r/masseffect • u/Rondine1990 • Aug 05 '26
NEWS Its official, Saudi-led group bought EA...
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/aug/05/video-game-maker-ea-bought-by-saudi-led-groupI honestly fear for the open-minded future of our franchise. Mass Effect was a big part of my life, and I loved that it tackled topics that might be controversial in its own way. It was never in your face, but subtle enough to be believable... especially with the choice of a badass female Shepard.
Let's hope they don't meddle too much, too quickly...
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u/SilverBudget1172 Aug 05 '26
If I remember correctly, Saudi Arabia is using oil revenues to maintain the country's income level through investment portfolios, specifically in entertainment. They want Saudi Arabia to be a hub for sports, leisure, and esports. They bought EA for the sports licenses; judging by their behavior, they don't care as long as it generates profit. It's main focus in the industry is on anything related to sports or competitive gaming.
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Aug 05 '26
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u/mrmgl Aug 05 '26
Do you think that EA will last more than oil?
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u/Eglwyswrw Aug 05 '26
EA will last more than oil
The actual value is in IPs, not EA itself.
And IPs are indeed long-lasting.
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Aug 05 '26
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u/mrmgl Aug 05 '26
We need to plan colonization of other planets to escape that fate. Andromeda is nice, I hear.
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u/VexedForest Aug 05 '26
Fixing the planet we currently live on is far more feasible
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u/liberty-prime77 Aug 05 '26
Creating an entire exact replica of earth from scratch atom by atom is more feasible than colonizing Andromeda
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u/MARPJ Aug 05 '26
Do you think that EA will last more than oil?
EA maybe not, but the knowledge and data they bring will. A lot of their strategy (as a whole, not just gaming) is bleed money now to create the necessary foundation so Saudi can become the cultural hub in the future with their own products
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u/MARPJ Aug 05 '26
Do you think that EA will last more than oil?
EA maybe not, but the knowledge and data they bring will. A lot of their strategy (as a whole, not just gaming) is bleed money now to create the necessary foundation so Saudi can become the cultural hub in the future with their own products
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u/ED-E_77 Aug 05 '26
Probably not, but EA was already a thing in my youth ...and that was in the frigging 80s. So that's not completely unimpressive in my book.
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u/TJRex01 Aug 06 '26
This greatly depends on when you think oil is going to run out, and/or be massively devalued.
Even if you believe the answer is “oil will last a long time,” diversifying the economy makes sense so your entire country’s purchasing power isn’t tied up in one highly volatile commodity. During COvID the price of oil per barrel was negative (which meant people with oil had to pay to store it and couldn’t sell it.)
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u/ludi_literarum Aug 05 '26
Soccer will, and the Saudis are big into global soccer.
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u/cardfire Aug 05 '26
If only they were better at Sim City instead of just trying to make the endgame prestige projects...
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u/JaccoW Aug 05 '26
You can tell a lot of the big oil producing countries were seeing the signs on the wall that oil as the main cashcow to move the world might be ending sooner than their wells.
It wont be useless, there are still a lot of products we use daily that are oil derivatives, but if (the price of) renewables, battery tech and electric engines keep going the way they are, the majority of the world won't need petrol and diesel to commute in the not so distant future.
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u/murderously-funny Aug 05 '26
There a quote in that region of the world
“My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel."
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u/fuzzyfoot88 Aug 05 '26
You underestimate the oligarch resolve to maintain their working business model indefinitely.
There have been dozens of better alternatives created within my lifetime, that are bought up and the inventor/creator silenced.
To ME though, given how long it’s taken for another game, I’m honestly 50/50 on whether the IP should stay where it is, or be sold off to someone who’ll actually care enough ti get it made.
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u/paperkutchy N7 Aug 05 '26
So basically single-players are screwed. Yeah, I'm not playing the next ME if they make something like Anthem.
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u/Decaying-Moon Aug 05 '26
Not necessarily. They could use the rest or EA as a piggy bank by selling it off to other companies piecemeal. EA has a lot of talented studios pigeonholed away, along with scores of IP both recent and forgotten. There'll probably be a push from studios under the umbrella to find investors and go independent if they can. Otherwise EA will probably start selling off studios to other publishers with one or two of their IP attached (and the rest of the studios IP like DLC lol) so they can get some money back while they focus on EA sports as intended.
Personally I'd love for BioWare to go back to independent, but I don't see them pulling enough investment to buy themselves out. EA and internal mismanagement really threw BioWare off their game, and while they were busy shooting themselves in the foot other studios like Owlcat have moved to fill the gap. I think BioWare's IP are strong and worth a buyout alone, even if you scrap the included BioWare as soon as contractually possible. There are other studios who can probably pick it up decently. Otherwise other publishers who purchase BioWare really leave it up in the air: Playstation and Xbox would be one thing, but Tencent? Really depends on the who, IMO.
