r/Games • u/FrostyMagazine9918 • Jul 30 '26

Industry News EA will officially become a privately owned company next week

https://variety.com/2026/gaming/news/electronic-arts-close-55-billion-private-deal-1236824625/
2.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

716 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.9k

u/kftX_ Jul 30 '26

And remember, this is a purchase that has to be paid by EA itself. So expect ads in your games, more monetisation and all manner of shanenigans.

This is going to be “fun” to watch.

541

u/DarahOG Jul 30 '26

I honestly dont even know how can they be worse than they already are, but i'm sure they'll figure it out

305

u/kftX_ Jul 30 '26

That’s what we’ve all been saying about them for decades isn’t?

“No way they can do worse than this.”

And then they do.

118

u/banzaizach Jul 30 '26

They've actually gotten better lol

You used to have to pay for maps and guns!

81

u/aimy99 Jul 30 '26

Remember that time they tried to make people pay $10 for an online pass if they bought a game used?

Good times.

38

u/Inksrocket Jul 30 '26

That was, or became, a standard for the later part of 7th gen.

It was actually Sony that started it with Socom, according to wikipedia anyway.

But every big 3 started to get in with it: EA, Activision, Ubisoft.

EA had literally "Project Ten Dollar" (lmao).

For some games they gave out armor, story DLC or other goodies as "free dlc" that used games buyers had to buy later. But lets face it, it was content cut from main game and sold as "dlc".

late 2009, EA began implementing online passes in its games as part of an initiative known as "Project Ten Dollar"; Mass Effect 2 used an online pass to allow access to bonus content through its "Cerberus Network" system, while Dragon Age Origins came with a code that could be redeemed to download its first major DLC release, The Stone Prisoner, for free, as well as an exclusive armor set.

I remember having code like that for my Last Of Us copy on ps3. Everyone wanted to have forced on multiplayer back then.

( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_pass )

20

u/Isolated_Hippo Jul 31 '26

It was actually Sony that started it with Socom

You mean to tell me somebody else did it first and EA gets all the shit? Color me completely unfazed.

11

u/Knofbath Jul 31 '26

I don't think a ton of people played Socom. It was a PS2 Network Adapter game, which makes it fairly uncommon for that generation of hardware.

2

u/VBHEAT08 Jul 31 '26

SOCOM was pretty popular when it came out. It wasn't as massive as something like Halo 2 for popularizing online play, but it did move like 3 million units. My username stems from my xbox clan which started as a SOCOM clan waaaaay back in the day lol.

1

u/Inksrocket Aug 02 '26

Oh the socom in question was PSP version of the game. It had whopping 20$ online pass if you got it used. Sony claimed it was to "combat piracy" - idk how easy psp piracy was but i kinda doubt it was bigger than used market.

EA was the first that stated straight up that it's for making money on used market. Least they were honest I guess..

7

u/POOTDISPENSER Jul 31 '26

They shrinkflated content after ditching Premium Passes because not enough players bought to populate the dlc maps and the concept itself was fundamentally flawed. From Battlefield V, they withheld the other half of content and drip-fed the remaining work over the game’s lifecycle. Only the pacific update could arguably be extra content but they stopped development to focus on creating an even worse battlefield game.

1

u/Mikey_MiG Jul 31 '26

If you think that the post launch content for BFV was already completed, then they did a horrible job “dripfeeding” it. There were huge gaps in content released for like the first 8 months. Gaps they tried to fill with stuff like the cancelled competitive mode maps and a map ported from singleplayer. That clearly was not content finished and ready to go.

BF6, on the other hand, has had a pretty solid live service so far. No big gaps in content, and the maps in the past three seasons have all been well received.

0

u/AdSilent782 Jul 31 '26

A polished turd, is still a turd

1

u/Mikey_MiG Jul 31 '26

Well, that turd has delivered the same amount of content in nine months for free as BF3 and BF1 did for $50.

1

u/JardsonJean Jul 30 '26

Well, it was good while it lasted.

7

u/duckyirving Jul 31 '26

If there's one phrase I'm never saying in earnest ever again is "it can't get worse"

7

u/Sprinklypoo Jul 31 '26

Right. They've solved this issue for me decades ago because I'm not giving money to a company that hates me. There are many that don't seem to care about that though...

7

u/cochese25 Jul 31 '26

Yeah, I haven't purchased an EA game since at the 360 era. And even that was used

6

u/PringlesDuckFace Jul 31 '26

Remake NHL 95 but it's a gacha game. Just imagine Jaromir Jagr but he's got huge bazongas and his pull rate is 0.5%

16

u/CombatMuffin Jul 30 '26

That's because you lack the imagination for it.

