It’s been reported that EA is/has recently been looking to sell to or merge with a larger company. They pursued a deal with NBCUniversal for a time before it fell through, as well as talks with Apple and Disney.
Not exactly flying off the shelf, apparently.
Allright, i’ll bite. I offer a dollar, a fresh and crisp one.
How hard can it be to run a gaming company?
Just make games your customers want… for a change.
EA isn’t even a game design company anymore. They are a publisher. If they actually made games, they would see how much work and effort go into them.
To be fair they’d never been much of a game design company anyways.
A yearly release of MLB and Madden wasn’t exactly displaying their design chops.
Didn’t they used to have a boxing game? That’d actually be interesting with VR now
They definitely did! “Fight Night 2004” is one of the most fun boxing games there is, I still fire it up every now and again to do few fights. Not perfect though. Round 2 and Round 3 we’re more complex in their own right, but lacked the feel of impact in the gameplay. Champion cut the overhead camera so I just skipped it, didn’t feel the same without it.
I remember when they used to make the Desert Strike games. Those were fun back on the Mega Drive.
Desert Strike.
Then they reskinned it and called it Jungle Strike.
Then Urban Strike….
Hmm. I can see where EA started to go down hill….
I remember these games!
Urban Strike is definitely the ‘worst’ among the 3, but the snarky convo and description is gold for me.
Peloton has that covered think. haha
hmm someone has a VR boxing game iirc.
There are a couple – Creed Rise to Glory (Survios, Sony) and Thrill of the Fight (Sealost).
I hear Hello Games is holding their own rather well now. Wonder what they could do with an old used EA.
Sure. How hard. I mean, with stellar examples like Curt Schilling and 38 Studios… oh, wait…
also get rid of the shareholders
Step one Fire the board and anyone with an office except acounting it and hr and they all get a data audit
Step two aquire ips for brands no one cares about but could make cool games (i have a list)
Step 3 send reqcruters to the weird part of E3 if it happens again
Step 4 drop exclusive licences to pro sports leauges its a borderline monopoly and compition is cheaper and encurages inovation
Step5 any game using loot boxes is to imediatly transition to a earn or buy creditsand purchase those items outright no more gameling bs
When you run beloved franchises and companies into the mantle of the planet, dig your heads so far in the sand that all you hear is it enter your ears, give CHILDREN gambling addictions, and ignore fans in favour op the ever elusive dollar sign, you wonder why they aren’t looking so hot as a sales commodity.
Nice detail of the price getting lower each time.
They should try putting that EA thing in a lootbox – I hear it really attracts customers, as well as giving them the sense of pride and accomplishment.
You should check Penny Arcade, they followed that thought in their comic on this topic.
The chance to buy the company that cancelled UltimaOnline2 because it was a threat to UltimaOnline.
And only recycled the assets because McFarlane Toys would’ve dragged them to court for breach of contract.
They eradicated the competition to UltimaOnline: themselves.
I will never not tell this story.
Wait…..want to run that by me again?
They cancelled a sequel that they were publishing because the predecessor was already there? SO not only did they stop, what I assume to be, a highly anticipated sequel, they did it to a game that already had weight to it?
WTF?
https://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Ultima_Online_2 What they wanted ton include was features which were already making everquest successful, alongside innovative features at the moment (I don’t think that 20-30 players group was already seen at the moment)… Add to that that they cancelled a Harry Potter MMORPG at a very late advancement stage “because they didn’t think that the Harry Potter wave will continue past the last film” and you have it. EA bunch are complete moron, without any innovative vision or long term creative strategy of any kind, and their only value (and their only way to be profitable) was their ability to… Read more »
And they destroyed the Ultima series itself by making Ultima 9 rush to release in a buggy mess of a state with a story that didn’t make sense because a ton of content and quests had been cut.
Which is a shame, cause Ultima 7 is STILL a lot of fun to play through today. NPC’s that had a life cycle, shops that closed, morality system, NPC party that had their own AI. Survival system (having to eat when hungry, sleep etc). It was fantastic.
