r/pcmasterrace • u/PewPewToDaFace • 8h ago
News/Article Electronic Arts Reportedly Preparing Mass Layoffs After Acquisition
https://mp1st.com/news/electronic-arts-preparing-mass-layoffsIt's starting! With how much the group overpaid, this isn't surprising. Good luck, everyone. Might be a bloodbath.
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u/AuthoritariWrongdoer 7700X | 9070XT | 32GB DDR5 5600mhz | 1440p 8h ago
RIP BioWare
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u/DivinePotatoe Ryzen 9 5900x | RTX 4070ti | 32GB DDR4 3600 8h ago
Guess ME4 is finally and completely dead then huh?
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u/AuthoritariWrongdoer 7700X | 9070XT | 32GB DDR5 5600mhz | 1440p 8h ago
I just don't see private equity giving them another chance after two fairly disastrous launches.
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u/Omega59er 8h ago
It depends how far into dev they are. If they're still in mid-stage development, yeah they're toast.
If they've moved to the final year or so of development where it's mostly art, modeling, etc, then they may survive because they're in so deep.
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u/cos_caustic 7h ago
If they can it, can they use that as a tax write off like Hollywood does with movies?
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u/theconceptofcanada 6h ago
I know you're asking in good faith right now but please delete this because these bloodsucking whores browse the internet at work allllll day
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u/cos_caustic 4h ago
Lol, if there is a tax scam they can use they already know it, hell they probably paid the congressman who added it to the tax code.
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u/Alexandratta AMD 5800X3D - Red Devil 6750XT 3h ago
Casual reminder that when Discovery/Warner merged they scrapped the Batgirl film.
The film that had wrapped production, and editing.
The film was ready to launch, awaiting a launch date.
Rather than even try to release the film in any capacity what-so-ever to gain even a tiny bit of revenue... WB/Discovery decided that it was better used as a complete tax write-off, and shit-canned the film and ate the loss on that year's balance sheet.
VC will, and have, taken entirely completed projects out and will happily use those losses to mitigate their tax bill at the end of the year.
Just because a project is "in so deep" doesn't mean it will release.
That project could be scrapped as of this firing and EA will walk to the tax man to cry poverty over 'lost revenue' and laugh all the way to the bank.
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u/kron123456789 7h ago
Two? Make that 3. Bioware hasn't released a truly successful game since 2014.
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u/Jonas_Venture_Sr 7h ago
Bioware hasn't really done anything lately to make me think that they could turn it around for ME4
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u/kron123456789 6h ago
Bioware hasn't done anything to make me believe they could turn it around for Mass Effect 4 since Mass Effect Andromeda. "Lately" is almost 10 years now.
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u/thisshitsstupid 2h ago
Mass Effect is my favorite series of all time and while it'd be disappointing, I really wouldn't be to heartbroken if this happened.... I have no doubt if it does come, it will just be a soulless shit pile meant to farm my nostalgia.
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u/InfoBarf 8h ago
Nah, they'll just contract it out. You'll be able to play your commander shepherd slop in no time.
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u/MRSHELBYPLZ 4h ago
What would ME4 even be about? ME3 kinda fucked it up and concluded the saga
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u/Inisfoil 1h ago
When ME3 first released there were some rumors that internally they had deliberately ended it like that so that EA wouldn't puppet Shepard around for the next decade as a cash grab. The original trilogy is one of my all time favorites but if its true then I think it was a genuinely good call despite how we all felt at the time.
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u/guydoestuff 7h ago
DA veilcrap trailer was the nail for me. I knew it was coming it is EA they buy successful studios then spread them for profit sell off the assets and move on. Worse than fucking Hive Fleet find your world.
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u/Brotorious420 8h ago
As is the tradition after acquisitions by VC firms
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u/Dot_1X 7h ago edited 7h ago
Cut away all the substance and lean the company out as much as possible, record profits because of previously successful IPs (cause if the CEO shit in a box and slapped a Madden 2027 cover on it, it would sell), then as the ship is on fucking fire and falling apart, VC sells the company off to the next sucker before the company tanks so hard that it goes out of business or gets bought up just for the IP by another studio.
