games

After being acquired and on the verge of going private, Electronic Arts saw its sales fall 13% year over year in the July-September quarter, according to its latest earnings report.

The company announced it will also stop holding quarterly Q&A calls between analysts and EA leadership, something it has done for years, and will no longer share forward-looking financial guidance.

Variety reports the company’s decisions could be tied to the $55 billion acquisition deal that will see the Saudis and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners and Silver Lake Group take control of the video game developer. 

The Sept. 29 acquisition hasn’t been completed yet, but is on track to be completed by next spring.

Per Variety: 

Wall Street forecast earnings per share (EPS) of 35 cents on $1.87 billion in revenue for the quarter, according to analyst consensus data provided by LSEG. EA reported non-GAAP diluted EPS of 54 cents on $1.82 billion in net bookings ($1.84 billion in revenue).

After being acquired and on the verge of going private, Electronic Arts saw its sales fall 13% year over year in the July-September quarter, according to its latest earnings report.

The company announced it will also stop holding quarterly Q&A calls between analysts and EA leadership, something it has done for years, and will no longer share forward-looking financial guidance.

Variety reports the company’s decisions could be tied to the $55 billion acquisition deal that will see the Saudis and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners and Silver Lake Group take control of the video game developer. 

The Sept. 29 acquisition hasn’t been completed yet, but is on track to be completed by next spring.

Per Variety: 

Wall Street forecast earnings per share (EPS) of 35 cents on $1.87 billion in revenue for the quarter, according to analyst consensus data provided by LSEG. EA reported non-GAAP diluted EPS of 54 cents on $1.82 billion in net bookings ($1.84 billion in revenue).

AI (artificial intelligence) is still a boogeyman in the gaming space, but EA (Electronic Arts) is all-in on it.

After their eye-watering $65 billion buyout at the hands of the Saudis and Affinity Partners, which was founded by Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, there is more news coming out regarding the popular video game publisher that will make the stomachs of gamers turn. 

Electronic Arts announced a partnership with Stability AI, the creator of the AI image generation tool Stable Diffusion.

According to EA, the main goal of the partnership is to “co-develop transformative AI models, tools, and workflows” to help game developers speed up development while maintaining quality. 

“I use the term smarter paintbrushes,”Head of Technical Art for EA SPORTS, Steve Kestell, said in the announcement. “We are giving our creatives the tools to express what they want.” To start, the “smarter paintbrushes” EA and Stability AI are building are concentrated on generating textures and in-game assets. EA hopes to create “Physically Based Rendering materials” with new tools “that generate 2D textures that maintain exact color and light accuracy across any environment.”

EA also claims that its partnership with the company will allow them to use AI to “pre-visualize entire 3D environments from a series of intentional prompts, allowing artists to creatively direct the generation of game content.”

EA Wants To Cut Game Development Time With Its New Partnership

The move isn’t surprising, as the gaming industry is increasingly integrating AI into game development. 

With EA on the verge of being bought out, the company will be saddled with a lot of debt, so using AI could be a cost-effective way to deliver AAA games without the bloated development costs. 

Also, game development times have increased significantly, with many gamers complaining that it takes too long for these big-name titles to hit shelves, so finding a way to cut that time in half without sacrificing quality is always welcome. 

BUT —and this is a huge BUT —no one wants to see humans replaced by AI to accomplish this goal.