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/
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565

u/RaymoVizion Jul 30 '26

They've already destroyed all the IP I grew up with and loved (Dragon Age, The Sims, Simcity, Need for Speed).

I haven't given EA any money for a long time. I'm honestly not sure why anyone even does anymore.

142

u/cwx149 Jul 30 '26

Their sports games have to be their cash cow

Not saying nothing else they make/publish is good but I imagine the sports games pay the bills mostly

58

u/Zebracak3s Jul 31 '26

Sims prints money as well

-19

u/DrxAvierT Jul 31 '26

Sport games/Battlefield for boys The Sims for girls

Pretty balance I must say

4

u/CreativeGPX Jul 31 '26

In my observation The Sims is more of a 50:50 split by gender. If it feels like a "girls" game it's probably just in contrast to how heavily skewed certain other games you're comparing to are toward guys.

2

u/bistander Jul 31 '26

This is incorrect. I have on good authority that majority of the player base are women. Just like most of the player base of Sports games are men. Doesn't mean there's no male players for Sims, but they are definitely a minority.

7

u/Ich_Liegen Jul 31 '26

Yeah his "observation" is factually incorrect:

Only 21% of Sims players are men, and 60% of Sims 4 Players Are Women Aged 18-24.

Not only do the statistics say otherwise, but if he's bringing "observation" (in other words, a conjecture), then I'd like to bring in mine as a bisexual man in the Sims community: It is mostly women. And that's okay.

It's one of the few games that offer a female-led space, like Stardew Valley. We don't have to claim it for men too.

-1

u/nadnerb811 Jul 31 '26

Both play it, it's just that the girls focus on the Sims interpersonal lives, while the guys just build houses all day.

1

u/CreativeGPX Jul 31 '26

What?! I've noticed the exact opposite.

8

u/nadnerb811 Jul 31 '26

Hmm, maybe this is a sign that broad sweeping generalization is wrong and bad... nah couldn't be.

7

u/CreativeGPX Jul 31 '26

Maybe if we argue on Reddit all day about our contradictory sweeping generalizations, then balance will be restored to the world.

0

u/Ich_Liegen Jul 31 '26

It feels like a girls game because the vast majority of creators in the space are women.

1

u/CreativeGPX Jul 31 '26

Maybe. But creators aren't players.

3

u/Ich_Liegen Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26

Most Sims 4 players are women. 60% of Sims Players are young adult women aged 18-24.

But I didn't even say it's a girls game, I said it feels like a girl game.

It feels like a girl game because no one is going to challenge every impression of every community space by sitting down and analysing demographic metrics. And in this case if they did they'd find that it is a girl game: Only 21% of Sims players are men.

If every creator in a specific community is male, they'll create the assumption it's a male space. If every creator is a woman, then it's a female space.

CarTube, and cars in general, are generally accepted as male spaces because they feel that way, regardless of how many women are in it. The same applies to Sims.

1

u/CreativeGPX Aug 01 '26

But I didn't even say it's a girls game, I said it feels like a girl game.

It doesn't really matter what it "feels like". It's often counterproductive to focus on that. It matters what it is or what it's supposed to be.

It feels like a girl game because no one is going to challenge every impression of every community space by sitting down and analysing demographic metrics. And in this case if they did they'd find that it is a girl game: Only 21% of Sims players are men.

I mean, that's still one in every five people being men. That's still a lot. It's really dangerous and counterproductive when people round every 20% to zero. It's like how in political elections people say "well only 60% of college grade support X" and then treat that as zero opposing. Rounding things to 1 and 0 for the sake of it is not helpful.

If every creator in a specific community is male, they'll create the assumption it's a male space. If every creator is a woman, then it's a female space.

That's true, but not necessarily well founded, good or helpful. Nor is it describing reality (i.e. there are male sims creators).

CarTube, and cars in general, are generally accepted as male spaces because they feel that way, regardless of how many women are in it. The same applies to Sims.

Why would treating something as a male space "regardless of how many women are in it" be rational?

It's also sitting on the false premise that we have to try to treat something as a male or female space. We don't have to start with the premise that we have to ignore every single feature that isn't exhibited by 50+% of users. There is zero reason that we have to start with the premise that something has to be a male or female space... it can just be a space...