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u/ericph9 Aug 05 '26
I'm not playing the next ME if they make something like Anthem.
based on how Anthem went, neither will anyone else
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u/Stellar_Duck Aug 05 '26
Yeah, I'm not playing the next ME if they make something like Anthem.
The reason you shouldn't play it or buy it is to not support the Saudis and Kushner.
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u/paperkutchy N7 Aug 05 '26
I dont care. If the games are good, I'm buying them.
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u/Stellar_Duck Aug 05 '26
I know. Mass Effect fans are happy to enable genocides as long as they can wank to their space aliens.
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u/paperkutchy N7 Aug 05 '26
Bait all you want, I'm to used to Reddit for it to work. Nice try though
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u/Kalelisagod Aug 05 '26
They own two or three of the largest mobile game companies now. And have publicly said they plan on growing that number significantly also.
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u/Awful_At_Math Aug 05 '26
Yeah, but didn't they force Cristiano Ronaldo in the latest Fatal Fury game? Can you imagine a future where whatever is popular in Saudi Arabia atm is shoved into the Normandy? Maybe, instead of an option for male and female Shepard, the next game will only have MBS Shepard.
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u/fddfgs Aug 05 '26
Can you imagine a future where whatever is popular in Saudi Arabia atm is shoved into the Normandy?
You mean like they did with Jessica Chobot
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u/soulsofjojy Aug 05 '26
Yeah I love hating on the Saudis as much as anyone, but that's already an EA classic lol.
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u/paperkutchy N7 Aug 05 '26
Jessica at least had something to do with the gaming industry. But yeah, its a good point, still. Another pointis if they did it before, imagine it now.
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u/Awful_At_Math Aug 05 '26
Not even close. That reporter is a miniscule part of the game. It's a glorified fan service. Cristiano in Fatal Fury (and some DJ guy too) a full blown characters in a fighting game. The amount of effort to implement both is vastly different.
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u/mrmasturbate Aug 05 '26
I hope that means they'll stop buying all kinds of non-sports studios only to ruin them
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u/SilverBudget1172 Aug 05 '26
They're not like Xbox, I honestly prefer the Saudis; they just acquire and focus what they have on their own interests, but they don't significantly alter how the studios operate as long as they're profitable.
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u/untitledaccount401 Aug 06 '26
They know the oil is going to dry up some day
they have no real natural resources to exploit after that
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u/Metalmind123 Aug 05 '26
They also do it to launder their reputation, and take blatant ideological and propagandistic influence on the companies they by.
Anything EA produces after this would be cancer.
We can just hope that they sell off Bioware to focus on their core business.
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u/negative_four Aug 05 '26
Yeah, the saudi group will likely be very hands off and let EA do its own thing as long as it makes money. Jared Kushner on the other hand will absolutely change things and make it way more conservative and remove anything remotely lgbtq.
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u/Yukina-Kai Aug 05 '26
I'm betting a few IPs/Studios get used and the rest sold. That would make the most sense logically and financially.
The sports games will get used because the people buying them are absolutely mindless and will pay for it with absolutely no regard to it's quality. (Yes I am 100% insulting you if you play sports games from EA)
The others like Bioware will probably either have their IPs sold to other studios or just straight up sold themselves. I don't see them trying to continue a failing studio. Bioware has had way too many failures to be a financially sound investment.
They'll probably keep the Star wars stuff so expect even worse garbage.
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u/pepperann Aug 05 '26
It's just as likely they'll shut down studios and hoard IPs, unfortunately. One fragility of capitalism is that there's more value in protecting market share, preserving existing value, and preventing a competitive entity from finding success in an IP when compared to the profit of a sale. You see this shit across every industry.
EA's buyout did technically stack ~$20b in debt, but PIF alone holds at least a trillion in assets. Since the corporation is now private it has no obligation to disclose financials to the public.
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u/Chorik Aug 05 '26
That 20billion debt is not a technicality that can be handwaved tho, EA will have no choice but to get that money from aomewhere
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u/Fit_Cicada_8113 Aug 05 '26
Not when interest rates are high and potentially going higher. Hoarding imaginary value instead of changing it into cash makes sense when the cash faucet is on as it was during ZIRP. Right now the cash faucet is off. They are likely to sell some things just to raise cash.
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u/Senn-66 Aug 05 '26
I see the complete opposite. They are going to do the standard PE thing when it acquires a company, squeeze all the short term profits out of it by selling anything that isn't nailed down and try to extract as much money as humanly possible out of what remains. This is why "PE buys X" can be so damaging to the long term health of a business, because the debt math of PE aquisitions just doesn't allow for long term strategies.