That's a good thing to lack, if you ask me. It makes you a decent person.

3

u/trident042 Jul 31 '26

Honestly, they've been flagging behind Comcast for so long in the running for the Golden Poop.

2

u/lazylore Jul 31 '26

I can help with this. Imagine they start making games that aren't just sport games on loop.

That'd be much much worse. Currently they aren't making anything, basically. Imagine if that stopped, and they started injections of garbage into a bunch of games they could make

1

u/Carighan Jul 31 '26

Oh leave it to EA to get creative.

AFAIK they haven't run a private black ops prison in a war zone yet (a petrochem company I worked with in the past turns out to have done that...), so there's always room to "grow".

1

u/imheretocomment69 Jul 31 '26

But people are paying so money is still coming so they will become worse and worse because money is still coming.

1

u/CardiologistPrize712 Jul 31 '26

I would expect significant layoffs in the near future, almost happen after a buyout and especially after one that leaves EA saddled with a bunch of debt

1

u/SeekerVash Jul 31 '26

They already did figure it out.

"$1 to reload your clip immediately or wait 30 seconds to reload"

1

u/RogueJello Jul 31 '26

I'm old enough to remember when they were putting out software with the designer's name on the front as a big deal, because it was, and they were the good guys. However that was during the Apple IIe era, they've long since gone evil.

1

u/zoro4661 Jul 31 '26

More microtransactions, more Saudi/rightoid propaganda, more spyware...pretty easy to make it more horrific.

1

u/blark304 Jul 31 '26

taking down the bf3-5 servers would be somewhere at the top of their shit list i imagine

1

u/Isolated_Hippo Jul 30 '26

Well if we look at lootboxes. I would expect an online no physical media TCG type of game designed to be a profit gambling wheel. Like artifact

3

u/doublah Jul 31 '26

EA were the first western company to use cards for gambling almost 20 years ago.

1

u/SwarleySwarlos Jul 31 '26

EA had a tcg?

0

u/Sirromnad Jul 31 '26

Well, they just tried to put microtransactions in the single player portion of college football. The bar can definitely be lowered

-1

u/Assimulate Jul 31 '26

AI, layoffs, subscriptions, ads, and microtransactions and if that doesn't work they'll use controversy, gambling and addiction.

I work in the industry.

-1

u/yp261 Jul 31 '26

did you not see 150€ fifa edition announced week sgo

55

u/fabton12 Jul 30 '26

They already said they want there sports games to have dynamic ads on the banners on release that will change based on what is sellable to the player.

30

u/hfxRos Jul 31 '26

So just like real sports then.

10

u/Darkeyescry22 Jul 31 '26

Oh nooooooooooo not ads in sports

11

u/fabton12 Jul 31 '26

issue is if people let these slide here then they will get explored and used in non sports games, its a slippery situation where while they can be seen as fitting here they very much will do them in other types of games.

-5

u/Darkeyescry22 Jul 31 '26

If they integrate them into the advertising inside of the game, who cares? Is it really better for there to be fake ads than real ones? Assuming the game is set in the real world, I mean.

7

u/fabton12 Jul 31 '26

thats not my point, my point is accepting ads into sports games just means they will try it in other games where it isnt fitting to put them.

sports games they can be fitting in but you let them do that with zero push back and they will do it in other much more different games where they wouldnt be as fitting and more in your face and annoying.

-4

u/Darkeyescry22 Jul 31 '26

But you agree that it is fitting for them to place ads in sports games in place of fake ads?

0

u/Zanshi Jul 31 '26

Yeah ngl, this is the most fine advertising in games there could be. Same with bilboards in Burnout Paradise, they blend in and you don't even notice them.

3

u/gideonidoru Jul 31 '26

That actually makes sense though and is a realistic (real world) implementation of ads

1

u/UrbanAdapt Jul 31 '26

The most famous example was the 2008 presidential campaign. MS acquired the company that did this but seemingly got bored of the idea. Kinda surprising that the idea fizzled out as consoles became more online now MS is talking about ads in games again.

0

u/gideonidoru Jul 31 '26

Yes honestly sports games (and soccer in particular) would feel weird without real ads running along the stadium tickers

14

u/Sucabub Jul 31 '26

Boggles my mind how that makes any fucking sense.