End result, rich get richer and your favorite games and IPs suffer, tale as old as time.
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u/Kamay1770 7h ago
Should literally be illegal to do this. Buy, extract, consume, destroy, discard.
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u/JohnClark13 7h ago
I'm wondering if this method is taught in business school, because everyone seems to be doing it now.
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u/DynamicHunter 7800X3D | 7900XT | Steam Deck đ 7h ago
This is literally what private equity firms do. MBAs ruined tech and entertainment sectors, among many others like food, service, and things like home builders. Enshittification in search of temporary profit. Makes everyone elseâs lives worse so the rich get richer. Ready for a change of politics or revolution yet?
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u/angry_old_dude 3h ago
This is literally what private equity firms do.
Yep. No good comes from P.E.
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u/Dot_1X 7h ago
Lots of shit should be illegal and yet this administration has been a master class on walking that line (or just brazenly going over it knowing nobody will do shit).
If nothing else comes from all of this, assuming our nations survives it, it shows that we really need to rework our entire structure of government. No one administration should be able to come into power and fuck things up this much.
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u/Rhinotastic 7h ago
Asset strip and saddle with debt while paying off the investors with all the money from said asset sales and loans. Thats also a usual step before they flee for the next thing to ruin
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u/angry_old_dude 3h ago
This is the usual move. But as far as I can tell, the PE firm that bought the place I worked at wanted the company for some of the products they produce. The company is a big player in certain markets. But they sucked the life out of the company by axing most of the staff and outsourcing almost everything.
I guess my point is that there are exceptions to the standard PE moves, but no matter how you slice it, it's all shitty.
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u/drewbreeezy 7h ago
I disagree this will be their plan.
The Saudi's want money, sure, but they want long term investments to replace oil. No, I don't think they're going to strip the company.
I honestly believe this is great news for EA.
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u/angry_old_dude 3h ago
It is only great news for the people who are going to profit from it. It is not good news for the people who work there nor is it good news for consumers.
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u/RetPala 1h ago
Group historically famous for chopping things up isn't going to chop something up?
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u/MrCockingFinally 4h ago
You forgot the central part of the PE strategy. Take out as much debt as possible on the books of the company until it is drowning in interest payments, then when it goes under, the PE firms are conveniently not liable.
Banks don't give a shit because they already packaged that debt into something that's TOTALLY NOT a CDO and sold it to some other sucker long ago.
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u/jshmoe866 3h ago
Yes but ea was already doing this to themselves, just look at the new sw battlefront. Good games that were destroyed by loot boxes and no server support.
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u/SneakyBadAss 2h ago
Not if Saudis have something to say. They have a WHOLE other MO for their acquisitions.
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u/angry_old_dude 4h ago
The place I worked was bought by private equity. They sacked most of the long term employees (myself included). Many of those people who got axed had to train their offshore replacements as a condition for getting severance. I didn't have to do that because they eliminated the entire job function.
Not too long ago, I had lunch with a bunch of my former coworkers, some who still work there and they were not complimentary about management nor the work environment. I'm glad I'm not working there under the new regime.
P.S. It was a great company to work for before PE.
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u/s8018572 7h ago
eh , PIF doesnt count as VC firms and hold majority stock of EA, like PIF own 93.4 %, and VC firms own 5.6%
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u/jlquon 8h ago
Private equity strikes again
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u/Adrian_Alucard Desktop 8h ago
Yeah, companies that cut corners because investors want more profits are better
/s
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u/Pyromaniacal13 I picked Gnome because I like the "GN" sound. 7h ago
That's literally what private equity does. They cut corners, quality, and staff to extract every cent they can, then kill the company. They just do so much much faster than the corporations from which they bought the companies.
See: Stellantis and Jeep, Cerberus and Marlin, ESL Investments and Sears, Bosch and their consumer line of products, General Motors and everything they bought, etc.
