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-group

I 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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477

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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u/[deleted] Aug 05 '26

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64

u/mrmgl Aug 05 '26

Do you think that EA will last more than oil?

76

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.

59

u/[deleted] Aug 05 '26

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10

u/cardfire Aug 05 '26

Love, Laugh, Languish in the technocracy-fueled-armageddon.

16

u/mrmgl Aug 05 '26

We need to plan colonization of other planets to escape that fate. Andromeda is nice, I hear.

13

u/VexedForest Aug 05 '26

Fixing the planet we currently live on is far more feasible

3

u/liberty-prime77 Aug 05 '26

Creating an entire exact replica of earth from scratch atom by atom is more feasible than colonizing Andromeda

7

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

2

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

6

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.

4

u/Cosmicswashbuckler Aug 05 '26

If these fuckers dont stop buying dlc

1

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.)

1

u/ludi_literarum Aug 05 '26

Soccer will, and the Saudis are big into global soccer.

2

u/cardfire Aug 05 '26

If only they were better at Sim City instead of just trying to make the endgame prestige projects...

1

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."

9

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.

1

u/StupidityHurts Aug 05 '26

Diversification 101

9

u/DroogieHowser Aug 05 '26

A leisure hub where you can't drink, good luck with that one.

5

u/Historical_Cost6752 Aug 05 '26

Foreigners can drink.

34

u/MeteorPunch Aug 05 '26

EA will be dried up long before oil is.

26

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.

14

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.

5

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

1

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.

0

u/paperkutchy N7 Aug 05 '26

I dont care. If the games are good, I'm buying them.

0

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.

3

u/paperkutchy N7 Aug 05 '26

Bait all you want, I'm to used to Reddit for it to work. Nice try though

3

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.

5

u/Sheriff_Is_A_Nearer Aug 05 '26

It shoulda been Khalisah al-Jilani!

4

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.

1

u/mrmasturbate Aug 05 '26

I hope that means they'll stop buying all kinds of non-sports studios only to ruin them

0

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.

1

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

1

u/manuaranza Aug 06 '26

So they will be buying tencent next

0

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.

1

u/Historical_Cost6752 Aug 05 '26

Did you just make all that up in your own head?

-1

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.