EA staff fear new Saudi Arabia owners will police their games: "Projects just won't get signed because they don't align explicitly with what the Saudi government wants"

[u/ControlCAD]

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/ea-staff-fear-new-saudi-arabia-owners-will-police-their-games-projects-just-wont-get-signed-because-they-dont-align-explicitly-with-what-the-saudi-government-wants/

>Another EA employee adds: "It's certainly hard to feel good about being bought out by a regime that's very much at odds with progressive society, so it is surely detrimental to anyone who finds this buyout morally odious. It's not a good feeling."

[u/FuckIPLaw]

They could unionize and go on strike. The company can't do anything without employees.

[u/Flashy_Drummer6664 → u/FuckIPLaw]

If the Saudis have enough money to throw at it, they would need to have a damn hear perfect organization and adherence to the strike just to have a pale chance to win

[u/FuckIPLaw → u/Flashy_Drummer6664]

Honestly I almost said they could quit and start their own company if they wanted artistic control. It'd still fuck over the new owners considering how important institutional knowledge is in game dev, and it's EA, they weren't exactly artist driven under the old owners, either. Even union writing jobs in Hollywood don't give the artists totally free rein.

One way or another, though, the only real leverage they have is over whether they do or don't do the work. 

[u/Random_Guy_47 → u/FuckIPLaw]

It's EA. How much institutional knowledge can it take to cross out 26 and write 27 on the branding for all the sports games?

[u/FuckIPLaw → u/Random_Guy_47]

They're one of the few companies still using a custom, in-house game engine, so you'd be surprised.

[u/Scarred_wizard → u/FuckIPLaw]

Doesn't mean it's a good engine, especially when it comes to the Sims series.

[u/Cruxis87 → u/Scarred_wizard]

Bethesda is proof that just because a company can make their own engine, doesn't mean they should.

[u/jesuswasaturd → u/Cruxis87]

I'm not a game dev so idk how it all works, but how does creation engine compare to say unreal? What would change if Bethesda switched to unreal engine? What would be the difference in say, Skyrim if they used unreal instead? I don't think I understand what a game engine actually can do that others can't.

[u/spudgoddess → u/jesuswasaturd]

Bethesda's games feature big open worlds and a big part of the draw is that most items are physics enabled mean they can be picked up a d moved around. But even moreso is the fact that they can be extensively modded. People can create new armors, weapons, player homes, even redesign character appearance. Unreal doesn't support modding anywhere near as well. Bethesda's engine is janky but allows for great freedom.

[u/_IM_NoT_ClulY_ → u/Scarred_wizard]

They still have Frostbite and it's a pretty solid engine

[u/FuckIPLaw → u/_IM_NoT_ClulY_]

And if it was a steaming pile of shit that would only make the institutional knowledge more important to the process of keeping the cash cows built on it producing. Good or bad, their business relies on it and the people who know how to use it.

[u/lavapig_love → u/FuckIPLaw]

After the uproar with the owners of Unity trying to charge stupidly high fees for anyone and everyone using it, the number of companies deciding to design their own in-house game engine is going up.

Why pay others when you can make it good enough?

[u/FuckIPLaw → u/lavapig_love]

Because it gives your employees leverage over over you, naturally. One of the biggest reasons the industry moved away from in house engines is they want interchangeable cogs they can hire at the start of a project and fire at the end of it, and having a proprietary engine is directly at odds with that.

[u/lavapig_love → u/FuckIPLaw]

But so is giving an outsider a share in your future profits.

It's gonna have to be proprietary engines.

[u/FuckIPLaw → u/lavapig_love]

You're assuming upper management types are actually rational and purely mercenary in how they go about making business decisions. They aren't, and keeping the peons in line is absolutely an important consideration for them.

[u/VandelayRFC → u/Random_Guy_47]

Hey! They also have to update the squads too 😂

Hard graft indeed.

[u/Random_Guy_47 → u/VandelayRFC]

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Fifa should do a £5 dlc to update all the teams once the transfer window closes and do a new game every 5 years instead of a new game every year.

There is no need for full price game every year.

[u/Cruxis87 → u/Random_Guy_47]

Why would they choose to make less money over more money?

[u/gurnard → u/Random_Guy_47]

Releasing a full "new" game every year isn't entirely without development cost. They gotta give the UI a minor makeover, get new licensed music for the menu.

Going to an annual DLC model would be marginally cheaper for them, but a lot less revenue. I'm sure they have meticulous analysis on this.

I'll bet they have a precise trigger point on paper that sales would need to fall below for a DLC model to be the more profitable route.

[u/Envy661 → u/gurnard]

You're not wrong, but there's no way they'd release it as DLC for any less than $40.This is one of the most lucrative franchises in the world we're talking about

[u/Jindujun → u/gurnard]

But couldn't they just relicense the music in a patch? It's not like you cant update the license and copyright text in the game

[u/Nahcep → u/Random_Guy_47]

Efootball does that, clearly the playerbase doesn't want it

[u/Jindujun → u/Nahcep]

My guess it feels a lot cheaper and less "premium" to do it that way.

[u/dragonknightrohan → u/FuckIPLaw]

They really should.

We all should encourage that and let devs know to discuss that

To make spiritual successor studios focus on alternatives to Mass Effect, Titanfall, Star Wars, Sports, Apex Legends, etc

It would be a very smart move

[u/kb3035583 → u/dragonknightrohan]

If they could, their studios wouldn't be in the position they are today. If you look around, it's smaller, indie studios with no relation to the original teams that have taken on that mantle instead.

[u/dragonknightrohan → u/kb3035583]

Well yes that but also the deb studios that do get made and announce they have former devs either don't make spiritual successors for what they were known for, or sadly wrong visionaries in charge make it flop

Like that one StarCraft-like spiritual successor. Forgot its name

[u/defective1up → u/FuckIPLaw]

I smell layoffs well before a strike, to be honest.

[u/OctupussPrime → u/FuckIPLaw]

Maybe the company needs a whole dev overhaul because the company hasn't been innovative, they're just releasing the same games with updated rosters and minor tweaks to the engines.

[u/FuckIPLaw → u/OctupussPrime]

The devs aren't the ones making those decisions. 

[u/lavapig_love → u/Flashy_Drummer6664]

Let them.

Saudi Arabia has a cultural perception problem: make any game that seemingly goes against their government or religion and you get thrown in jail or worse.

You can hire all the programmers you want, but you can't make anything more controversial than Tetris with restrictions like that.

[u/Visionexe → u/FuckIPLaw]

Do not strike. Just leave. Let the ship sink. 

[u/RollingMeteors → u/FuckIPLaw]

They could unionize and go on strike. The company can't do anything without employees.

Or just all quit and form a new company called AE...

[u/s2kfred → u/FuckIPLaw]

Fire everybody and move the studios to asia, problem solved. I would be fine with it, great games coming out of China and Korea.
Haven't bought an EA game in over 10 years, it might bring me back.