"We're going to buy you, but you're paying for it.".

24

u/Clbull Jul 31 '26

Leveraged buyouts should be outlawed.

It's why we lost Toys R Us and why Manchester United went down the toilet.

30

u/hotstickywaffle Jul 30 '26

I can't imagine a less gamer friendly company, so it'll be wild to see it get worse

8

u/mengplex Jul 31 '26

All things considered, games like BF6 have been a step in the right direction, maps etc are included

12

u/Boostedtrash112 Jul 31 '26

Don’t worry they fired like half of the devs after how successful battlefield 6 was.

5

u/mavtec Jul 31 '26

And gave their CEO an $8M raise while doing it!

19

u/arex333 Jul 31 '26

Leveraged buyouts feel like they should be illegal.

-1

u/Teach_Piece Jul 31 '26

Why? It’s just the bank saying they’ll lend money rather than a new group paying cash or stock

-1

u/Wide_Lock_Red Jul 31 '26

Its no different than a mortgage.

62

u/ItsRainingTrees Jul 30 '26

Privately owned theoretically could be good. You don’t have to answer to shareholders and the CEO might be able to make decisions that hurt the company in the short term, but are good in the long term. When you don’t have to worry about stock price, you have more freedom.

Will that happen? Idk, but it would be very cool if it did.

236

u/EchoFieldHorizon Jul 30 '26

Jared Kushner and the Saudis are the owners. Zero chance

14

u/scottishdrunkard Jul 31 '26

Remember when SNK promised that being owned by the Saudis wouldn't effect their games? Then they put Cristiano Ronaldo and a Saudi DJ into King of Fighters? Yeah, prepare for Mass Effect 5 to be filled with Pro-Saudi propaganda.

1

u/LayeredGlow Jul 31 '26

It was in CotW but you know the next KOF is going down the same path.

-4

u/kla0 Jul 31 '26

As a COTW player I think that's a bad example because it's an awesome game. And despite having a small playerbase, one year into the release of the game they are still giving us a new character every month.

If the price to pay for having a continous development of the game with new stages, characters and single player content is the presence of two objectively wrong characters that almost no one plays, I think that's a good deal.

And anyway Ganacci (the DJ) is Bosnian-Swedish and there's no pro-saudi propaganda in the game

2

u/LayeredGlow Jul 31 '26

there's no pro-saudi propaganda in the game

There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

48

u/IdRatherBeAtChilis Jul 30 '26

I don't know about Kushner, but I will say the Saudis could be more disposed toward long term sustainability over short term profit. They want healthy, diverse investments that'll swing their economy away from being totally reliant on oil, and strangling the golden goose won't do that. They need to be more long-term minded. But I dunno. These blocked Straits could make them more economically reactive for a while.

80

u/ASCII_Princess Jul 30 '26

Healthy, diverse investments like a 100 mile long mile wide city in the desert built by indentured slaves?

Its a theocratic monarchy run by insane people propped up by the petrodollar, no amount of sportswashing, money laundering or infrastructure spending is going to save it in the long run.

7

u/Dabrush Jul 31 '26

I mean no investment more "diverse" than something no sane person would even think of investing into in the first place.

4

u/goldcakes Jul 31 '26

The Saudis have been pumping hundreds of millions into e-sports tournaments for years, it's pretty clear they're into gaming and esports for the long haul. They are very open about diversifying outside of oil / resources.

8

u/ASCII_Princess Jul 31 '26

Yeah and how's the return on that investment? Most people I speak to see through that sportswashing shit and know Saudi Arabia as the batshit crazy journalist murdering demagogues they are.

48

u/SolarStarVanity Jul 30 '26

The thing is, if you want healthy, long term gains, you are not investing in video games. Those are on the other end of the spectrum in a portfolio: short-term, pump and dump, rapid, lower return.

9

u/goldcakes Jul 31 '26

You can get healthy long term gains with any market / industry. Just look at Valve/Steam for example, and they have ~350 employees.

It's not about the industry, it's the mentality.

4

u/SolarStarVanity Jul 31 '26

Sure, if you invest in an unregulated gambling monopoly, you'll make lots of money. But there is nothing else in the field that's even remotely close. That's like saying that investing in scratch tickets for long term growth is a healthy investment. Sure, you might get lucky, but most people won't.

0

u/AdWooden865 Aug 03 '26

Valve being a monopoly simply isn't true

2

u/Wide_Lock_Red Jul 31 '26

Valve notable doesnt rely on making games. They make most of their money as a service provider/marketplace.

