“The proposed transaction poses a number of significant foreign influence and national security risks, beginning with the PIF’s reputation as a strategic arm of the Saudi government,” the Senators wrote in their letter. “As Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the PIF has made dozens of strategic investments in sports (including a bid for the U.S. PGA Tour), video games (including a $3.3 billion investment in Activision Blizzard), and other cultural institutions that ‘are more than just about financial returns; they are about influence.’ Leveraging long term shifts in public opinion, through the PIF’s investments, ‘Saudi Arabia is seeking to normalize its global image, expand its cultural reach, and gain leverage in spaces that shape how billions of people connect and interact.’ Saudi Arabia’s desire to buy influence through the acquisition of EA is apparent on the face of the transaction—the investors propose to pay more than $10 billion above EA’s trading value for a company whose stock has ‘stagnated for half a decade’ in an unpredictably volatile industry.”
I can’t wait for Battlefield: Portland
I can’t wait to collect inflatable suit skins
I’d play that
So many cool maps:
The zoo - elephant alley
Tunnels - traffic on 26
Bridges - because fuck colored/poor people
Happy valley - not if you’re poor
Lake Oswego - no one’s in my backyard
Skyline - also no one in my backyard
Traffic - the i84 simulator
Tram - light rail showing up every 30 minutes
And I’m out of ideas.
I mean…
The US military has been using various media like videogames for propaganda for a long time.
Obviously SA is going to influence things too.
And Hollywood
Remember this gem?
And yet, nobody is talking about the ever expanding cultural influence of Larry Ellison.
Just look at the list of assets he currently owns. Add to that his recent purchase of TikTok and very likely purchase of Warner Bothers Discovery, and you have a sizeable chunk of the world’s media under the control of a singularly dangerous man.
“Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on,” Ellison said, describing what he sees as the benefits from automated oversight from AI and automated alerts for when crime takes place. “We’re going to have supervision,” he continued. “Every police officer is going to be supervised at all times, and if there’s a problem, AI will report the problem and report it to the appropriate person.”
“The peasants will behave so the noise doesn’t reach my mansion!”
Seriously, I don’t think he ever thought to include himself in that scenario.
I can think of a dozen stupid half-baked jokes about what their future games will be like, off the top of my head.
But seriously. I do not want this regressive and oppressive state to have so much influence in the world. Influence of oil is more than enough.
Why can’t China own tik tok but this is ok?
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Yeah but it’s propaganda when other people do it.
They don’t even need to use ea for obvious propaganda. They’ll just harvest all of the data that gamers are willingly turning over to ea and use that to sell targeted ads and influence them via social media. If you’re playing one of the recent battlefield games then EA has access to literally every single file on your computer that’s not encrypted (unless you open it). Gamers give up all of their data willingly and that’s what this acquisition is about.
In this thread: bullshit and whataboutism.
At this point, would we be comfortable with the influence of any group or individual with enough money, and desire, to buy EA?
Corrupt foreign influence is everywhere just add it to the pile of bs
Electronic tarts.