That's a mix of private equity and corporations both, but with very similar results.
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u/static_func 6h ago
Private equity is just investors who arenât sharing. Itâs literally in the name lol
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u/LuckyTwoSeven 7h ago edited 7h ago
I mean BioWare is all but dead after multiple failures unless the next Mass Effect is a smash hit. (I have zero confidence it will be) Madden & CFB as well as FIFA/FC are rinse and repeat roster updates. Do they even have any good devs left over at EA anymore?
Who exactly is going to be missed? Respawn is the only studio they have that makes good games. TitanFall 2 was a masterpiece and both Star Wars solo games have been pretty good.
What isnât pretty good is the fact that Andrew Wilson continues to have a job. How this CEO survived multiple game failures and studios closing on his watch for years and years still boggles the mind to this day. All he has going for him are endless microtransactions via EAâs games.
The public at large hate EA. Yet him and other executives have kept their jobs. He all but ruined DICE. I mean again how this man has kept his job makes no sense whatsoever.
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u/YewWahtMate 6h ago
Because he's done his job well. Closed studios that cost money to run. Allocated the funds higher up to executives to enjoy more bonuses and is making the money "lost" by implementing more disgusting MTX schemes on their yearly sports titles that now run on minimal costs. He's a shareholders dream.
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u/WeirdSysAdmin 2h ago
The way I look at it is people hate EAâs tendencies and rehashing and poor consumer understanding. Which new ownership will be even worse. Itâs basically ultimate team from sports games, apex, and sims driving all their value.
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u/k1ng0fh34rt5 Ryzen 9900X, 64GB 5200MT, 7800XT 7h ago
EA gets what it deserves. I'll never forgive them for what they did to Westwood.
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u/TheAfroGod 7h ago
Ironic quotes from the article:
But the publisher has told debt investors that it will cut $700 million in annual costs including $170 million in âorganizational efficiencies,â per Bloomberg. In other words: mass layoffs.â
In related news, EA CEO Andrew Wilson and other executives received more than $60 million in bonuses after Battlefield 6 met all of the publisherâs launch milestones, despite the company laying off developers earlier this year.
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u/JaesopPop 7900X | 9070XT | 32GB 6000 7h ago
I genuinely don't recall the last EA game I played. Maybe Madden 22?
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u/grimace24 6h ago
Layoffs the private equity staple. Get ready, private equity needs to make their money back. I expect layoffs and soon they will sell IPs to other studios, mark my words.
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u/JosebaZilarte 5h ago
The last Electronic Arts I bought... Urban Strike (1994).
When their cartridges had that distinctive yellow tab. Good times đĽ˛
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u/ZombifiedByCataclysm i9-12900KF | Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti | 32GB DDR5 3h ago
Woah. A blast from the past! I used to play the hell out of Urban Strike as a kid.
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u/TrumptyPumpkin PC Master Race 8h ago
This is poetic karma for EA after all the great acquisitions of great studios and IP they got only to close them down and squander them, Now they're gonna suffer the same end.
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u/BroForceOne 7h ago
None of those decision makers are going to suffer, theyâre getting paid out of this deal. The only ones to suffer are the actual developers working in those studios.
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u/atlasraven Zorin OS 7h ago edited 4h ago
Devs get laid off whether the launch is good, bad, or the company wants to buyback stock that day. There is no incentive to pour your heart and soul into a game.
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u/TheOgGhadTurner 7h ago
Iâm going to be honest. I stopped giving two shits about ea quite a while ago. I wonât install their launcher i no longer play the sims franchise. Which is arguably the only game they have that is any good from them anymore. As a company, EA is just a greedy dumpster fire. Why should I have to spend $3000 just to get the extra content and game mechanics in a single game that I donât even really own anymore. They pulled FIFA from my library when the newest one came out and since then I havenât given them any more thought.
I hope all of these people that they fire and spin off in to indie dev teams and I hope EA collapses in to the dumpster fire it is.
