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Amazon is not going to make a bid for Electronic Arts – sources
- OrangeMonkey 4y agoAmazon appears to be putting out offers to tons of companies right now. Forays into health care and now a large gaming vendor.
- moffkalast 4y agoJeff: "I need to to acquire everyone." Amazon: "What do you mean everyone?" Jeff: "EVEEERRRYYYOONNEEE"
- ape4 4y agoPuts pinky finger to face while petting white cat
- dudul 4y agoWrong movie
- rhipitr 4y agoIf you haven’t seen Leon the professional, you definitely should
- mritchie712 4y agoThe reality is even stranger: https://www.geekwire.com/2014/jeff-bezos-octopus-breakfast/ https://www.geekwire.com/2014/jeff-bezos-octopus-breakfast/
- brador 4y agoThat's a misrepresentation. Jeff was simply implying he liked the novelty of the acquisition.
- pelagicAustral 4y agoRemember how that movie ended for Jeff, in this case...
- qohen 4y ago<tangent> TIL that Gary Oldman improvised his delivery of that line -- in this short clip[0], he says he was fooling around, doing it that way as a joke, and the director kept it: [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZfqez5qmuA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZfqez5qmuA </tangent>
- mamonster 4y agoSurely this will be the Rubicon for FTC to take a serious look at the gaming industry, assuming this actually gets announced?
- blitzar 4y agoMicrosoft, Sony, Nintendo, Amazon, Google, Meta, Steam... that is more companies and thus competition than there are movie studios or streaming services.
- tiahura 4y agoTTWO, UBSFY, Epic, Gameloft, ...
- blitzar 4y agoTencent Games; forgot them
- CrazedGeek 4y agoEmbracer Group, too
- micromacrofoot 4y agoor you know… amazon
- krageon 4y agoGiven that it hasn't been investigated yet, I don't see why this change specifically will make a legislator wake up. It's more of the same.
- qzx_pierri 4y agoConsolidation doesn't equal monopoly. A monopoly is defined as "the exclusive possession or control of the supply of or trade in a commodity or service" - As long as indie game studios exist, the FTC will pay the gaming industry no mind. As long as games, as a commodity, can be created out of "thin air" (code), the FTC will pay the gaming industry no mind. Huge companies buying every major studio is definitely a "dick move" (lack of a better term), but it's not a monopoly, and it never could be. Some of the most impactful games of the past 5 years were released by small teams and amassed cult followings.
- throwawayacc2 4y agoAlexa will watch to make sure you pay those micro transactions. And if you don’t, get ready to fight the roomba they send after you!
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- LightG 4y agoHAHA! enjoyed visualising that ... thanks ... (I am assuming you're joking here, but ... hmmm on seconds thoughts. Give it 10 years and ...).
- Ygg2 4y agoYour thoughts have been reported for containing hate speech against Amazon. You must enter the Amazon Voluntarily Submission Chamber. You have 30 seconds to comply. /Robocop nightmare. Edit: Can't believe you got downvoted :(
- throwawayacc2 4y agoI don’t understand the downvotes. I feel like your comment is very salient. It’s a joke now. Given how things are going, it might not be in the future.
- clement_b 4y agoCan't wait for Battlefield to be f2p for Prime customers.
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- cosmodisk 4y agoOr Amazon ads on the walls of castles in battlefield.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- iinnPP 4y agoI don't think AGS will be better than EA as a publisher. I can't believe I can say that. Seeing how they handled New World and how they currently handle Lost Ark... For anyone unaware, Lost Ark has a serious bot problem and the answer from AGS is to act in a way where the primary impact is felt by legitimate players. Lost Ark makes RuneScape's history of botting seem minor in comparison.
- politelemon 4y agoI was thinking of trying out Lost Ark this weekend. Is the botting bad enough that it affects someone soloing their way through the game?
- iinnPP 4y agoThe impact on the economy of the game makes it very difficult to play the game for free and even at the 50$/month mark you would be having a rough time because of the market. The game is fun until you reach the point where the botting becomes impactful. Up until that point you can enjoy it for free with minimal impact from bots minus the inability to farm some horizontal progression content.
- shigawire 4y agoNot really. I enjoyed soloing the game.
- samsin 4y agoIs it that unbelievable? EA are a very successful publisher
- deepdriver 4y agoEA has been increasingly anti-consumer for years, notably through the proliferation of microtransactions, loot box mechanics, “Season Passes”, and half-finished base games with expensive DLC “expansions.” Highly unpopular brand, despite their commercial success.
- paganel 4y agoIt there any way this would pass anti-trust? Especially in this tense political climate when it comes to Big Tech (I'm thinking both of Europe and especially fo the US).
- choko 4y agoWhy would it not pass? There's not a shortage of competition in the gaming sector.
- weberer 4y agoOf course it would pass. Amazon does not have significant market share in the video game market, much less a monopoly.
- chollida1 4y agoYes, can't see the government looking at this. This isn't two gaming companies combining. US anti trust looks at harm to consumers, meaning does this reduce competition amongst game makers, and the answer is obviously no. This isn't two gaming companies merging. This is one unrelated company acquiring another. Us and European anti trust don't look at the size of a company as a factor.
- reustle 4y agoWill there ever be a point where as a society we agree to put an upper cap on the size of companies? Does Amazon really need to absorb even more? Doesn’t that stifle competition? I understand that enforcement is hard as the rule wouldn’t be global, but still curious.
- alberth 4y ago> put an upper cap on the size of companies How would you measure “size”? EDIT: What do you mean by "cap" then? Would you force the company to be broken apart into smaller independent companies if it exceeded whatever cap is defined?
- choeger 4y agoSimple. Revenue. Tax a company's revenue progressively. (Of course it's complicated to implement this with companies owning companies, but you get the gist.)
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- alberth 4y agoIn the US at least, corporate taxes are progressive. Taxes are on earnings though, not revenues (you could be unprofitable and as such, pay no taxes). Question: so are you suggesting then that just because a company's revenues (I think you mean "earnings") have exceeded X, that they should be completely broken up as a company?
- choeger 4y ago> so are you suggesting then that just because a company's revenues (I think you mean "earnings") have exceeded X, that they should be completely broken up as a company? Yes. But I meant revenues. If we want companies to become smaller, taxing their revenue progressively would compell their owners to split them up into independent entities. Think about it as a progressive VAT.
- throwaway67743 4y agoAll ea games past and present require prime sub, but on the other hand a mass effect TV series would be nice if they don't fuck it up
- matheusmoreira 4y ago> a mass effect TV series would be nice if they don't fuck it up After what they did to Halo I'm not holding my breath.
- throwaway67743 4y agowell quite, hence the bit at the end :D
- HideousKojima 4y agoWhat do you mean? Master Chief is best known for taking off his helmet at any and every opportunity, and for sleeping with Covenant spies while Cortana watches. Edit: I also didn't expect them to use the people who did voice acting for the game, but it's bizarre to me that they decided to get Jen Taylor to voice Cortana but didn't decide to cast her as Halsey. Would have made more sense to just have the lady who played Halsey voice Cortana as well, since Halsey modeling Cortana after herself tells you a lot about her character and her overinflated opinion of herself.
- notart666 4y agoI can't wait the the marathon series on paramount plus I'm sure it would make more sense after they redo Halo to actually follow the story and it's cyberpunk! Which is sooo hot right now
- rdtwo 4y agoThey couldn’t even stop from fucking up the games. Plus has Amazon studios released anything good?
- throwaway67743 4y ago
- christophilus 4y agoThey deserve each other.
- Ekaros 4y agoSo EA Play with Prime... Now if we only had Amazon in my country...
- haunter 4y agoTwitch Prime is available in many countries through Prime Video where regular Amazon Prime is not available https://www.primevideo.com/ https://www.primevideo.com/ https://www.amazongames.com/en-us/support/prime-gaming/articles/countries-territories-eligible-for-prime-gaming https://www.amazongames.com/en-us/support/prime-gaming/artic...
- samwillis 4y agoIt seems to me that Amazons long term strategy is to become a "Conglomerate of Brands", leveraging the profits from one business unit to buy out unrelated business. This sort of acquisition doesn't, as far as I can see, advance a particular core business unit (I'm aware Amazon have toyed with games publishing, but its not exactly a core business unit). I suppose it makes sense, investors want their investment to be safe, by diversifying through acquisition they can give that to shareholders. For the other rumoured purchasers, Disney and Apple, would have a direct affect on their business strategy. Disney as a media asset business, and Apple though the potential to expand their Gaming strategy on their own platforms.
- Thev00d00 4y agoI would have thought its to add a boat load of IP into their "Prime Gaming" play?
- sschueller 4y agoWhat movie was that where there was only one large company that did everything? Kind of scary that we are almost at that point now.
- samwillis 4y agoLots, but I always think of Wall-E with "Buy n Large" (https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Buy_n_Large https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Buy_n_Large), it seems to be so close to where Amazon will be in 100 years if we let it. Particularly if you include Blue Origin as part of "Bezos/Amazon".
- alexslobodnik 4y agoafter the franchise wars, all restaurants are taco bell.
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y agoIdiocracy ;) In that movie, Costco pretty much does everything.
- jacooper 4y agoYay even more monopolies in the gaming market.
- tasubotadas 4y agoHow does this create a new monopoly?