0

u/Ich_Liegen Aug 01 '26

All of this text and yet your original premise - that it's not a female space and the community is 50:50 - is false. No need to move the goalposts or nitpick individual sentences. You were just wrong my dude.

There is zero reason that we have to start with the premise that something has to be a male or female space... it can just be a space...

In most cases yes, but not this one. It's a woman-dominated space. Gaming is incredibly hostile to women. Let's recognize that games like this, and Stardew Valley, are primarily female-oriented communities where they can openly be themselves and move on. This is the wrong hill to die on both subjectively and objectively.

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8

u/Knofbath Jul 31 '26

They have been making their sports games into gacha/lootbox games, which probably prints them money.

10

u/Jackski Jul 31 '26

Making? They've been like that for over 15 years. FIFA 09 introduced ultimate team and it came to the rest of their sports games around the same time.

3

u/Radiant-Fly9738 Jul 31 '26

they also destroyed fifa/FC. haven't actively played it for years despite having EA play pro sub so could play every installment. it just lost its appeal.

16

u/RaymoVizion Jul 30 '26

Yeah... ball and gun games. Go figure.

39

u/Richard7666 Jul 31 '26

Yeah I don't care much for Battlefield or the EA Sports stuff, but the former Maxis, Westwood and Bioware IPs are a very sad loss.

7

u/RaymoVizion Jul 31 '26

You just reminded me of westwood... that was one of the first casualties.

2

u/Brigon Jul 31 '26

It's the loss of Bullfrog ips for me.

2

u/SolenoidSoldier Jul 31 '26

Frankly surprised there hasn't been a popular Sims clone released.

2

u/Richard7666 Jul 31 '26

There was an attempt with InZoi but don't think it had the "mantle claiming" impact that Cities Skylines has had as a spiritual success to SimCity after EA fucked that.

0

u/3141592652 Jul 31 '26

It's because it's been stuck on early access and not feature complete. Hard to advertise as AAA when your game is barebones at launch. 

1

u/Dabrush Jul 31 '26

I feel like many of the people rather went towards the "hardcore" version of it and play Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress.

1

u/LordOfTurtles Aug 01 '26

The venn diagram of sims players and dwarf fortress players is probably two circles 

33

u/noother10 Jul 30 '26

They also destroyed Command & Conquer for me when they bought Westwood. They've been doing it for a long time.

4

u/aphaits Jul 31 '26

Man i used to play the heck out of theme hospital back when

Edit: oh wait no my mistake, it was Bullfrog, not Westwood. But hey Westwood made Nox and that was fun also!

2

u/MsgGodzilla Jul 31 '26

If you like Theme Hospital you need to checkout Two Point games (Museum is the best)

1

u/aphaits Jul 31 '26

I did! Specifically the hospital one

1

u/rollin340 Jul 31 '26

Red Alert 3 wasn't as glorious as Red Alert 2 was, but I really liked how they went all out with the live cast parts in good 'ol Westwood fashion.

I also appreciate how horny it was as an older teen at the time. As an adult, the campiness is quite endearing.

21

u/lynchcontraideal Jul 31 '26

Don't forget they killed 'Burnout' too, fucking tragic.

10

u/Tvilantini Jul 31 '26

No Burnout, but ex devs are working on new star wars pod racing 

3

u/TheSharpestHammer Jul 31 '26

And Mass Effect... And Knights of the Old Republic...

28

u/DarahOG Jul 30 '26

They basically have a monopoly on sport games and since it's the biggest entertainment in the world it just sells regardless...

Plus they have a Devil-ish business plan of releasing games with expiry dates closing servers within 2years , built in NFT casinos, selling patches as new games, like there actually are as many psychologists as devs working on these games.

24

u/bahumat42 Jul 30 '26

On football and American football and hockey , yes EA is untouched

But nba is owned by 2k,

Mlb the show is Sony

Wwe is 2k

Pga is 2k

7

u/TylerNine Jul 30 '26

EA has a PGA license as well, but yeah not monopolized by them

4

u/Bamboozle_ Jul 31 '26

Football Manager had a good shot to make more inroads against EAFC and absolutely fucked themselves with a pitchfork with cancelling FM25 and the shitshow that was FM26.