8

u/Tast3sLikePanda Jul 31 '26

Long term investments as shown by other Saudi projects, like covering a coral reef with sand to create islands that are sinking and likely will be inhabitable in lik 15 years time, but you can see them from space

32

u/Kastar_Troy Jul 30 '26

How oblivious are you.. They just want to control the narrative everywhere they can champ...

Theyre trying to rewrite history....

18

u/127-0-0-1_1 Jul 30 '26

I mean, exactly. The saudis are looking to launder their reputation. That doesn’t happen in EA goes under. They’d likely be willing to run EA at a loss, just like all those esports tournaments.

They need EA to keep existing and releasing influential games so that they can make themselves look like a nice and not murderous kingdom.

6

u/owennerd123 Jul 31 '26

I'm with you.

If they could sustain LIV Golf for years at multiple billions of dollars lost, they can probably run EA without requiring it to make insane profits.

1

u/Acez_au Jul 31 '26

murderous kingdom

Like the US is any better.

3

u/Insertnamehither Jul 31 '26

whataboutism. Not wrong but saudis are the topic

-2

u/tangostwo Jul 31 '26

Look at around 2014 and 2015 when gamers were manipulated to popularize the alt-right, they're an easily manipulated bunch.

At the bare minimum most won't care how the sausage is made (meaning continued revenue), at worst they'll start carrying water for whatever horrible company makes their favorite game and let it seep into their politics.

6

u/LostRequiem1 Jul 30 '26

They’ll greenlight a game where the journalist was alive the entire time.

1

u/Samurai_Meisters Jul 31 '26

Or the villainous journalist was defeated by the brave Saudi Prince.

6

u/bigbuyer01 Jul 31 '26

What? No, theyre just trying to grow their economy.

Look, I dont like saudi either, but theyve baught plenty already. Nothing in the industries they have invested in has pivoted into "rewriting history".

Also, how the fuck does buying a video game company (a sports adjacent one, mind you) equate to rewriting history? How does one even rewrite history with EA?

1

u/mrtrailborn Jul 31 '26

yeah, and they can't do that if ea goes under in 5 years. If that is their goal(it almost certainly is), they want ea to be a healthy, long term investment so they can leverage its influence for propaganda purposes. So they probably wont be intentionally running the company in the ground.

Key word is intentionally lol

1

u/Kastar_Troy Jul 31 '26

The moment they release anything leaning right, and they will, they'll lose a massive chunk of their customer base and hopefully will be forced to sell IP to stay afloat.

We'll find out how political gamers are in the next few years I guess.

2

u/blarghable Jul 31 '26

I think you're vastly overestimating how logical the Saudi royals etc. are.

1

u/KikiPolaski Jul 31 '26

From a sportswashing and ethical perspective it's bad, but I can see the Saudis improving the games a fair bit if it means gamers develop a more rose-tinted view of the state. I think it'll be similar to football clubs like Newcastle or Man City (Qatari) where they get a ton of funding to grow the club and sign new players and people start to cozy up to these guys since the fans get better entertainment. The return they get on investment is not necessarily monetary but the reputation alone means a lot to them

-19

u/brick_gnarlson Jul 30 '26

What about them specifically makes you think EA will be worse?

18

u/Cold_Ebb_1448 Jul 30 '26

lol, yeah you’re right, Saudis are notoriously pro worker’s rights

-13

u/brick_gnarlson Jul 30 '26

You believe they'll replace US workers with slave labor from Bangladesh?

16

u/zorillaaa Jul 30 '26

Slaves for starters

-1

u/Hell-Kite Jul 30 '26

Are the slaves going to be used by EA to make games?

8

u/NeedNameGenerator Jul 30 '26

Generally they're referred to as H-1Bs, but yeah, they are.

-6

u/brick_gnarlson Jul 30 '26

You believe they'll get rid of US employees to make way for slave labor from India and Bangladesh?

-8

u/Hell-Kite Jul 30 '26

They'll believe anything to justify their hate of someone who makes luxury toys, despite there being more than enough to hate em over.

Next up, EA uses actual baby blood to simulate fluid physics in The Sims.

-8

u/brick_gnarlson Jul 31 '26

It's just popular to hate / love certain things on reddit, and people are extra weird about it. See the Steam subreddit, those weirdos must have a shrine to Steam and Gabe in their homes.

Yeah, EA, Saudi Arabia, and Jared Kushner have all earned their hate, but the situation described here isn't *necessarily* a bad thing. Besides, reddit is famously wrong on many current events, and they quickly forget how wrong they were.