People thought Mass Effect 3’s ending was bad? Ultima 9 was like if they made a story stretched over 10 Mass Effect games and what was supposed to be the epic conclusion ended up being Mass Effect Andromeda but worse.
I remember this, good sir…. I remember…
What really got me was when they canceled the MOBA that in my opinion was better than league of legends. It didn’t instantly overtake LoL however so they canceled it. It was only in beta though.
Which?
I think Lily was referring to “Dawngate” which was canceled way back in 2014 while it was still in beta.
Ironically, one of the key things that stopped me being an EA customer was when they announced the Battlefield 4 beta halfway through Battlefield 3’s schedule of DLCs.
I guess they changed their minds on competing with themselves and/or the Osborne Effect.
An Apple buy-out would make a lot of sense. Then they would be forced to develop to the new M platform as well. This would give a shit ton of titles for the Mac people.
Then Mac users can be as frustrated as us PCers
I don’t think it would make sense at all. I don’t see Apple pushin for gaming on MacOs. I really think they prefer to focus on the productive side of the thing. If (and it is a big ‘if’) they want to move in the gaming industry, and given their own reputation for quality products (alongside with one or two flop, I agree), I really think there is a better move that to buy EA, which came with its own aura. Which is less than stellar.
“given their own reputation for quality products” Quality products like butterfly keyboards? Quality products like display ribbons that are so short they break if you open the laptop all the way? Quality products like MP3 players and phones that are so structurally weak they bend if you dare pocket them? Quality products where they put high voltage power lines for the backlight next to data lines so a single drop of water is all it takes to short it out and fry the CPU? Come on man, I’ve been watching Louis Rossmann for years. Quality products aren’t something Apple has.… Read more »
That’s deliberate. Why make a product that lasts when they know their customer base will happily go out to buy a replacement every few months instead, and continue to sing Apple’s praises?
I used to own a first or second gen Ipod. That thing was a TANK of a device. Touch wheel never stopped working, battery kept trucking. Display got a little but funky… the silicone or whatever at the very top where the lock switch was came loose. But I dropped that thing so many times, bounced it down stairs… I put that thing through the wringer.. and kept kept trucking for the 10 years I had it. Probably still have it… except it went missing during a moving screw up, along with a ton of other stuffs. If I could… Read more »
EA would have to develop games again for that to work. As it stands, it would give a yearly FIFA and Madden as well as an occasional Battlefield (that launches broken) for the Mac people.
Top kek.
Aaah… sweet revenge….
Afterwhat they did with the Dreamcast, not supporting it due to ….reasons….., I am more than happy to see that lot burn. That and the abuse of their workforce of course. EA-Wives as a term exists for a reason heh.
If you read the history that was cause Sega did the bone thing and release the Saturn early by surprise in only selected retail partners. This annoy retail stores that were not selected so they out of spite a lot of them refused to stock Sega or only small amounts. The same was for 3rd party games companies EA at the time felt the early release was done at the cost of 3rd party as they were still developing the games for the Saturn at the early secret release the only company that mostly had games ready in the US… Read more »
And please, Microsoft, don’t buy this one….. there are so many better ones out there. Let Apple have this one… it’s not worth it….
Sony.. you too.. you can do better.
Presumably the Microsoft snake is too busy trying to swallow Activision Blizzard to go for this one!
I wouldn’t be to sure that it isn’t going after the next pray as soon as the last ugly toad leg of Activision Blizzard has vanished in its maw.
That EA Play is already free with XBOX Game Pass could make it go down way faster – as if it was oiled up to slide better down the snakes belly.