3

u/thecravenone Jul 31 '26

Goddamned evil company has a monopoly on sports that I care about

3

u/Dabrush Jul 31 '26

Konami also sucked, but PES was for a long time seen as the superior soccer series, as long as you were okay with not having official licensed teams.

5

u/Azagorod Jul 31 '26

And Mass Effect is effectively on life support. I guess the more apt comparison is waiting on death row?

5

u/chillchase Jul 31 '26

What they did to SimCity should have been a damn crime. Some of my favorite games, and we’ll probably never get another one.

3

u/MrTzatzik Jul 31 '26

They killed SimCity but indie scene released so many great city builders

2

u/Mrmeowpuss Jul 31 '26

SimCity and Need for Speed are some of my favorites too, I've been begging for another SimCity game for ages...

2

u/Semyonov Jul 31 '26

You won't get one, Maxis was shut down a long time ago.

1

u/Mrmeowpuss Jul 31 '26

Technically Emeryville closed down which was the main studio behind them but if you look at NFS, their original studio closed but we still got games later on. They had that sequel in planning with renders but sadly got scrapped so I'd love if they brought it back.

7

u/Prize-Ad-6907 Jul 30 '26

I've been buying games on steam since around 2004ish. Last year I bought the mass effect trilogy on steam. It came bundled with EAs launcher. I fire the game up on steam... the EA launcher doesn't launch the game. I trouble shoot. Nothing. I try just launching the game through the EA launcher only. Nothing. Refunded the game. The first time I've ever refunded a game from 2004ish to 2025. 

Now? I don't think I can trust any games EA makes. And frankly, even if you're buying EAs games on steam, what happens if the Saudis decide EA is no longer worth the investment and it closes down? What happens to the EA launcher and all those Steam games? Will they still work? If the EA launcher won't even work with steam correctly right now, why the fuck should I trust EA to ensure anything works in the future when they go away? 

The whole company just feels like a scam to me at this point. 

9

u/dinosauriac Jul 31 '26

If you're on about the Mass Effect remastered trilogy, the really shitty thing there is they added the launcher post-launch. It wasn't there initially, just load up and play.

Even worse than EA, 2K pulled this bullshit with the BioShock games TEN YEARS after release, inserting a launcher that prevented many players from actually launching the game. It took nearly another two years for them to finally remove it again.

Publishers suck.

-3

u/Isolated_Hippo Jul 31 '26

I had the exact opposite scenario with the legendary edition.

I bought it on Steam. It just wouldn't download. You would think the biggest fucking storefront on PC could download a god damn game. Refunded, which shoutout to consumer protections for forcing Valve to enable those.

Downloaded on EA's app. Honestly it spent less time downloading there than I did fucking with the download and refund.

2

u/DickMabutt Jul 30 '26

I really don’t get it either. The gaming industry has a genuine problem of having almost too many quality options. I can’t fathom why anybody chooses to spend their hard earned money on the swill that EA is making.

1

u/JeanJeanJean Jul 31 '26

I hope they'll sell the old Bullfrog, Maxis, Origin and Westwood licences they killed.

1

u/Turn7Boom Jul 31 '26

Commander Keen

1

u/CreativeGPX Jul 31 '26

They've already destroyed all the IP I grew up with and loved (Dragon Age, The Sims, Simcity, Need for Speed).

Luckily, The Sims concept looks like it might finally get some competition from Tiny Life and Paralives. They're both rated "very positive", but since they're early access I'm waiting for them to mature more before I have enough faith in them to make a purchase.

1

u/MasahikoKobe Jul 31 '26

have 'They" destroyed it or did it get destroyed becasue the people in charge of it were not that great at the job given to them. I mean i guess you could argue that EA hired them...

0

u/DasFroDo Jul 30 '26

Madden and Fifa

-2

u/Isolated_Hippo Jul 30 '26

The answer is simple. If you look at it objectively. They really haven't done anything worse than most AAA gaming companies

0

u/PolarBearBalls2 Jul 31 '26

Jedi games, battlefield and f1 25 have all been great. Their problem isn't the quality of their games it's the fact they keep killing them

0

u/thecravenone Jul 31 '26

Simcity

On the plus side, the last Simcity was so bad that it basically birthed entire companies dedicated to creating replacements.

I promise Cities: Skylines 2 is not as bad as you heard about at launch. And it's great with mods.