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u/HugeNavi Aug 05 '26
EA has a history of vaulting IPs instead of selling them, to prevent enabling their competition. They are more likely to sit on the IPs then sell them and hope to generate revenue through licensing. The PIF also owns a company known as Savvy Games Group. They specialize on live service, mobile and e-sports, something that EA wants, but they don't have IP, which EA has. It stands to reason that EA plans to make revenue out of licensing their IPs to Savvy. That way, they make money, and don't enable their competition, as Savvy is a sister company at this point, while not taking any risks, financial or otherwise.
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u/Yukina-Kai Aug 05 '26
I would agree if not for the fact they are so far in the red selling shit they're not going to use is literally their only way to profit.
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u/HugeNavi Aug 05 '26
I don't disagree, but using Savvy to basically shift the PIF's money from one hand to the other is a surefire way to get money, possibly more in the long term from profits and licensing, than by selling the IPs entirely. Especially since some IPs don't exactly fit in the portfolios of other publishers, where it would fetch the highest price. If EA were to sell Ultima for example, Richard Garriot would absolutely bid for it, but if EA wanted to sell it to Tencent for more money, it is questionable whether Tencent wants to buy it. Etc. It is also not unlikely that they will split the vault down the middle and sell some IPs while licensing some others.
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u/thefw89 Aug 05 '26
Yeah, this is what I hope will happen, this is the best case scenario for non-EA sports fans because EA has some great IP. Would great to see Maxis finally get free from nickle and diming their customers and Bioware to, I'm sure both would have a lot of prospective buyers but less sure they would sell off Maxis since they can continue to milk Sims players.
Bioware though I am sure would be better for them to sell than to just cut the studio and cancel the project.
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u/radskorpion Andromeda Initiative Aug 05 '26
maybe they sell mass effect to a publisher who gives a shit
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u/Joyful_Damnation1 Aug 05 '26
These sort of purchases don't usually affect much. They own lots of things but don't insert theocratic bs in them. They have one interest and one interest only:
Make themselves richer.
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u/EducationalLuck2422 Aug 05 '26
Also, the Saudis most likely only care about EA Sports. The worst we have to worry about is them selling BioWare and/or their IPs off (which may or may not actually be a good thing).
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u/HugeNavi Aug 05 '26
The thing is that we've had reports that EA was actually trying at some point to sell Bioware, but was unsuccessful. Either EA overvalued the sale price for Bioware, or everyone knew to stay away from them. Bioware themselves would have probably looked into finding investors so they could go independent, and still not come up with something. At this point, Bioware is too small to do anything. If you bought them today, they are too small to make a game, and their IPs are either dead or in critical condition. They are not in a good situation and they would likely not make it on their own. If they find someone to bail them out of their current predicament, good. Unfortunately, sticking with EA is their best bet.
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u/OkMathematician7206 Aug 05 '26
How the mighty have fallen, they used to be the gold standard.
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u/HugeNavi Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26
Competition in the segment has been brutal. Other studios moved in to Bioware territory and stole their lunch. While most aren't doing the save carry-over thing like Bioware (considering Veilguard, neither does Bioware anymore), except the ambitious Blood of the Dawnwalker studio. Owlcat, Obsidian and Archetype have stepped in to fill the mid range (60-80% meta-critic score), while CD Project Red and Larian will dominate the high end (80-90%+ meta-critic score), with the occasional Sandfall studio being disruptive, and other studios licensing IP (Warhammer, D&D, WH40k), or using transmedia IP (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Expanse etc.) to make their games, budgeted accordingly for their segment. EA spends hundreds of millions of dollars on Bioware to sell a million copies, erode trust and generate brand damage.
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u/Contrary45 Aug 05 '26
Archetype has not released a single game yet we dont know what they will be like for all we know Exodus with be a broken mess on lauch with writing the equivalent of Veilguard. They are owned by Hasbro after all
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u/HugeNavi Aug 05 '26
Absolutely, but based on market projections, they are to sit in the 1-2m copies sold range. Which puts them in direct competition to the segment, if not market share, that Bioware currently resides in. It is possible that they can synergize positively, or negatively, depending on how one and the other goes. It might make people look forward to more squad based Sci-Fi RPGs, it might make people not look forward to more squad based Sci-Fi RPGs. And the same goes for Owlcat's The Expanse: Osiris Reborn. It is volatile, but overall, it looks like Owlcat, now seeking to work on Baldur's Gate 4, is looking to thoroughly replace Bioware and Archetype at the very least wants to as well. I am personally not at all impressed by Exodus and I have had no interest in it since the first reveal trailer, the premise just does not look good. I blame Drew Karpyshyn's hard stance on Sci-Fi for that.