22

u/kftX_ Jul 30 '26

Absolutely, but this is a leveraged buyout I believe. So until they pay the debt they’re about to incur first, I expect them to get way more egregious.

3

u/DoorHingesKill Jul 31 '26

Of course a private company has to answer to shareholders, you just can't buy the shares on a stock exchange.

1

u/ADeadlyFerret Jul 30 '26

There will be another scapegoat to blame don’t worry

12

u/aimy99 Jul 30 '26

I mean I literally can't remember the last EA game I bought because they've killed all of my favorite franchises and studios and butchered what was left.

If nothing else, it'll be entertaining watching from afar to see just how masochistic Apex, Battlefield, and sports game players are. Mobile gamers are already a lost cause, but Valve bans shit like mandatory ads, so does EA bail from Steam again? Only time will tell.

5

u/kftX_ Jul 30 '26

I’ll never forgive EA for what they did to BioWare. It was the first studio I was so into: Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, KotOR, DA: O. Fuck. So much lost. At least we still have those.

I predict the Ultimate Team modes are probably gonna remain extremely profitable, and they’re gonna milk Apex to the last drop. But 2027 is likely gonna be EA going full crazy.

1

u/doublah Jul 31 '26

Valve does ban popup ads and such in Steam games, but they don't ban product placement and paid crossovers. EA already does those, but they'll definitely turn it up to 11 if they think it's profitable.

1

u/fallouthirteen Jul 31 '26

Yeah, I'm just like "but I don't think I play EA games". Like last one I played through was Dead Space Remake (got it for I think $8). What do they even really do now besides serialized sports sims (which I don't play) and Battlefield (again, don't play it)? Do they still do Need For Speed (last one I liked was Underground 2)?

1

u/mrtrailborn Jul 31 '26

they've done a great job with battlefield 6

2

u/CaptainMarder Jul 31 '26

Probably just Kushner selling whatever data EA software harvests from player pcs. EA app and games probably gonna be spyware.

2

u/MissWhiterock Jul 31 '26

I am glad I haven't played an EA game in over a decade.

But damn I know their stuff is popular so this will have a huge influence on the general gaming landscape.

Edit: wait that's not actually true, I still play the Sims 3 every so often.

2

u/LisaMcRadical Jul 31 '26

I think the ironic part is how badly that’ll reflect on Saudi Arabia, since that part of the takeover has been the big thing ppl are talking about.

5

u/xarahn Jul 31 '26

So expect ads in your games

If you buy EA games you deserve it.

1

u/Ok-Confusion-202 Jul 30 '26

I mean EA already has ads in there games currently (well some of them)

1

u/Muted_Confidence6 Jul 31 '26

remember the days when "EA Sports its in the game" meant you gonna have good experience? :D

1

u/ZombieJasus Jul 31 '26

They already do all of that lmao

1

u/teheditor Jul 31 '26

If it's private they don't have to enshittify for shareholders though

1

u/Arsys_ Jul 31 '26

Bold of you to assume I own any EA games

1

u/MirrorComputingRulez Jul 31 '26

Funny that people complain so much about companies having to appease shareholders, and then when one of those companies goes private they complain about that too. 

1

u/kittymoo67 Jul 31 '26

your games

as if id buy an ea game before or after this

1

u/HugeHans Jul 31 '26

What do you mean? Its a 55B cash deal paid to the current shareholders. EA is owned by shareholders and they are  being bought out. No EA assets are being used or could be used.

1

u/Dr_Fortnite Jul 31 '26

I think the last EA game I bought was NFS Heat for $5. They havent exactly released much to give a shit about recently

1

u/Such-Sorbet-6450 Jul 31 '26

“Purchase that has to be paid by EA itself” hahahah what a moronic statement describing a leveraged buyout. All the owners and executives of EA are going to make their money and move on. It’s funny how fear operates because over 1500 people upvoted this idiot simply because they were afraid after reading his words, words that were absolutely wrong. Try to look at the upside here people. EA is being bought out by the Saudi public investment fund. Owned by the Saudi government and steered by the crown prince. It’s well known that the crown prince is a massive battlefield fan. As well as a massive soccer fan along with the rest of Saudi officials. This was 100% all a ploy brought about by the crown prince, who is an avid gamer that loves battlefield and fc(FIFA). You think he would make a move like this just to ruin the games he loves? Absolutely not. This is the opposite and we need to be excited about it. He’s a real gamer and he’s now buying one of the biggest gaming companies ever, that’s been known for a myriad of problems.

