Other franchises such as The Sims have performed well financially, but Darrah questions whether they align with the messaging priorities of the three new stakeholders — perhaps they do, perhaps they don’t, but they aren’t an obvious fit either way.
Darrah also highlights that several EA studios haven’t shipped recently or have released underperforming titles. He believes teams working on high-profile licensed games — including the Marvel projects and BioWare — will face different scrutiny under new ownership.
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Darrah warns that if the purchase serves as much as a public-relations move for the Saudi government as a financial deal, buyers may be tempted to influence studios that lack a strong track record — nudging messaging to better reflect the owners’ image or steering teams away from topics deemed sensitive. For established studios with a clear identity, especially those whose output clashes with the new owners’ viewpoints, he says leadership will face hard decisions about how, or whether, to integrate them.
“It’s hard to imagine that you have BioWare pivot from having very progressive messaging to having the reverse because it’s what the government wants,” Darrah says, adding that the public reaction to such a shift would likely be severe. “So in that case you either have to decide that you’re willing to just leave it alone, or you have to think that they don’t fit anymore within the goals of this new organization.”
Darrah admits he isn’t sure how actively the Saudi investment fund has pushed political agendas within companies it backs, but he believes its involvement will be an influential factor going forward.
Source: gamesradar.com