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u/Contrary45 Aug 05 '26
Copies sold =/= quality of product
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u/HugeNavi Aug 05 '26
Absolutely agree, but no company is going to spend $300m US to make back $53m US in gross revenue. Not net revenue, gross revenue. It may be the best game in the world, but it also needs to make a profit. Otherwise, putting the money on the S&P will make more money than investing in EA and Mass Effect. So why would you do it? Because EA only funds FIFA (Sports FC) and Madden with their own money, and maybe Battlefield. Everything else is investor money. And if investors don't invest, because there is no RoI, then the games don't get made.
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u/cawksmash Aug 05 '26
tbh it’s extremely ironic that OP is concerned about the saudis introducing their views about things when veilguard hit you over the head with weekes’ beliefs. as a player you literally couldn’t even disagree.
the real problem is that ea can’t afford $20billion of debt. BioWare’s likely shuttered because larian, cdpr and owl cat are doing its thing
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u/Contrary45 Aug 05 '26
The problem os they never could figure out how to make games bigger. Mass Effect 1 has less 20% more credited developers and artists than Clair Obscur
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u/BLAGTIER Aug 05 '26
Bioware is headquartered at Edmonton. The only thing video game related there is Bioware and ex-Bioware. The location is a hiring nightmare(because you can't go to other companies in the same city). And now Bioware has fired everyone and all its IP are on life support Bioware has lost prestige and needs to be staffed up.
The current location is hard to hire, Bioware's name carries little weight and there is a vast restaffing need. Just completely unattractive to any potential buyers of Bioware.
Maybe someone would like the IP of Bioware but even then everyone capable of doing anything with it is currently deep into other projects.
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u/CaptainPrower Aug 05 '26
And even then, the only title they're interested in is Football Club. I wouldn't be surprised if even Madden gets kicked to the curb.
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u/PumperThumperHumper Aug 05 '26
So, corporations don't suck up to new owners or shareholders, huh?
Well, allright then.
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u/Fit_Cicada_8113 Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26
None of the revenue-generating aspects of the company are changing. If they want money, and they do, they know to keep their mouths shut
I also think you guys overestimate how religious these powerful Gulf state guys are. They don’t give a shit about Islam lol. They love money, American money. Saudi Arabia is not Iran. Islam is like a hat they wear to keep their commoners from revolting. In private they drink, cheat, do coke, have gay sex and orgies, buy and sell the golden calf, let women run their affairs if they’re too busy with their debauchery, etc. They don’t give a shit that Mass Effect has gay sex and political commentary. They probably have no idea what Mass Effect even is. They literally just want the EA Sports cash cow.
As other people have said, at worst stuff like Bioware would get spun off because it doesn’t make enough money, and I hope that’s the case so that owners who actually like the IP can take over. EA itself is the fundamental problem here
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u/BLAGTIER Aug 05 '26
These sort of purchases don't usually affect much. They own lots of things but don't insert theocratic bs in them. They have one interest and one interest only:
EA has to now pay more in interest than they make in profit. This is a huge change and will mean deep job cuts and less projects made.
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u/atariarchive Aug 06 '26
You say that but one need only look at SNK’s City of the Wolves to understand the Saudis will indeed weigh in on these games
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u/Metalmind123 Aug 05 '26
Well no, explicitly not this.
They buy things to diversify, yes, but also explicitly to launder their reputation.
They very much do take influence on the companies they buy.
Furthermore, a minority owner is now an entity run by the extended Trump family.
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u/AdditionalQuietime Aug 05 '26
Also saudi elites are degenerates themselves, the theocratic laws are for their slave and peasant populas
I honestly think all this fear of them changing sims culturally is rooted in Islamophobia to a certain degree lol 😆 like yall got relax theyre very capitalist and are only out to get more money, these people are evil and own slavss theyre super greedy
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u/DharmaPolice Aug 05 '26
Phew, thank goodness that they're only evil slave owners and not doing something really bad like removing gay characters from The Sims.
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u/AdditionalQuietime Aug 05 '26
Lmao you thinking this is some sort of "gotcha" but what you just said is the general consensus of how the average person in this community actually feels
Virtual sims are more important than real people
More people complaining about the games culture being changed than i have seen more people complaining about the slavery they practice
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u/AdoringCHIN Aug 05 '26
Almost as if this is the games sub so of course we're going to be talking about what the Saudis are going to do to a gaming company. The country's atrocities and crimes against humanity are already well documented and talked about in other places.
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u/Contrary45 Aug 05 '26
People really dont realise that Mass Effect 1 and Dragon Age Origins (at least the first 75% of its devolpment) were made while Bioware was owned by private equity. While yes, this may be a concern but Bioware's arguebly best games were made while under private equity
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u/Sacf4421 Aug 05 '26
Imagine, Bioware's assets get sold and that one guy who swore up and down that he was going to redesign and acquire Anthem actually does it.
