380
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" (www.gamesradar.com)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
116 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 21 points 1 week ago (3 children)

It is so funny to me that the Saudis would invest into a creative industry that thrives on letting artists make what they think is right and then forbid them from doing that. And also expect that industry to then operate profitably, even though they just removed the basic foundation of that industry.

But there is no talking and arguing with people like that, so we can just get popcorn, watch and enjoy the Schadenfreude.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 22 points 1 week ago

    My take is that the Saudis were incredibly fortunate to be sitting on a resource that has had inelastic demand for decades. So fortunate in fact that they didn’t get good at anything else that wasn’t related to oil.

    They’ve known for some time that the oil reserves can’t sustain them forever so they’ve dabbled in investments in various industries with lacklustre results.

    Their recent foray into gaming is symbolic of this. An industry that bleeds cash without the creative talent that underpins it. I mean Microsoft is a good example of when ‘business’ intersects with the production of art.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 14 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    Has EA really made creative games recently though? I'm looking at their recent games list and it's mostly: Madden, EA Sports, The Sims 4 DLC, NHL, Battlefield, Plants vs Zombies, etc. Sequels and remakes basically. With notable exceptions by subsidiary companies like Split Fiction.

    Like, if you're going to buy any company, the one where you make almost the exact same game every year and everyone still buys it is probably a safe bet.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 6 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    I kind of hope they make a Sims 5 that has limits on what female characters can aspire to, no LGBT+ relationships, etc, purely for the backlash that would ensue. It's a big ecosystem that they could really screw up.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago

    With notable exceptions by subsidiary companies like Split Fiction.

    Yeah. No they haven't.

    EA is just a big bundle that they were able to buy at all with a huge pile of cash. Going around the globe, chasing studios that do this and that is a ton of work and takes forever and is not really a good strategy.

    I think they're betting on exactly that recurring structure of licensed sports games.

    But that still depends on letting artists do some amount of stuff. For example a bunch of sports outfits may clash with strict Islam. Same for Sims.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago

    Assholes like this have zero, ZERO, concept of why creative work is popular. Even "corporate created" work. On an extreme end, as far as they are concerned they could turn The SIMS into "Saudi Life Simulator" and people will still buy it because "Its The SIMS."

    They don't see the creativity or the why, they just see "popular brand".

    There are plenty of other examples of this out there.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent