Episode 598: Saudi Arabia Bought EA — And Gamers Are Mad About a Camera

On Tuesday, Electronic Arts stops being a public company. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners are closing a $55 billion all-cash buyout — the largest leveraged buyout of a public company in history — and PIF walks away with 93.4% of Madden, FIFA, Apex, The Sims, Battlefield and BioWare. So we spent half the episode on what that actually means: what going private does to a publisher, the $20 billion in debt that lands on EA itself, whether sports betting is the obvious way to service it, and what happens to queer characters in BioWare games under this ownership. Plus the question nobody answers honestly — is boycotting Madden a real position, or does it just feel good? Then the other half. Tarkov's first post-launch wipe and the Kord Breach seasons drop August 3, so we get into the state of the game right before it resets. Overwatch Champions Series is live in Paris, and the jetpack cat strat does not translate to Silver. And Baldur's Gate 3's new true third-person camera mod set the internet on fire — someone told modders to be nuked off the face of the earth over an optional camera angle in a single-player game. Jake wants a normal third-person view in everything. Raz is a Larian hipster who was there before BG3. WARDOGS Alpha hits Friday. 0:00 - Intro 0:50 - Pop Quiz: Name That Tarkov AI 2:41 - Patreon Free Trials & August Hangouts 6:37 - WARDOGS Alpha Drops August 7 8:43 - Escape From Tarkov: Back In It 10:50 - Raz Gets Mogged All Wipe Long 16:36 - Jake's Week in Tarkov 22:49 - Tarkov Is the Dark Souls of FPS 24:19 - Overwatch: Bronze 5 to Silver 3 26:12 - Overwatch Champions Series in Paris 27:11 - The Jetpack Cat + Bastion A-10 Strat 31:50 - Saudi Arabia Is Buying EA for $55 Billion 44:23 - Going Private: Actually Good for Games? 50:47 - The $20 Billion Leveraged Buyout 52:15 - The Sports Betting Theory 55:55 - Nobody Here Bets on Anything 1:00:15 - Tangent: The Intel Bet That Paid 500% 1:02:49 - $166 Billion Wagered in 2025 1:04:08 - Why Do People Watch Gambling Streams? 1:05:10 - Gambling Ads and Kids 1:07:23 - There Is No Moral Panic Here 1:15:53 - "Creative Control" and What It's Worth 1:18:29 - Khashoggi, Non-Disparagement, Game-Washing 1:22:10 - Queer Characters, BioWare, and Veilguard 1:26:02 - Would You Still Buy It? (Yes) 1:28:37 - Is Boycotting Madden a Real Position? 1:31:30 - The BG3 Third-Person Camera Mod 1:32:11 - What the Mod Actually Does 1:36:25 - The Two Camps 1:37:52 - Raz Is a Larian Hipster 1:40:06 - Genre Purism: Is Isometric Load-Bearing? 1:42:20 - Jake Writes Off Every Top-Down Game 1:45:11 - The Elden Ring Summons Crowd 1:47:27 - Divinity's Camera, Confirmed 1:48:05 - Larian Shot Down WASD Movement 1:55:35 - That Divinity Trailer 1:57:37 - Why DOS2 Combat Beats BG3 2:01:44 - Outro _Note: timestamps may be slightly misaligned on podcast apps (but not on YouTube) due to dynamic ads._ The podcast is available wherever you listen to podcasts, and ad-free & early access versions - as well as bonus episodes - are available to all of our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/thedropshot) supporters. We stream the podcast live on our YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/thedropshotpodcast) every Saturday morning at ~9 o'clock Pacific Time. We typically start the stream 30 minutes early to answer viewer questions, banter, and chat. Links for everything are below. Thanks for checking us out! 🔹Streaming schedule (Pacific time): 🔸Saturday ~9 AM: Gaming news and stories of the week 🔹The Dropshot: 🔸Website: https://www.thedropshot.com 🔸Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDropshotPod 🔸Discord: https://discord.gg/B4Nsarq 🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thedropshotpodcast 🔸Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedropshot 🔸Donate: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=YVR98VF4S945G 🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedropshotpodcast/ 🔸TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedropshotpodcast 🔹Razinon: 🔸Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/razinon 🔸Twitter: https://twitter.com/razinon 🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/razinonttv 🔹Jakedown: 🔸Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/jakedown_ 🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jakedown #TheDropshot #DropshotPodcast #GamingPodcast #Jakedown #Razinon #EscapeFromTarkov #Tarkov #KordBreach #Overwatch #OWCS #BaldursGate3 #BG3 #LarianStudios #Divinity #WARDOGS #EA #ElectronicArts #SaudiArabia #GamingNews #GamingIndustry #PodcastClips #HotTake #GamingClips Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(622)

Episode 599: WARDOGS Alpha Review: Battlefield But Dying Actually Matters

Imagine Battlefield, but dying matters. That's the WARDOGS closed alpha in one sentence — and after a weekend in it, we're calling it the most polished alpha we've ever played. WARDOGS is Bulkhead ...

10 Aug 2h 21min

Episode 597: WARDOGS Looks Incredible... Then They Got Banned On Twitch

WARDOGS ran its first ever gameplay livestream this week and it went about as well as you'd expect from a studio full of guys in their late twenties: the alpha codes were a QR-code disaster, the strea...

27 Jul 1h 45min

Episode 596: MW4 Gameplay Reveal: Kill Block, Recoil Backlash & the DMZ 2 Problem

Infinity Ward just had its biggest Modern Warfare 4 reveal week yet — and the community immediately found the flaws. We break down everything shown at the MW4 creator event and Fanatics Fest: the Kill...

20 Jul 1h 46min

Episode 595: Bethesda Layoffs, Black Flag Resynced & Tarkov Kord Breach

Black Flag Resynced just became the biggest Assassin's Creed launch in history — and it's a remake of a 13-year-old game with mixed Steam reviews. The boys break down the day-one microtransaction back...

13 Jul 1h 52min

Episode 594: The Steam Machine Is Weaker Than a PS5 (And Costs 2x)

Valve's Steam Machine reviews are in — and the verdict is brutal: by most measures it's slightly less powerful than a base PS5 while costing more than double. We break down the benchmarks, why Valve w...

6 Jul 1h 46min

Episode 593: GTA 6 Is $100 For a Code in a Box (And You'll Buy It)

GTA 6 pre-orders are live, the price is confirmed, and the internet is melting down — so naturally that's the whole episode. Raz and Jake break down the $80 standard / $100 Ultimate pricing, the "phys...

29 Jun 1h 40min

Episode 592: Halo on PlayStation, GTA 6 Pre-Orders & WARDOGS Killcam Drama

Halo is on PlayStation. Let that sink in. On this one we get into Halo: Campaign Evolved — the full Unreal Engine 5 remake landing on PS5, Xbox and PC on July 28 — and why cutting the multiplayer to p...

22 Jun 1h 34min