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u/GVArcian Aug 05 '26
EA took on 20 billion dollars in debt in order for this leveraged buyout to go through, which means they have to generate 2 billion dollars in profit a year just to pay off the interest on the debt. For the record, at present time they're generating about 1.3 billion dollars in profit each year.
What this essentially means that everything that isn't already generating a very high return on investment, such as EA Sports, is almost guaranteed to be sold off in order to cut overall costs and generate some quick cash.
BioWare hasn't been very profitable in the last decade and their next game, Mass Effect 4, is still pretty far off, so it is extremely unlikely EA will keep them around for much longer.
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u/fenharir Aug 05 '26
idc lol EA has sucked for ages now. oh no they're gonna keep being shit? how shocking
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u/DrPeroxide Aug 05 '26
Mass Effect hasn't stopped existing, and it's not like it's really all that relevant anymore. I know everyone here is waiting on ME4 with baited breath, but was anyone really expecting EA and ghoulified Bioware to stick the landing with this one after Veilguard? Mass Effect was incredible, ground breaking and it's done. Let's hope that other games inspired by it can deliver a similarly immersive adventure.
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u/FoxyGoddessX Aug 05 '26
None of them have the potential to replace mass effect.
I’ll wait and see like I do with every game.
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u/DrPeroxide Aug 05 '26
Nothing ever will. Mass Effect was Mass Effect and it was great. But it's, uh, children will always be different creatures.
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u/TotalAnarchy_ Aug 05 '26
Check out the Exodus gameplay reveal. I think we're finally getting a true spiritual successor in gameplay, worldbuilding, and writing.
The Expanse game looks okay, too, but doesn't seem to have the vibrancy and exoticism of Mass Effect (and shouldn't since The Expanse is a really drab universe).
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u/DrPeroxide Aug 05 '26
Those where the two I was thinking of! Exodus in particular I'm intrigued by. And yeah, The Expanse and Mass Effect are like polar opposites of the sci-fi spectrum :D Both excellent expressions of the genre though.
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u/AdoringCHIN Aug 05 '26
The best case scenario is they sell off Bioware. Because otherwise they're going to cancel the new Mass Effect or censor the shit out of it.
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u/Corpsehatch Aug 05 '26
I would like to see Dragon Age get sold to Larian and Mass Effect sold to CD Projekt Red.
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u/Ragfell Aug 05 '26
Given that Larian took Origins as inspiration for BG3...I mean yes, but they wanna do more stuff with Divinity. Their own fantasy franchise.
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u/efvie Aug 05 '26
It's 100% free to not buy any more games from them.
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u/WarGodMarrs Aug 05 '26
Yeah, as soon as this news broke, that was the end of buying EA titles for me. I loved Bioware, but I won’t be passing any money to the Saudis if I can help it
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u/PhilosopherNo8418 Aug 05 '26
Half owned by Jared Kushner if that makes you feel better about buying EA games in future...
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u/FoxyGoddessX Aug 05 '26
Virtue signaling is so funny
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u/dudeAwEsome101 Pull Aug 05 '26
Yeah, I find it interesting that some people draw the line at Saudis or Chinese companies owning huge shares in large Western corporations as if these corps have finally been "corrupted". EA has been a shit company for ages in how they treat their employees and customers.
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u/SpaceWolves26 Aug 05 '26
People are saying stuff like "it's ok, they just want the sports, they won't meddle with Mass Effect".
But like, is that the issue?
We're talking about a game that is beloved in the queer community, but it's now owned by a nation that would put someone like me to death. And that's just the tip of the iceberg on issues with Saudi Arabia.
I won't buy another EA game as long as they own it.
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u/Ragfell Aug 05 '26
This sounds awful, but our money supporting BioWare is a drop in the bucket compared to the sports games.
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u/SpaceWolves26 Aug 05 '26
It's not about money, it's about morals.
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u/Ragfell Aug 05 '26
I understand, but the reality is that BioWare was a weird acquisition for EA, and basically lost them money until DA:I.
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u/Sylverpepper Aug 05 '26
Dommage d'être racheté par une entreprise qui, est influencé et corrompue par la religion, avec les valeurs qui vont avec... c'est dommage que le monde régresse petit à petit, grignoté de partout, à petit feu...
Nous verrons bien, mais c'est clair que ce n'est pas une bonne nouvelle.
Je pense déjà aux sims par exemple, le jeu le plus bienveillant et ouvert d'esprit possible...
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u/adamthebeard256 Aug 05 '26
Instead of punching a reporter now you can kidnap them and cut them up.
