Significant changes are underway at EA, driven by an impending Saudi acquisition and leadership shifts, which could profoundly impact the future direction of franchises like Need for Speed.
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It's about time we talk about that need
for speed. You see, some things have
changed. Actually, quite a lot has
changed and there's more changes to
come. So, I kind of wanted to wrap it
all into one video and let you know why
I'm on full opium. This is once again
where my insider my my analyst cap comes
on and YouTuber brain comes out. And
this all points to something that is
significant that is happening to EA, not
just Need for Speed, but EA as a whole
in the next few months. Remember the
Saudi buyout deal that's supposed to
happen some point in the future? That
future is months away. This aim is
actually to complete by mid 2026. When
it was first announced, it sounded like
it was going to be in the distant past
in the future, but that's not the case.
This year is happening really soon. I
think a lot of the confusion comes from
the stupid jargon that Americans use in
terms of money. For example, they said
the deal is going to close before the
2027 fiscal year ends, which is June 2026.
2026.
Apparently, EA stressed multiple times
that the Saudi deal is not going to
alter their path, their direction, that
the people in charge now will remain in
charge. And again, whether to believe
that or not is is one thing. So, to get
you all caught up, this is probably one
of the most significant changes that has
happened since the last time we spoke.
Vince Zampella. Now, this is majorly
significant because in case you didn't
know, Vince Zampella is gone. He's the
guy that said the line. The line that I
keep repeating that people, this stupid
misinformation parade that keeps
happening everywhere, completely ignore
came out like 2 years ago at this point.
Need for Speed will return in new and
interesting way. You remember that? The
thing that I keep telling you, this was
what Vince Zampella said. Vince Zampella
kind of liked his cars and therefore
kind of losing him absolutely terrified
me for the future of Need for Speed. I
think that it's terrifying in general
that that could just happen to someone
at that height. This is why I REFUSE
EVER IN MY LIFE TO EVER STEP foot in a
helicopter. It's not going to happen.
Not this specific matter, but you know,
helicopters terrifying. Okay, let's turn
it down and be real a little bit here.
It's obviously an incredibly awful,
awful situation. I It's just insane. I
feel so incredibly sad for the family.
Again, you've got to picture this
situation like he was at the height of
his career. Absolutely just top of his
game and unfortunately missed with a
call at driving way too confidently on a
road he wasn't fully knowledgeable of. I
mean, the realities of the internet,
we've seen it, right? And if you
haven't, don't. It's an incredibly
grounding situation that really shows
the respect that you've got to show for
cars and of course, more importantly, in
my opinion, other people around you.
Insert pallet cleanser here. So that
leaves us in a pretty terrible position
because the head of well what is
Battlefield and also Need for Speed is
just gone. Uh it it's not a good
situation to be in for the sake of
Battlefield which we'll talk a little
bit more about later. We kind of have to
and of course Need for Speed more so
because Battlefield was the focus for
EA. Do they care about Need for Speed?
It kind of doesn't seem like it. Allow
me to bring some good news to you.
Listen, this is a little bit of theory
here, but it it it seems like it's the case.
case.
JULIAN GETY. YES, MAN. Previously
steering the ship for a series you may
know, The Division. The Division once,
like many other Ubisoft gamers, was just
kind of in development hell. And uh you
know, probably more important for us, me
and you, and discussing about the car
games and stuff. The crew. Yes, Julian
Guarantee literally has controlled the
ship, steered the ship of the crew,
giving it an actual direction, giving it
an actual game. Like the man saved the
crew from development hell, is there
anyone more perfect? Like what? My
genuine like excitement when I heard
that Julian was going to be heading up
the ship. Now again, just to clarify,
the head here is is technically what we
know unofficially is that he's going to
be in charge of DICE. I did actually
asked to try and see if he could let me
know, but clearly the, you know, the
situation hasn't been kind of embedded
yet, and we don't know if he's in charge
of Need for Speed, but if he's replacing
Vince Zampella, the situation is he is
also in charge now of Need for Speed and
as tall whether we're going to get
another Need for Speed. And I think this
is the perfect man for the job. I'm also
gonna like put a little bit of pressure
on you, Julian. Just think of this. Just
just just picture this. Need for Speed
Lockdown The Division Dark Zone. Hello.
You see my like appropriate shirt that
I'm wearing to Kaizen. It's a Need for
Speed thing. Okay. It's not like they
adopted it. Okay, calming down a little
bit here. He's literally the guy that's
called in when a game is in development
hell. The crew was really struggling.
They were pushing on like 8 years for
that game, which is absolutely insanity.
And The Division, once again, they
really were struggling. Bring him in.
The man knows what to do. And it's kind
of almost the best bit that this was
literally out of nowhere. It kind of
confirms the situation that he is going
to be at the helm of the Battlefield
Studios, as it were. To reconfirm that,
this tweet was put out by Ubisoft,
basically them saying, "Look, he's not
leaving. He's not." This was but a few
months before this happened I think
maybe less than that. So we are talking
big money to bring this man on board to
convince him to leave a series that he
clearly was incredibly passionate about
and a position in where Ubisoft was like
pulling him to multiple games to try and
just fix the situation. He was clearly
worth more money to someone else. Let's
get back to racing games a little bit
here. But uh with the success of Forsa
Horizon 5 on PlayStation, in case you
haven't seen it, absolutely decimated.
We're talking multi-millions of copies
on a game that was like 4 years old and
that's absolutely crazy. Like Need for
Speed clearly was always the dominating
force when it came to racing games at
Christmas. You know, every 2 years was
never Forza's kind of now going to be
the game to do that. But I think, and
this is, you know, it it links into my
opinion that Forsa Horizon, although
again, I'm looking forward to the new
one, it does not really tend to, and
this is a Microsoft thing, really push
the boat out in terms of actually
changing something significantly. But if
we go back to Need for Speed, a series
that is quite frankly known for changing
its formula up constantly, maybe to
positive or negative depending on the
way you look at it. This is a series
that quite frankly could go in many more
directions than say a Forsa Horizon does
because under Microsoft they don't want
to mess around with it. GT7 remains the
only reason quite frankly that I have a
PlayStation to this day. Don't tell Sony
I really want to come to PC and clearly
Fors Horizon is Microsoft's strongest
IP. It used to be and it's so wild to
think about it but in the PS2 era racing
games were the biggest genre. Okay. And
then we moved to the 360 PS3 and that's
when things started to change. We
started to go more towards the success
of FPS games. And I think even looking
at the Call of Duty, looking at
Battlefield and its kind of sticky
situation really shows that yes, those
games are kind of now becoming once like
racing games did a little bit pushed to
the side. Not to say racing games are
going to be back on top, but it's clear
that not everyone wants the same thing
and not everyone wants it for 20 years
in a row. While of course F1 and sports
in general is a huge chunk at EA, it's
pretty clear that their focus just on Battlefield,
