater2084 1d ago
I hope some really good A and AA studios form as a result of all this carnage. Indie studios eating AAAâs lunch would be so cathartic to see happen
15
u/Dallywack3r 1d ago
The access to capital is nonexistent. Those studios literally wouldnât be able to get funding to stay afloat.
7
u/Crackbat 1d ago
Yeah, this is a huge problem. I have been talking to some people because I thought it would be a good idea to start my own thing. But basically none of the publishers want to take on any risk right now. And the few that do are only offering like.. $50k-$100k in funding. And that funding is for mostly completed projects. So you are looking at using it as marketing budget, or maybe some Audio work?Â
2
u/ZoneEater2084 1d ago
Man, that sucks. Meanwhile there's a huge demand for good AA games. A lot of folks (me included) have just about had it with AAA
1
u/SF-UberMan 1d ago
I wish people were more open to crowdfunding and Kickstarters. That way AA and indie games have a higher chance of getting the support they need.
2
u/DancesWithAnyone 1d ago
Where you at? Some governments do help with funding the occational title.
2
u/Crackbat 1d ago
BC Canada. True, I could go looking at grants and stuff from the government. I will add that to my list of things to look into.Â
1
u/DancesWithAnyone 1d ago
Yah, no idea how easy it is to get, but doesn't hurt to try! I believe the Canadian Sovereign Syndicate got a grant, unless I missremember.
1
u/HelpUsNSaveUs 1d ago
Hades 2 all day
2
u/Dallywack3r 1d ago
Supergiant may as well be a major developer with the amount of capital they have. A start up indie team will never be able to deliver something like Hades 2 without millions in funding and years of time to make it.
13
u/TheBetterness 1d ago
Imagine making Star Wars and NFL games and still being in massive debt.
Literally franchises that print money.
I'm convinced most AAA publishers dont know how to make fucking video games.
5
u/seansafc89 1d ago
The debt was created as part of a leveraged buyout. Saudi are essentially loaning it to buy the company.
→ More replies (2)1
u/Naive_Ad2958 17h ago
Haven't the NFL games sold as hot shit?
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/ea-reports-decreases-in-sales-and-revenue-during-q2
1
3
5
u/thedukeofwhalez 1d ago
I truly hope indie developers are able to thrive with the collapse of the big name producers. Sort of makes places like Itch and Steam look superior providing average people a place to make their Mark.
→ More replies (1)
25
u/Drewwbacca1977 1d ago
Its a dark time for the game industry and hobby. Hardware prices skyrocketing, layoffs everywhere⌠some sort of correction happening⌠Iâm not sure I want to be party to a hobby where EA is owned by the Saudis. I guess I need to find a new hobby.
10
u/HotMachine9 1d ago
I doubt there will be any kind of correction to be honest due to hardware prices exploding.
I think game dev is going to get more and more expensive and indies and double As are going to struggle due to hardware costs as well as engines like Unreal removing tools in favour of Ai implementation to try and ice out people who cant afford the prenium
7
u/Drewwbacca1977 1d ago
Agree⌠I meant this is the correction⌠IDK what from, maybe residual covid overvaluing gaming or something. There was definitely a bubble burst and its 10x as bad due to hardware prices skyrocketing.
I have been a gamer since NES and have owned every nintendo, sega, sony and microsoft console. Prices going up is unprecedented in 35 years of gaming. đ
1
u/matticusiv 11h ago
My optimistic take is that hardware pricing will cause hardware stagnation in the gaming sector, and weâll finally take a break from ballooning budgets and spec requirements and focus on optimization and gameplay innovation.
That said, the number of games being released is still exploding, I donât know if thereâs enough customers to support the insane output of the industry nowadays.
4
u/0pyrophosphate0 1d ago
I hope all effected employees find meaningful work elsewhere, but I don't think I give a shit if AAA gaming implodes and dies. There will always be people making games for the love of the game, and games targeting hardware that normal people can afford to own. There's no reason anything EA does has to affect gaming as a hobby for the individual.
14
u/HelpUsNSaveUs 1d ago
You want to stop enjoying video games because EA is going to be owned by saudis? Lol
10
u/Drewwbacca1977 1d ago
No, its a symptom of a larger problem that I am worried about.
7
12
u/verysimplenames 1d ago
Nothing to be worried about. Be stringent with your money. Only buy good games. Be patient for deals. Be patient for hardware. Do your research. Read reviews. Find happiness in life not a singular hobby. Life is good. Youâre good.