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u/Cleveland_Guardians Aug 05 '26
I remember seeing people saying we should "push back" against this going through. Like, what the fuck do people think they can ACTUALLY do of consequence in these sorts of situations?
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u/fadesteppin Aug 05 '26
They will get absolutely none of my money anymore. Idc how much I love Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and The Sims (which have spend money on since the original game) I refuse to give any money to the Saudis or Kushner. They are terrible people and I am not funding the awful shit they will do with that money.
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u/AmanyWishes Aug 05 '26
My hope is Saudi is only interested in EA Sports games and they will sell the rest of EA's IPs. I just really hope that American McGee gets his Alice: Madness IP back. As for Mass Effect and Dragon Age, maybe they will get bought by CD Projekt.
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u/SilionRavenNeu Aug 05 '26
Or Larian or Owlcat?
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u/Steelcan909 Cerberus Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26
Idk why they would be interested... Owlcat already has both a fantasy and sci-fi franchise, Larian has a fantasy series of their own.
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u/Niobaran Aug 05 '26
Plot twist, Ubisoft. Pay 6 dollars now to unlock the super gun
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u/SilionRavenNeu Aug 05 '26
I dont think they can afford anything atm 😂
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u/Niobaran Aug 05 '26
Fair, I honestly didn’t check out their current finances. It was just my experience that led me to that cursed monkey paw comment.
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u/ozmega Aug 06 '26
I just really hope that American McGee gets his Alice: Madness IP back
holy shit hopium
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u/Chorik Aug 05 '26
Getting bought by CDP would be a massive win for Bioware in theory, but in reality I suspect it would be a toxic mess. If Bioware was capable of infighting within its own studio structures and trying to assert "dominance" over each other between the teams, imagine how would they behave if CDP bought them, aka a studio they likely view as upstarts from distant potatoland Poland that stole Bioware's thunder.
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u/PhilosopherNo8418 Aug 05 '26
Not good news. Not because the Saudi's will force video game characters to cover up their bodies and stop gay romances and other weird concerns some people have expressed. But rather this buyout will mean there is no more hiding for Bioware. The new owners are investment firms including private equity. They are only interested in profit and will cut departments that are not making them money. Bioware have had multiple failures in recent years, it's not a profitable part of the EA business any more so will be at risk of closure. ME5 could be their last title, if Bioware even lasts long enough to finish the game.
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u/Dementia13_TripleX Aug 05 '26
...The new owners are investment firms including private equity. They are only interested in profit...
Do you mean like Bioware was doing with Anthem?
Andromeda suffered because of it. They released the game and then stop supporting it for people to stop bothering them, so they could concentrate in Anthem juicy loot boxes.
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u/MatejMadar Aug 05 '26
Hey, maybe they close Bioware and Mass Effect to someone who knows what they're doing
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u/Tofuzzle Aug 05 '26
RIP any romance option that isn't male and female
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u/PhilosopherNo8418 Aug 05 '26
I doubt King Salman cares much about the storylines of video games.
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u/pepperann Aug 05 '26
That's why games with LGBT themes and characters/romances are banned in Saudi Arabia.
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u/PhilosopherNo8418 Aug 05 '26
well that's just dumb. Although I imagine it's probably not too difficult to circumvent with a VPN (unless those are also banned)
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u/iamnotexactlywhite Aug 05 '26
bullshit. they own a fuckton of entertainment related companies and none of them have any theocratic bullshit inserted into them
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u/TheRealTr1nity Aug 05 '26
No need to go in panic mode. They don't care about the actual games and also have no say how they are made.
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u/PaleAssistance3643 Aug 05 '26
Cant wait for the species that for most of it history had to be lesbian to no longer be allowed to be lesbian
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u/KedaZ1 Aug 05 '26
The company that bought up studios to siphon what short term value they could squeeze out of the acquired talent and IP is about to have a comeuppance. I’d mourn you but I’m honestly enjoying the popcorn too much
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u/Nekinej Aug 06 '26
They'll put BW to the sword for sure, but not for being alphabet friendly, but because it's a money burning shadow of its former self.
And sadly, nothing much of value will be lost.
