"It's certainly hard to feel good about being bought out by a regime that's very much at odds with progressive society"
  • orenj [he/they]@leminal.spaceEnglish
    2·
    41 minutes ago

    I would be surprised if EA can make anything at all after any of its current projects. They need to make more money in profits than they currently make in revenue to survive.

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      3 hours ago

      I’ve been boycotting EA for decades now, but I always felt like I was the only one when I talked to people outside of specific circles. Have people grown their spines or has their quality dropped enough that no one wants their shit anymore?

      • Dyskolos@lemmy.zipEnglish
        1·
        2 hours ago

        Guess You were part of a tiny minority that slowly became a less tiny minority. But hey, I’m optimistic that it might help kill their reputation and sales. But…

  • QueenHawlSera@piefed.socialEnglish
    72·
    8 hours ago

    I’ve been worried, especially for the Sims, The Sims has been an LGBT Friendly game series since the beginning. Saudi Arabia is not very LGBT Friendly.

  • Wispy2891@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    8 hours ago

    Projects won’t get signed unless they project a 10000% ROI

    Remember that they paid 53 bil plus a huge loan that ea itself will have to pay, for something that has a 300 mil yearly profit

    Basically ea FC (or what’s the name now?) will become a gambling machine to hook some whales

  • ToxicWaste@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    3·
    8 hours ago

    in other news: water is wet.

    but i haven’t bought an ea game since battlefield 3. so sounts like a them problem…

  • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
    8·
    12 hours ago

    That’s how the whole AAA level of the games industry already works: the people at the top greenlight what they want to greenlight.

    • Rob T Firefly@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      4 hours ago

      It’s just adding a new layer to the mix when the people at the top are literally the royal family of an oppressive monarchy with openly fucked human rights practices.

  • Redditisbollocks@feddit.ukEnglish
    5·
    13 hours ago

    Sounds like an EA problem to me.

    Having not playing an EA game in over 2 decades because they are a shitty company with shitty practices that make shitty games, fuck 'em.

    Let’s hope they get what they deserve.

  • sunbeam60@feddit.ukEnglish
    31·
    21 hours ago

    I’m going to get downvoted to oblivion, I’m fully aware.

    There are many things I don’t know anything about. But I do know a fair bit about this area.

    And with great respect to the worriers, this just will not happen.

    The investment team that’s bought EA have many other “western” investments they’ve never interfered with, even though they do a great deal of things that the orthodoxy in Saudi Arabia would disagree with. The layers between “what I [claim] to believe” and “make me the most amount of money” are many and includes people from all over the world. If anyone thinks Saudi royalty will sit and make determinations about what games EA will ship they can stop worrying right now. The Saudi monarchy is worrying about two things only: As much money as possible and staying in power.

    This is an investments like so many others. It will be ordered to profit-maximise - and if that requires one-upping Doom in gore, and shipping a new edition of Gay Paradise 2000 every 6 months - they will do exactly that.

    This is a complete storm in a tea cup.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      3 hours ago

      You did say two contradictory things here. You said they won’t interfere, but also the only thing they care about is staying in power. This isn’t exclusive to them, but they will use it to maintain their power if it’s useful for that. If a game was going to be critical of them, it probably won’t be made. (It probably wouldn’t have been anyway, because the only thing that could come from it, for the former owners, is losing investments.) Yeah, they don’t care about Islam. That’s fair game, but they aren’t.

    • 3abas@lemmy.worldEnglish
      61·
      13 hours ago

      The Saudi monarchy hates Islam and is shackled by it. Saudi Arabia had been on a “liberalization” plan under MBS, and it’ll be western soon enough.

      They’re following UAE’s doorsteps, and they’re even worse. You can now buy alcohol in public in UAE. You need a license (pay money and don’t be Muslim) or be a tourist, but it’s otherwise unrestricted. You can already wear almost nothing and you can literally be a Zionist who calls Muslims snakes and terrorist and you’ll be welcomed on a red carpet.

      Saudi wants that, they just don’t have control tight enough over their population to get away with that yet.

      So yes, they will not enforce Sharia on EA games, they’re hoping one day they don’t have to do any "moral’ restrictions on content domestically. As long as it brings in money.

      • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        8 hours ago

        Yeah the Saudi elites are hedonists behind closed doors. The monarchy needs to have the blessing from the clergy to stay in power so they need to be pious in public. Like it’s a open secret that the Saudi elite men fuck western prostitutes on the regular on their yachts in international waters.