topic
studio business
3 dispatches on studio business.
The EU Said Yes to Saudi Arabia Owning EA. Washington Hasn't.
The European Commission cleared Saudi Arabia's $55 billion PIF acquisition of Electronic Arts this week — the largest leveraged buyout in gaming history. But CFIUS is still the last gate, and it's a different kind of gate entirely.
Ubisoft Barcelona Made the Game That Saved the Franchise. Then Got Fired For It.
Black Flag Resynced launched to the best Assassin's Creed reviews in over a decade — then Ubisoft laid off 51 Barcelona developers days later. The resulting strike is a precise case study in how game industry labor works now.
DOOM Ships Its Expansion the Day After Xbox Guts the Studio That Made It
DOOM: The Dark Ages | Revelations landed on July 7 with 10–12 hours of new content. id Software lost roughly half its staff the day before. What this collision tells us about how Xbox actually values its studios.