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u/Modern-Shinobi Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26
As someone that has had experience with Saudi investment and ownership in products that I do and/or used to consume, they are a very hands off ownership group. I've heard from people in the eSports industry, for example, that have worked in or with some companies with Saudi ownership, including a few apart of the LGBTQ+ community, and they don't really enforce their beliefs outside of their own border...but for some of them, most I heard from were on-air talent, they couldn't work any events in Saudi Arabia aka the big money events. In motorsports it's the same thing. Champion any cause you want and act however you want, so long as you're not within the Saudi border, they don't really care
EDIT: Forgot to mention on my original point cuz it slipped my mind but I'm honestly more worried about the Kushner side of things than the Saudis
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u/Senn-66 Aug 05 '26
I've heard similar things. Most of the people commenting on this really don't understand the Saudi mindset, which TBF is really strange to outsiders. The Saudi leadership cares deeply that the Saudi state remains a pure and godly (in their mind) realm, and they would also like to see their particular take on Islam be dominant in the Islamic world, which is why they fund schools and such, but they generally view the outside world, and especially the non-Muslim world, as both a playground for their elite to indulge in all manner of behaviors, and also lands for them extract profit. If degenerate westerners want to pay for gay video games, they aren't going to care. They will not allow them to be sold in Saudia Arabia, and may restrict them in Muslim markets, but they don't care enough about the West to stop us from giving them money.
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u/VanguardN7 Aug 05 '26
I'm far more expectant of more deeply built in gay toggles for development of the next ME (auto-gay-allowing in West, auto-straight in repressive nations, maybe player toggle in certain other places) than for same sex content to not exist.
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u/Senn-66 Aug 05 '26
Yup. Also really off topic for this sub, but this mindset is also why Saudia Arabia is surprisingly weak on Israel. MBS was chomping at that bit to normalize relations before 10/7 and Gaza made that impossible, because the Saudi's don't give a flip about Jerusalem as a holy site (for them its just taking the focus off Mecca and Medina), nor does he really care about the Palestinians.
The Saudi's can't afford to totally alienate the Muslim world, so they are constrained in what they do by public opinion (especially now), but if they could make the Palestinians just like, go away so they can make money, they'd do it in a heartbeat.
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u/VanguardN7 Aug 05 '26
I think they're so money centric that if they could make Palestinians OR Israelis OR anyone else but themselves, go away so they can make money, they'd do it in a heartbeat too. This is the transnational crowd.
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u/Senn-66 Aug 05 '26
Agreed, but the Israelis have money and the Palestinians don’t, hence the push to normalize.
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u/TheRealTr1nity Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26
That doesn't affect the actual games, especially the niche ones. They invest for the money and that comes primary from the sports games from EA. ME franchise is niche against that. They are only interested in money the sales of the game make. That's why the investments are for: business, and just business.
No need to panic people.
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u/BLAGTIER Aug 05 '26
The interest payment of the debt EA has is more than the profit EA brings in each. This very much isn't small potatoes, it is big potatoes.
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u/FoxyGoddessX Aug 05 '26
Racists don’t usually care. They are out in fear because they want to virtue signal and project their racism
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Aug 05 '26
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u/FoxyGoddessX Aug 05 '26
Saying that the Asari will now be forced to wear hijabs, saying Shepard will be strictly MBS, and all gay romance will be removed is islamaphobic and racist.
You can find examples of this in this thread. There’s no evidence any of that will happen
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u/TNWhaa Aug 05 '26
I’d rather not have my favourite gaming IP being published by the family of a child raping sex trafficker, how exactly is that racist?
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u/Drew_Habits Aug 05 '26
I wouldn't bet on EA producing too many games from here on out. Seems less like a gameawashing investment and more like a convenient way for Kushner to become a convenient vector for the house of Saud to use the PIF to bribe the US president relatively seamlessly
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u/arenaross Aug 05 '26
Taking it private so they can make it churn out propaganda then.
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u/AnonymousFriend80 Aug 05 '26
Might want to check out some of the other comments here.
Also, if they wanted more propaganda, they have more than enough money to do so beforehand.
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u/thattogoguy Aug 05 '26
The Saudi's only want EA insofar as it makes sports (FIFA) games for them. Otherwise, it's just a project to launder money through.
They aren't going to give a shit about a video game that will never see the light of day in their country.
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u/LangeNox Aug 05 '26
I doubt it would have any effect except the Sports Games Portfolio. I worked with Saudi Groups in my line of work and they only care about if you are profitable as a division or not. Perhaps it would be good for the IPs that are buried in the deep, the new new Group may consider selling them.
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u/PWNtimeJamboree Garrus Aug 05 '26
my friend, at this point, we should be happy if its not outright cancelled
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u/vkevlar Aug 05 '26
I will say it's making me search for ways to crack MELE, to keep them from "updating" it.
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u/Evening-Bedroom-523 Aug 05 '26
I definitely think they're going to sell Bioware. It was already rumored they've been considering it for a while.
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u/iorveth1271 Aug 06 '26
It's not like EA or Bioware can get much worse than their recent output.
I'll choose the hopium on this one.
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u/Panzermensch911 Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26
Goodbye Mass Effect 4 (5) and same sex romances.
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u/Excellent-Funny6703 Aug 05 '26
I doubt they care - their goal is to make money. They can simply censor the version published over there, like they've always done, without risking losing money from the western market and.
