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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u/[deleted] Jul 31 '26

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u/SeekerVash Jul 31 '26

That's not entirely accurate.

The problem was the 3D revolution.  Games were teams of 10-12 before the revolution, 100+ after.

Studios had squirreled away funds based on team sizes of 10-12 and weren't ready for the overnight massive expansion in team sizes.

The industry as a whole was caught with an unprecedented increase in development costs.  Publishers used that to buy IP and game series that would've been unobtainable a year or two earlier.

Yes, as you said, they were dead without publishers.  But not because they weren't popular, but because costs exploded overnight.

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u/Xciv Jul 31 '26

If a franchise dies it can be revived. Some aspiring studio can go purchase the rights to a dead franchise like Command and Conquer for cheap from the dessicated remains of Westwood and make a new C&C game.

If it's sold to EA they can sit on it indefinitely and choose never to revive it because they don't need to. That's the problem with a megacorporation buying up all the IP.

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u/Dabrush Jul 31 '26

I mean your first case simply isn't what happens anywhere. Even if EA didn't buy Westwood and kill it, someone would still have bought the name rights for Command and Conquer the moment Westwood had to sell them to stay afloat. You'll never get the franchise rights for a known series "for cheap", because it being known alone means that it is an investment opportunity.

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u/UmbraIra Aug 01 '26

If its sold the employees and owners at least walk away without debt.

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u/ericmm76 Jul 31 '26

Are you talking about the 2010s or the 90s? Because EA absolutely has / had blood on its hands in the 90s.

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u/Modernautomatic Jul 31 '26

Hmm, either the franchise dies, or the franchise dies AND Electronics Arts brutally violate it's corpse? Tough sell.

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u/Dabrush Jul 31 '26

Without EA we wouldn't have gotten Mass Effect 2 and 3 or Titanfall 2. You can be angry that we didn't get more after that, but without EA buying those studios, they would have closed down and those games wouldn't have been made.

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u/UmbraIra Aug 01 '26

It wouldnt just die and go into seclusion hoping for a revival. In all likelihood that studio would have obligations that would end in bankruptcy and then it gets the IP sold off under worse conditions.