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,
Battlefield,
it's time to diversify again a little
bit. Speaking of the success of
Battlefield, it's so nuanced and
difficult to to really, but ultimately
the game sold incredibly. It is the
bestselling Battlefield there has ever
been, but at the same time, they
continue to struggle in terms of keeping
their players. Now, this is PC, and I
hate bringing out these charts because
it doesn't show consoles, which is
PlayStation is going to be the place
that people are playing these games the
most. It doesn't show the whole picture,
but this is the slice we get,
unfortunately. And honestly, is there a
case that Valve should just probably get
rid of this feature? Like to be honest,
it doesn't mean everything. The game is
also available on EA Play. Did people
play it on EA Play? Listen,
I'm not here to defend EA cuz I don't
give a damn about Battlefield. They
brought out a new season. It hasn't
really brought the audience back. And
that once again confirms that maybe they
should stop spending all of their money
and value and people and staff and power
and talent on one game because it maybe
isn't working in the way that they had
hoped. EA is usually quick to be like,
"Okay, this isn't working. Let's
dismantle it completely." They've done
this many times with D for Speed. You
You know that. Now, I think the reality
of as to why this is the case is that
choice is expanding and new gameplay
forms and formats are winning. I mean,
even for me, I've been burnt out of FPS
games. And yes, I do play other games.
I've been burnt out of FPS games since
the beginning of the PS4 generation. I
was already done. I mean, Far Cry 3 is
probably one of my highlights. We're
talking Resistance 2, Resistance 3,
Killzone 2, Killzone 3. After those
games and the the slimification to the
point where it's just Call of Duty and
it's maybe Battlefield, I was already
kind of done. Bad Company, too, by the
way. But I think it aligns perfectly
with Need for Speed that's always
thrived in adding unique gameplay. Now,
the reaction between people is always
kind of very polarizing, hearing, oh,
this is the worst one and this is the
best one. But ultimately, maybe they
should lean into that. Forza clearly
doesn't want to change its idea, and
that's fine. But in the other situation,
on the other hand, you've got Need for
Speed that changes too much maybe, and
it had changed too much. But if you look
at the most recent Need for Speeds,
they're all similarly formed, but they
focus on different elements of gameplay.
Need for Speed will return in new and
interesting ways. And this is you've
really got to remember this. Need for
Speed Heat clearly considered the better
game when it comes to Need for Speeds
from the majority. Okay? And if you
disagree with that, I don't know what to
tell you, but the majority think that. I
don't mean that you disagree that this
one is better. Anyway, zero live
service. Quite honestly, they had two
updates. One of which was by Criterion
adding crossplay. Great update, by the
way. The previous one was that like
weird shipping container side where you
can get some extra cars and with the
Kaiser cars and they were kind of cool.
Uh but Need for Speed Heat with zero
live service as it were. Huge. The
biggest most successful Need for Speed
in like two decades we're talking about
here. Okay, maybe a decade cuz 2015 also
did really well. But nonetheless,
biggest Need for Speed of modern times.
People are so much fonder of Need for
Speed Heat compared to Need for Speed
Unbound. And mate, first impressions are
very, very important and so is actually
advertising your game. That's another
topic entirely. So, right now we know
that Criterion is stuck on Battlefield
and they're in the crunch of the next
season or the next content that's
coming, but they were focused on the
campaign side of things and did, you
know, most of the the handling and the
vehicles and the car related stuff
because that's I mean, they got some of
the best team in the world. These people
can make body kits I've never seen and
they're working on tanks. Anyway, the
reason they're doing the story is
because the dedicated studio for that
was closed. And Criterion, well, they
actually did a lot of the special stuff
that, you know, 2015 when they had the
like cars rendered in the scene, but the
people were in the that stuff that was
all done like headed up by Criterion
themselves. And of course, they just
released Need for Speed. Not the best
campaign, but they have the tech and the
knowhow to actually make a campaign
somewhat work. And so, they got thrown
the campaign. But uh yeah, that that
kind of leaves the question, are they
still working on a campaign? Are they
are they really making a campaign for
the next game? Like what's going on
here? EA can't still be on the mindset
of making these games every year.