- Cthulhu_ 4y ago"more monopolies in $industry" is a contradiction
- kornhole 4y agoIt is getting harder to stay out of Amazon's view. I am setting up a new VLAN to contain my partner's Peloton, also on Amazon acquisition list, and the kids game boxes to ensure those devices can't probe my devices on the network.
- akmarinov 4y agoGreat, now someone needs to buy Sony Entertainment and we're all set for FAANG to control the game industry.
- InsomniacL 4y ago1, Amazon runs the platform that sells the games - Amazon 2, Amazon runs the platform that people use while playing the games - Twitch 3, Amazon runs the platform that hosts the servers to play the games - AWS 4, Amazon runs the platform that you play the game on - Luna 5, Amazon runs the platform that creates the games - EA how is this not anti-competition for anyone running a company that competes in only one of these fields..
- shultays 4y agoOther than Twitch (and maybe AWS, I don't know enough), none of those are monopoly or capable of anti-competition. Even twitch has youtube as alternative
- foepys 4y agoJust because there is one other competitor doesn't mean it's not a valid target for antitrust. If both were to cooperate and segment their markets in secret, it would be highly anticompetitive.
- shultays 4y agoTrue I guess, but hard to say that Twitch and Youtube is doing that. Even Steam is in this picture I think although they are less relevant maybe?
- Cthulhu_ 4y agoAnd Twitch can be replaced / surpassed. Its technology is nothing new, right now it mainly has critical mass due to the amount of people using it. It only takes one mistake for them to lose a lot of that engagement.
- paulryanrogers 4y ago> It only takes one mistake for them to lose a lot of that engagement. How true is this? Because YouTube and Google have made plenty of mistakes yet it continues to dominate.
- hestefisk 4y agoIt will be interesting to see how big regulators will allow Amazon to become. They are already crazy large in so many sectors.
- jwie 4y agoMicrosoft has acquired Bethesda, will probably acquire Activision-Blizzard, and has purchased other, smaller studios in the past already. I wonder what’s driving the desire to buy up video game publishers. There probably aren’t many left at the scope of the ones already bought or in a deal that are practically purchasable, even for big tech players.
- throwawayacc2 4y agoA cynic might suspect it’s the same reason traditional media is bought and has value. By controlling video games, you control an important media influencing children profoundly. You teach them from a young age the lesson you want taught, it will be more impactful than school which is boring, and you get to shape them up to be good consumers for when they grow up.
- ctvo 4y agoOr you know, it's to get licensing rights for large, popular IPs to make more money.
- z3phyr 4y agoThere is a lot of money in video game publishing business, given how video games are slowly becoming persistent and ongoing. Companies like Microsoft and Amazon have the means to handle such publishing, and they would surely want control on that cash cow.
- govg 4y agoGlobal video game revenue (including mobile gaming) is more than the top 4 sports in the US + Hollywood + music industry. Getting a hand into that pie is going to be very lucrative, especially as gaming has nowhere near the cultural mindshare that these other things do.
- psyc 4y agoI realize most have already made up their minds that VR will still be a gimmick with no market in the year 7000 AD, but I just can’t shake this crazy feeling that we’re going to sort it between now and then. My answer is VR. At least a hedge in case Zuckerberg turns out not to be a clown. If only he had a track record to weigh.
- thomasfl 4y agoI sometimes wish Hacker News had emoticons, so I could add a sad face instead of just an upvote.
- capableweb 4y agoHN generally prefers insightful conversations over reactions, so if you feel "sad face", why not make a comment describing your feelings and why you feel like that instead?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Cthulhu_ 4y agoHere's one for you: :(
- jcmontx 4y agoHow come anti-trust laws aren't being applied yet? Is it corruption or a political decision?
- 4monthsaway 4y agoYes
- Cthulhu_ 4y agoHow big a percentage of the video game development and publishing market share will Amazon have after the acquisition, then? And how competition will be left? (Answer: There is no anti-trust case. Just because Amazon is big doesn't mean it's big in the video game industry. Companies are allowed to be big across multiple industries. It would only become an issue if it already owned a big percentage of the video game industry, or if it buys up other publishers after this, like Activision or Tencent. Speaking of which, Microsoft intends to acquire Activision, which will make it the 3rd largest gaming company behind Tencent and Sony - and Amazon + EA will be trailing behind those still).
- mlcrypto 4y agoWould EA engineers get Amazon compensation?
- psyc 4y agoJesus Christ. If I was still with EA I might have become an Amazon employee? Bullet dodged!
- andybak 4y agoFrom what I've heard about working conditions at EA, that's quite the indictment of Amazon!
- psyc 4y agoThat was going to be my exact response if someone implied me a hypocrite. Lol. Fittingly I was only at EA because of an acquisition too!
- ptr 4y agoEA has pretty good working conditions for SWEs.