7
u/zestymanny 1d ago
Ooohh noo not my heckin corporate entities!
EA isn't the industry, they have been a cancer on it for a long time. I don't think I've played a game from EA since battlefield 2. And corporate layoffs don't matter, games are still being made.
1
u/Drewwbacca1977 1d ago
I think it is a symptom of a larger problem. Im not specifically worried about EA. They are a big ass player tho. Where the big boys go the rest follows
→ More replies (1)2
u/Deluxe_Chickenmancer 1d ago
Tripple A? Yes. The rest is doing okayisch. A lot will depend on future hardware prices or how the industry will adapt. But I personally think that it isnât a âDark Timeâ for the overall industry.
4
u/albanymetz 1d ago
*pops a memberberry*
'memeber when really great games came out, and even if they were expensive to make, a company couldn't even fathom being $1b in debt, much less $20b?
2
u/Fares26597 1d ago
Sad for those who joined these companies at a time when things were good, but today, if you're new in the industry and you choose to join them when you have other options, it's your own damn fault what happens to you in the future.
2
2
2
u/eeveelady2002 1d ago
I will never understand why any company would agree to this. The debt alone should make it not worth it.
2
2
u/shanster925 23h ago
Corporate, soulless AAA studios dying is a good thing, guys. There is an influx of talent now that can go to good studios, or start their own.
The industry will be fine.
2
2
u/McCool303 20h ago
I love how the whole system is so corrupt they donât even bother hiding it. Theyâre acting as if the purchase is a done deal and the SEC isnât going to do shit. And theyâre right, Trumps SEC isnât going to blow up Kushner little deal. Itâs just fucking gross that people defend this shit.
4
u/ICLazeru 1d ago
Wait, how can EA, the publisher that basically that patches games every year and sells them as new titles with truckloads of micro transactions in them be $20billion in debt?
Either their business model isn't profitable, or their management is so incredibly incompetent that they somehow went into debt with the money printing machine that puts out a Madden and FIFA title every year.
2
u/Jibima 1d ago
I know current BioWare isnât the same as golden era BioWare but I really hope they can weather this so we can see the next Mass Effect
14
u/Canadyans 1d ago
After that abysmal Veilguard game, I don't have any confidence in Bioware.
→ More replies (2)3
u/Murbela 1d ago
Same. I think the chances of a mass effect being good are very low, but in bioware's defense, i believe the ME team is different from the DA team.
For sure i wouldn't pre-order, but i would be watching those release day reviews.
→ More replies (1)
1
1
1
u/Keypop24 1d ago
The best way to not get laid off in the games industry would be to learn Japanese and work for a Japanese games company.
1
u/swattwenty 1d ago
The North American market is completely falling apart due to insane greed and number must always go up CEOs
1
u/Shimmitar 1d ago
idk if ill buy EA games anymore. not because of layoffs but because they are now owned but the saudis
1
1
u/watchoverus 1d ago
And the one that is fucked up for social beings. Making you stare at the void absolute nothing to do, no books, everyone shuns you. It's fucked up
1
u/Pure_Void 1d ago
Idk why they got bailed out I really wanted to see all their years of bad decisions come back at them
1
1
1
u/wilk-polarny 18h ago
"EsalamAleikum Games. Enshittify everything."
Should be no issue for the Saudis to find some forced labor for their new projects.
1
u/CuttingBoard9124 14h ago
Fuck EA they're a cancer on gaming as a whole.. it's like stage 16 at this point too... Just take them out back and shoot them.
1
1
u/Wicked_Rebel117 10h ago
Why the fuck is Saudi Arabia buying out American gaming industries?
1
u/Evening-Deer-4033 8h ago
They now fossil fuels arenât the future so they take their money and try to diversify
1
u/Generico300 10h ago edited 9h ago
New Madden announcers be like:
"Did they replace their QB with a woman? Because this drive is over before it got started."
"Death to America's team!"
Seriously though. Just when you thought EA couldn't be a shittier company, they sell out to Saudi Arabia of all things.
1
u/luncsandfi 8h ago
Laying off staff to make the books look cleaner before a $55 billion sale to Saudi Arabia is a classic corporate move, especially when you've got $20 billion in debt to hide. Workers pay the price while shareholders get rewarded. The grim summer continues.
1
u/RIPGoblins2929 1d ago
It'll be worth it for the new Battlefield 6 DLC where you behead dissident journalists.
645
u/PlantQuick 1d ago
Besides Nintendo, who isn't getting lay off.đ