There's just it's just no. But it's
pretty obvious that the changing of the
situation with Vince Pella and the
changing of the head of Battlefield
Studio and the direction and and and
really struggling to scrape together the
mass amount of content that's kind of
required to keep up against the
competition. That and also the bio deal
from the Saudis. It's pretty clear that
they're trying to just wait it out a
little bit, keep it as going as best
they can and not make any drastic
decisions as of yet. Because if you rock
the boat and then the Saudis go, "Bate,
what the hell's going on here?" this
this is all not working and rip it
apart. That wouldn't be good either. I
do want to quickly touch upon once again
the Saudi deal because it is so
significantly important and again I
mentioned the deal is closing in a
matter of months which is absolutely
wild. So there's no concrete intent but
the advantage here with private
ownership of EA they no longer have to
cater towards that like shortterm
mindset. So me and you want more money
as much and quickly as possible, right?
That's that's the way the world works.
You would love my money. I would love my
money. And so think about when, for
example, you or me or someone with lots
of money put some money into EA, they do
so for one reason and one reason only.
And this is the only reason business
exists. I don't need to explain the
system to you, but people want to make
money. And if I put money into your
company and I don't see returns, I'm
going to be angry because my money has
been taken. They want to see stuff
moving upwards. Always upwards. More
sales, more stuff, more more AI, more
more every month, every quarter, every
year. I need to see my [ __ ] double.
Okay, you get you get the point. Now,
this technically used to work when games
were constantly being more adoption
every year. Every single year, a new
need for speed. Every single year, a new
costume, every single mate, it used to
work, but it doesn't really work
anymore. especially when games are now
taking five, six, seven years in some
cases to actually even exist.
Microtransactions. Now, while they don't
think that they're going to just
disappear overnight or go away in a huge
way, I think it's pretty safe to say
that they're seen as a negative for
satisfaction and they scare off
potential returning customers. I mean, I
didn't remind you about the loot box
situation in Nepe Payback and
Battlefront 2. But if you're no longer
chasing like constant instant returns
because the idea of you know big company
private no one can you know jump into
the pie and force a company to go a
certain way and follow certain things.
There is advantages in that that they
could go okay no let's now take 3 years
to make this game. Let's now take four
years to make this game and make it
bigger than the last one because we have
the ability to do so. We're not trying
to like impress a audience of millions
of investors. we only have to cater
towards like a couple of top dogs that
ultimately own the majority of the
company. They too want to see returns,
but they're not talking about short-
term. They want, for example, to put
money in now like anyone with big money.
I'm going to now put in $55 billion, and
I want that to be hundred billion in 10,
15, 20 years. Other than that, get on
with it. On the negative side, they are
going to want to make big money. The
deal exists against a huge amount of
debt. I don't need to tell you about the
fears of private equity. They've
probably eaten up just like in the UK.
All of your high street and doubled the
price. Have you seen that Pizza Express
charges over £20 for a pizza? What do
you mean? But they're also not afraid to
cut costs by any measure, any means down
the line if things aren't going that
way. But it's the same situation anyway,
whether you're public or private. So if
anything, this gives them a bit longer.
But the silver lining once again is that
the EA purchase to our knowledge is kind
of an attempt to create a positive
influence and diversify the roster of
the Saudi fund. This is a big fund that
essentially is built for that intent to
influence and also to diversify where
the money is coming from. And this would
be their first jump into gaming as it
were in a massive okay not the first but
in this scale. I do have a whole video
about the Saudi deal and it's worth
knowing as well that even Ubisoft has
kind of gone that route where majority
of their big IP is now private and owned
in partnership with Tencent to where
they can just keep things like inwards
and let them actually build something
without the crunch of you know being
peered over like have you made me money
this month? I've got a full video if you
want more details. Go check it out if
you're interested. So, all in, I'm
pretty happy to sit in the hopium side
of things. I think we're just waiting
for the most part for this deal to kind
of go through before big calls are made
and decisions are aligned between the
two combining forces. And I think
there's been both successes and failures
with a larger team plan. I think it's
really obvious that having four plus
studios, probably like a thousand people
having one title to work on has kind of
caused some problems. maybe more
problems than positives. I guess
initially to get the game out, it
worked, but like the later plan doesn't
seem to be working as well as they had
hoped. And Julian potentially coming in
calling some shots, him knowing
personally the horrors of Ubisoft
development where once again people are
prying over and Ubisoft was constantly
like on the down. EA's, you know, has
been stable for a while by comparison.
Anyway, I sit in the side of hopeful and
that's where I sit and I will update you
if we hear anything new. It would really
be, you know, it would be amazing.
Criterium, you just came out and you
were like, "Surprise, we were working on
Need for Speed for the last like eight
months and I'd BE LIKE, OH MY GOD." I I
don't think that's happening. [ __ ] battlefield.
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