- 411111111111111 4y agoThey were notorious for having extremely bad working conditions. While they've supposedly made an effort to improve them, their notoriety won't go away quiet as fast
- ptr 4y agoCorrect, with an emphasis on “were”. Things are different now.
- maximilianburke 4y agoUh, yeah, 20 years ago.
- 411111111111111 4y agoThat's not factual. I remember several reports from 2010-2014, so 10 yrs at the very most. It's a gigantic corporation however, so i don't doubt that some of their teams had good working conditions even in 2002 as you said.
- z3phyr 4y agoThere is a tremendous amount of human talent in the video game industry that usually does not bleed into the general tech industry or film industry. I wonder how well such talent is compensated by the incoming tech giants..
- psyc 4y agoIsn’t this approximately equal to what level the bigco will agree to bring them in at? Which in my experience they usually have their thumb on your head.
- ptrm 4y agoThe Amazing Amazon
- m3kw9 4y agoThey are gonna make prime more and more irresistible by bundling all these things and how snap a lock in as you lose a lot by leaving it.
- nottorp 4y agoThat's fine with me, haven't touched EA games since they started requiring an Origin account or whatever it's called.
- yalogin 4y agoThey are being smart about which ones they are acquiring. They are not into game development or even own any gaming platforms, so going after EA most likely won’t be blocked. However I don’t know how the strategy of buying unrelated businesses will hold up over time. The CEO will not have any coherent strategy across business units and they will just have to be run as independent brands with their own individual CEOs. Is this a hedge against market corrections? I mean if one business is in recession may be the others help?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- luc_ 4y agoAntitrust.
- samwillis 4y agoSignificantly more discussion on the dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32605949 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32605949
- dang 4y agoWe'll merge it hither. Thanks!
- speeder 4y agoAlthough I am strongly suspicious of Amazon... I can hope this means an improvement, maybe EA will finally allow some older games to be open sourced or fixed. Been trying to convince EA for years to do something about SimCity 4.
- Krisjohn 4y agoNo two companies deserve each other more
- havblue 4y agoAmazon, Ms and Google all want to build game streaming services in family room devices, set top boxes and smart tvs. Buying gaming companies with large libraries that constantly produce content definitely gets them part of the way there and is likely cheaper than attempting to build your own popular video games only to see them fail. So whether this is true or not I think it makes sense. The negative about ea is I see them as a middle man when it comes to licenses. They own the Madden brand but they still have to pay the NFL to make games for it. Same with all their other sports. Same for Star Wars games.
- spywaregorilla 4y agoEA managing to shift its annual sports titles to a single game with updates on a subscription model would at least be more honest than asking people to buy a whole new game each year at least.
- padobson 4y agoJohn Carmack disagrees with your rationale: "As long as people are buying it, it means they’re enjoying it" [0] [0]https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/07/id-softwares-john-carmack-sticks-up-for-call-of-duty/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/07/id-softwares-john-car...
- spywaregorilla 4y agoThat's nice for John Carmack
- alpaca128 4y agoJohn Carmack confused sales numbers with positive experiences. It doesn't take a lot of knowledge about recent game launches to see how that makes no sense. And either way it doesn't justify the business practice itself - you could apply the exact same quote to PS5 scalpers.
- nisegami 4y agoYou could use the same argument to advocate for recreational drugs. Both they and lootboxes hijack the reward loop in our brains. For actual, buy-it-once games, I see his point, but it doesn't apply to the slot machines disguised as games nowadays.
- bobkazamakis 4y ago>You could use the same argument to advocate for recreational drugs ...and it would still be accurate.
- Salgat 4y agoNo ones arguing that they aren't enjoying the game.
- belter 4y agoLooks like another job by the "retards" :-) https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/w6bgpz/who_would_buy_ea/ https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/w6bgpz/who_... Edit: In case you don't know, 'Retard' is a friendly self-deprecating title proudly used by many at wallstreetbets. For News confirmed by the BBC and denied by CNBC...If I was the SEC, I would be all over any recent moves on this stock.
- Jayakumark 4y agoAll recent amazon acquisitions are big AWS Customers, its super easy for Amazon to find Cost of running business for a any Technology Company who run majority of stack or provide products using AWS and go behind them for acquisition or build them internally and release as a service.
- LetsGetTechnicl 4y agoThat's crazy if true, didn't they get in trouble for doing something similar with their Amazon Basics brand?
- elforce002 4y agoAmazon, Googl, and the likes need to thread carefully from now on. We don't want an Oligopoly where 5 companies control every facet of human life (food, entertainment, medicine, to name a few). This is where the line gets trickier: - Less government on things that matter; - Enough government to avoid big corps from creating monopolies. Finding this middle ground is proven to be really, I mean really difficult, to say the least.
- danjoredd 4y agoWe risk Buy-N-Large from Wall-E becoming a real thing at this rate