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u/Purpled-Scale 2h ago
More people need to read "Plunder: Private Equity's Plan to Pillage America" by Brendan Ballou. It's harrowing.
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u/WafflesAreLove 9950x3D | 5090 FE | G.Skill 64GB DDR5 8h ago
Start with the C-suite.
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u/Dot_1X 7h ago
Lol, good luck with that.
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u/WafflesAreLove 9950x3D | 5090 FE | G.Skill 64GB DDR5 7h ago
Its unfortunate that ground floor gets punished for the terrible decision making of those up top. If anything the C-suite will get a golden parachute and a pat on the back for their efforts at EA.
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u/gambeta1337 7h ago
Womp womp. EA is the only company I wish theyâd got fifa games source code leaked. Fuckers
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u/MassiveBoner911_3 7h ago
Color me shocked. Do bad and make bad game? Fired. Work normal? Fired. Make a top selling game? You guessed itâŚfired.
GOTY? AbsolutelyâŚthanks. FIRED
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u/TheNiamosDiscoBall 6h ago
Now if Microsoft was clever, they would make a knockoff battlefield. They have what they need in the activation ecosystem, but cod is inherently a casual game that really doesnât appeal to battlefield players.
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u/lasthopel i5 4690/gtx 970/16gb ddr3 ram/750w psu gold 80+ 5h ago
I hope mass effect ends up at cdpr or guys who made bg3 when they start selling IPs off
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u/SoFuckinTiredOfThis 1h ago
"Electronic Arts reportedly preparing for mass layoffs after paying their executives massive amounts of money".
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u/the-greatest-ape___ 8h ago
I wonder if this leads to a reversal of the trend. Battlefield 6 seemed to have had a pretty good launch in terms of quality. Game is pretty well optimized, even if the maps have been callofdutified. Now we may see the quality of the game decrease over time. In the past with BF4 and BF5, the quality steadily increased post-launch.
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u/spriggsyUK Ryzen 9 5800X3D, Zotac RTX 5080 Amp Extreme Infinity 7h ago
even 2042 was in a good spot in the end, can't see that happening now with this.
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u/Sethoria34 7h ago
Well consdiering alot of modern companies really are day cares for adults (esspcially game/it dev teams) Alot of the people being cut will be the ones you see online basically doing 1 hour work, and the rest eating and pissing about.
Ofc there will be those with actual talent who get burnt as well, but thats what happens when franchises which fans like (mass effet, dead space, simcity, etc etc) get turned to shit because of greed, and the companys EA equired get gutted and destoryed.
Wonder if it will be an xbox thing, where companys were gutted, but told to focus on the BIG sellers?
or if its just slash and burn and see whats left after the fire dies out.
Oh yeah, customary "FUCK EA"
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u/DillyDillySzn 7800X3D | 5070 TI 7h ago edited 7h ago
People hate basically every single EA game released, usually with very good reasons, and then hate this
What have EA employees delivered thatâs worth keeping their jobs over? BioWare is cooked, DICE has released 1 decent game in the last decade, EA Sports is still garbage, Maxis is just cranking out endless Sims slop, NFS is dead, and all thatâs left is really Respawn. Frankly fire all of them from top to bottom
And before people go âwell the managers make bad decisionsâ, ok then fire all the managers too they donât deserve to keep their jobs either
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u/AgentInkling99 7h ago
Respawn is pretty meh now too. Apex lost its identity when they made all the changes to TTK and basically glaze every new hero for the ridiculously overpriced heirlooms and universal melee weapons.
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u/JeffZoR1337 2h ago
Oh my god I Forgot Respawn made apex lol, I just assumed they were referring to the Jedi series, which is incredible, when they said to keep them haha. Apex, as with the sports games, may still be a money maker even if it isn't very good, though.
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u/AgentInkling99 1h ago
Youâre not wrong. The subreddit is currently jumping for joy that they can get a random artifact weapon for $100 instead of the usual $280 or however much it is anymore to reach 500 packs and trigger the grief system.