*looks at Sony trying to scam customers with PS+ upgrade costs so expensive that it becomes cheaper to start a new PSN account and buy the top tier yearly instead of paying the upgrade cost which is based on a monthly subscription, as well as 50Hz PAL PS1 games on said new PS+* *also looks at past few years of Jim Ryan saying one thing, doing the opposite, and then having to apologize. examples include “we believe in generations” “just kidding games will be on PS5 and PS4 after all” and “Horizon Forbidden West will be a free upgrade to… Read more »
The PS5 had expandable storage from launch and (admittedly only recently) VRR? Apologies – what am I missing here?
Can you imagine the horror of Apple-store restrictions vs EA’s awful quality assurance and lack of support for… oh wait, that’s still the Apple Store as it is now…
I thought that the “shitty company” mantle last year went to Acti/Blizz, so, um… c-c-c-c-combo breaker? 😛
Other than that, I like how BioWare is pictured as a dumpster fire. 😀
Sadly apt given how they were thrown in the dumpster and then set on fire by EA.
I’m reminded of the Simpsons when the desperate salesman, Gil, was trying to sell Coleco computers to the school.
“Now let’s talk rustproofing. These Colecos will rust up on you like that! … Shut up, Gil. Close the deal. Close the deal!”
oh the fun things they could do by merging with the right companies. hop into activision and make the portal to hell material!
I guess they still own the Dragon Age IP, might be worth a tenner.
Having been a gamer since the late 1970’s it has been sad to see once great game companies, that were consumer friendly, run by gamers for gamers, decline over the decades. It’s like seeing a relative slowly waste away in a nursing home or succumb to Alzheimer’s and gradually forget who their friends were and who they used to be.
See, I both do and don’t hope this is from a greed perspective. If its not then I wonder how badly budget is going for the few titles we know are being made under them. If it is then I wonder how badly development is going for the few titles being made under them.
Am I wrong that EA is one of the largest gaming companies out there? Or do they just want to merge with any larger corporation?
They have less value without the licenses, as the comic says, and their actual game design studios have not put out great titles recently. Anything good with an EA tag recently was likely “published” by EA.
for some reason, recently ive been wanting someone to make a modern tech pod racer game. at the time i was thinking bout emailing EA thinking they still had the licences for it.
Instead of looking to sell the company as a whole to a larger corporation, they should be looking to sell its constituent pieces. Break up the company back into smaller companies.
I used to make the Madden NFL game and worked for one of their studios back in the early 2000s…ain’t no way I’d ever get back into that industry. Too many scars.
I didn’t notice the price changes in each panel till I saw the clearance sign in the last one, I haven’t heard anything great about them in quite awhile.
Glad to see EA is looking to cease existing at least lol. Whoever buys them can’t do a worse job running all their studios than EA currently is… probably…
I’m sure THQ Nordic (aka Embracer Group) would be happy to purchase them. The number of legacy IPs that EA owns is through the roof, and THQ Nordic has been buying IPs left right and center. EA owns Ultima, The Sims, Dungeon Keeper, Need for Speed, Dead Space, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Red Alert, Wing Commander, Populous, Skate, the list goes on and on. And what’s more, they aren’t doing ANYTHING with these IPs. Someone with the right business sense could make a lot of money by purchasing EA. If THQ Nordic doesn’t (or can’t) buy them, then I’m sure… Read more »
But seriously: get wrecked, EA
Maybe Musk will buy it 😀
EA Games : Challenge Everything.
it all went downhill when they got rid of that.
As EA Play is already included in XBOX PC Gamepass and Ultimate, I wouldn’t even recognize EA being swallowed by Microsoft…
Was bound to happen. They might have had dozens of bridges between them and customers, but they’ve been carefully burning most of them piece by piece over the past 15 years or so. All in the name of short-term gains. “Screw what the customers want as long as we can make our next quarterly” is finally catching up to them. About damn time.
The irony of EA probably being snapped up by an investment group who will then pick it to pieces and sell it all off. It won’t be the IPs that are the valuable bits.
Now I know who has the worst job in the world: this dude trying to sell EA
I love the last guy thinking that ten dollars is “a little steep”.