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u/ferrenberg Aug 05 '26
Personally I'm very hopeful about the next Mass Effect game. It's pretty much the last chance Bioware will have as a studio, there's no way they will somehow miss it.
As for the owner of EA, I'm sure they care about money and money alone, I'm guessing they won't be idiots enough to jeopardize what Mass Effect is
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u/RollingDownTheHills Mass Relay Aug 05 '26
I'm not convinced anyone knows what Mass Effect "is" in 2026, besides a trilogy of great games that ended over a decade ago. Considering the almost impressive degree of mismanagement after that there's really not much left to jeopardize. They'll do whatever they want.
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u/FoxyGoddessX Aug 05 '26
People say that about every franchise before it instantly shoots to the top. Halo is the best example of this.
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u/RollingDownTheHills Mass Relay Aug 05 '26
How is Halo an example of this? Every game since Reach has launched to a middling reception, with support for Infinite being cut short in spite of their plans to support it for a long, long time.
Mass Effect has been MIA for a long time and the last game was a disaster. The new one will have to hit the mark 110% for it to recover the franchise.
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u/FoxyGoddessX Aug 05 '26
“Middling reception” Dog it’s a top seller on every platform right now. Stop with the lies.
Infinite got the most post launch support of any Halo game ever made. Reach was hated when it launched by a good section of the halo community. It still is as well.
But go ahead and keep lying to yourself. It’s clear you’re someone who gets their opinions from online grifters
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u/RollingDownTheHills Mass Relay Aug 05 '26
Weird conclusion there at the end but okay.
I hope the new Mass Effect turns out great but considering just how bad they mishandled Andromeda it's hard to stay hopeful. All I'm saying, really.
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u/HugeNavi Aug 05 '26
I think their last chance was Veilguard. I don't know how EA will justify drawing at least 4 more years of development over a game that will cost them ~$300m US just to compete in AAA with a commercial ceiling of ~1.2m copies sold. This game will need to generate $300m US net revenue for EA at launch to break even. Bioware are at a prime position for EA to cut their loses. After a 2 year absence already, and a potential of 4 more years of development, 2-3 of which will be more utter silence from Bioware with one cryptic tease after 364 days, when we've had that for years now already, the fanbase will die within 2027, and will require a drastic marketing campaign in 2029-2030 for EA to basically resuscitate the IP, 13 years after the last game, to people that have largely moved on. Their is very little financial incentive to keep this project alive.
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u/RaggleFraggle5 Aug 05 '26
You were only now worried that Saudi Arabia bought EA? You weren't worried when Bioware made Anthem then Veilguard? None of those were red flags but now Saudi Arabia is?
No one should hold out any hope for ME5 until it maybe sees the light of day. Because the Bioware of old has been dead for a long time and there's zero reason to believe they can even pull this off.
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u/wesleysmalls Aug 05 '26
People will buy their stuff regardless, just as they have done for the past two decades
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u/polakbob Aug 05 '26
Y'all - Mass Effect was finished years ago. The people who made Bioware what it was are long-gone. Bioware is just a name now. EA changing owners doesn't affect that. Cherish what we had rather than lament what we won't have.
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u/Ok_Worth4113 Aug 05 '26
That means no nudity
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u/TheRealTr1nity Aug 05 '26
That means nothing. They don't care about the games, they care about the money they make. And formost the sports games. Niche games like ME are side effects.
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u/Jor94 Alliance Aug 05 '26
Depends how they want to handle it. Are they trying to diversify their economy and make money or are they trying to spread their values.
I would hope they just get people that know what they’re doing to run things and stay hands off
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u/NomadBrasil Thane Aug 05 '26
I mean, they bought SNK, and the KOF franchise is doing great. I am expecting lots of remasters and remakes since they are much cheaper to make and sell well.
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u/Robynsxx Aug 05 '26
RIP anything other than straight romances in ME 5
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u/undertone90 Aug 06 '26
RIP ME5.
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u/Robynsxx Aug 06 '26
I doubt it’s RIP to ME5. Too much resources have been put into it to cancel it now.
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u/Drachaen_Sul Aug 06 '26
The UAI is after Fifa. But they will gut Bioware in accordance with their own beliefs. No queer coded content. No compelling heroines. No greater questions about faith and existence unless it's citing the Quran to do it. EA threw Bioware under the bus the moment they made the deal. And Veilguard shows that everyone there knew it.
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Aug 05 '26
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u/meekgamer452 Aug 05 '26
Luckily, I don't think they're known for meddling.
If anything they're known for irresponsible overspending on things that the prince likes, so let's hope he likes video games.
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u/HuntmasterReinholt Aug 05 '26