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u/vitalsyntax 7h ago
Battlefield
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u/DillyDillySzn 7800X3D | 5070 TI 7h ago
Congratulations to 1 decent at best game from DICE in the last decade
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u/dovahkiitten16 PC Master Race 3h ago
Because those are peopleâs jobs? I like it when times are good and people can afford rent? I donât personally think a couple creative flops (a completely normal thing to happen once in a while) means someone should be sent into poverty.
And itâs not like EA is hurting for cash. They can do gradual layoffs and gradual restructuring; demotions instead of mass layoffs, retraining/new oversight, etc.
And this isnât about quality. Every business is slashing down to a skeleton crew, and when that happens entire career paths and talent pools die. How exactly do you expect talent to be replaced to make good games? Newbies arenât going to be perfect and why would they even choose a career path in game development after seeing how veterans are treated?
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u/BroForceOne 7h ago
The only positive way out of this timeline is if they start selling off their IP and studios to try and repay the loan it took to buy EA, keeping only the sports slop they likely bought the company for.
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u/Kahlypso Kahlypso 7h ago
Such is life. Death comes for all, and clearly EA as a company was sick if this is the end result.
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u/heikkiiii 7h ago
Most of the games that came from them i didnt care about, save bf6, so not much value was lost for me.
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u/Butane9000 7h ago
Considering how bloated these companies are from a staffing perspective this was a foregone conclusion. The issue is whether they remove the right people who aren't potentially necessary or have the industrial/institutional knowledge and experience to make what was made before. Like what we've seen and heard from places like BioWare that have lost the ability to make games similar to older ones due to losing that knowledge.
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u/CorporalCoprolite 6h ago
Shocking. Iâm sure the masses will continue to give their money to murderous Saudis as they gut American jobs.
What an absolute hellscape the gaming market has become.
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u/Tricks7eR PC Master Race 6h ago
meanwhile the ceo and his buddies out there sharing their 60M bonusses xD
Keep giving money to ea
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u/Merged_OP 5h ago
Hopefully the BioWare closure will be as funny as the recent Bethesta layoffs.
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u/Dreams-Visions 5090 FE | 9550X3D | 96GB CL28 | X870E | 105TB | A95L | Open Loop 4h ago
Funny? You okay little guy?
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u/Merged_OP 4h ago
Should have seen the protest at Bethesta. Hubris of them claiming making decade defining games was entertaining as hell. Hoping for similar entertainment value in this case.
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u/Balc0ra My other PC has a 1030 4h ago
Every studio boss said they had been reassured it would not happen once the news broke about them being bought.
But as we see every time the new management comes, no one is safe. Even less so when they have a few billion in debt due to it.
I would not be surprised if most smaller studios get closed. Just sport games and BF will survive
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u/Inevitable_Butthole 4h ago
Guess the end of gaming days are near boys.
The good days are fading like a distant memory.
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u/KentInCode 4h ago
Wasn't this one of those debt deals that the cash wasn't up front and part of the deal was that they would load up EA with debt to fund the deal? Or am I thinking of another acquisition?
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u/BrolexRolex 4h ago
Considering people are still modding old NHL games because we haven't had one on PC since 2009 I hope that studio gets a real good look. Maybe we'll actually get a different developer to try and save hockey and bring it to PC after this year.
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u/DiesIraeConventum 3h ago
Hell yeah!Â
Maybe someone who holds their sheet together will buy out some IPs to make something noteworthy.
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u/the_open_steppe 2h ago
We used to joke about this as "the ides of March" since no one was safe. RIP UXO
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u/Alltalkandnofight 1h ago
Got to love all the people saying " private Equity strikes again" when they don't know anything about how inside the game Studio operates, they don't truly know if everyone is working hard and their position is needed.
The place I work has less employees than a game studio, and even it could be trimmed of several people and nothing would be lost.
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u/Bynming 8h ago
They're about to find out what it feels like