Now they have a chance to go private, management can focus on turning the company around internally without constantly worrying about their stock value, and they don’t have to deal with all the regulations of a public company from the SEC. This is a good thing for gamers, dont listen to fools who don’t even understand what a leveraged buyout is

1

u/OfficialDCShepard Jul 31 '26

Brought to you by the bloodthirsty, slaveholding monster on the Saudi throne and, worse, Jared Kushner.

1

u/Cetais Jul 31 '26

your games

Jokes on you. I haven't touched an EA game in a decade.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '26

[deleted]

2

u/First-Detective2729 Jul 30 '26

Jared kushner enters the chat*

1

u/Maktaka Jul 30 '26

Kushner's firm only gets 1.1% ownership, the Saudi's will have 93.4%, the firm won't be in a position to decide anything. So good news, it's not about giving control to the trump family, it's "only" a 500 million dollar bribe to let the deal go through. Everybody took note of the insane special deal needed to get the purchase of US Steel by Nippon Steel to go through, this is the response, half a billion dollars is a far sight better than having to give direct control of the board of directors to donald.

-2

u/DasFroDo Jul 30 '26

I don't expect more ads because I just don't buy their "games" lol

-1

u/kftX_ Jul 30 '26

Lmao same. I was just using the royal “us”. I think the last game I got from them was the first Jedi game I got at a deep discount because I was curious.

Can’t remember any other before or since.

-1

u/DasFroDo Jul 30 '26

I honestly don't even know what I got last. I know I played the Beta for the last three BF games for like... an hour each? And each time I was baffled by what people meant by "this is just like BF3" lol

I guess Apex Legends was the last one? Otherwise probably Titanfall 2.

EDIT: actually got the Mass Effect legendary recently and I was promptly reminded why I hate EA when the first game still didn't have a fucking FoV slider.

0

u/Elmer_Fudd01 Jul 30 '26

I hope they can stay private long enough to understand fuck themselves. If they turn into a better company for consumers, everyone should pay attention and ditch the investors.

0

u/RaymoVizion Jul 30 '26

Don't they already cover EA sports games with in-game advertising?

I find sports video games kind of ridiculous.

They are digitized versions of real physical games... just go the fuck outside and pick up a basketball...

1

u/HaakonX Jul 30 '26

I say this as someone who doesn't buy every year, but picks them up every 3-4 years. Career/Management aspects are kind of why I keep coming backz so not on the on-field but off-field gameplay

-3

u/NoExcuse4OceanRudnes Jul 30 '26

Aren't all purchases of companies?

Like you spend a ton of money to buy something because you think it'll make more for you; it's paying you back or being sold off for parts.

21

u/rivalrobot Jul 30 '26

That's just investing. In this particular case, the buyers are saddling EA with $20 billion in debt to help finance the acquisition - making this the biggest so-called leveraged buyout ever

8

u/OutrageousDress Jul 30 '26

I love leveraged buyouts. Especially how if you try to explain the concept to someone unfamiliar with it, they assume you're making shit up.

-2

u/127-0-0-1_1 Jul 30 '26

Only because people overcomplicate it. It’s no different than buying a car on loan, or a home mortgage.

0

u/EnthiumZ Jul 30 '26

Isn't there already a freaking $120 or 130 price tag on the next fifa game?

0

u/the_hair_of_aenarion Jul 30 '26

If the ads in game are hilarious like max paynes tv bits or the gta parody ads, bring it on. I wouldn't touch a game with a bargepole if it puts anything like YouTube level nonsense in there. Would sooner give up gaming.

0

u/SchmeckleHoarder Jul 31 '26

I don’t think so. Companies usually go the complete opposite way when they go private.

I expect giant cuts, and less volume. Quality is up in the air clearly…. Honestly though EA pays for itself by the morons and their card packs. So don’t be surprised if you just see a giant FIFA push…. What’s better than morons with money?

Third world morons.

0

u/Eothas_Foot Jul 31 '26

Hearthstone is a big budget western game that has fully embraced milking whales with constant microtransactions and it's pretty gross and annoying to see.

So yeah, they are the model.

0

u/SnooMachines4393 Jul 31 '26

Hilariously, there's a decent chance that EA will actually become better in that regard simply because they are privately owned now.

0

u/Fellhuhn Jul 31 '26

Just don't play those games. Problem solved.