How I Evaluate Gear and Loot in New World Aeternum Nighthaven

My inventory is a mess of "maybe" useful
items.

  As I've alluded to in posts about Nighthaven one of the big areas of focus for New World players post Nighthaven update is the plethora of legendary loot landing in our inventories and trying to understand what is good and what is not good in the new gearing system.  Like anytime I am faced with analysis paralysis I need to break things up into smaller chunks and most importantly, write them down.  But as y'all can't see my notebook I am digitizing my thoughts here on this blog post.

 It is worth noting up front that I am not an expert (yet) of this new system and some of this information could be wrong or misguided or there is nuance and bias to my current state that is driving me in a direction that may not work for you.  Feel free to comment on anything I get wrong or may not have considered.  This is very much a living document.

 I will break this post up into a few sections:

• How I am thinking about my builds
• A note on infixes and set bonuses 
• Evaluating armor
• Evaluating weapons
• Evaluating jewelry 

How I am thinking about my builds

 With the new gearing system you have to think of your gear as a whole vs individual pieces.  This is because a single piece could handle multiple needs.  In the old system gear was often limited to filling a single need.  For example; in the new system I could have a single item with two weapon skill perks on it so that means another item doesn't need a skill slot and thus could have another perk instead.

 With that in mind when I break down my main build I am thinking in terms of what perks I want across all gear.  From there I need to determine, of those perks, which can be slotted via perk charms and which are fixed perks (including infixes).  The fixed perks are the major limiting factor as we have no control over them.  We either get a drop with the right fixed perks + an infix or we don't (or we find one on the trading post).  

 For perk charms I just need to ensure I have the right type of slot for each charm and those slots can be on any piece of gear; for example armor piece one may have two defensive charm slots and another armor piece could have two offensive charm slots and then my shield may have two weapon skill perk slots.  So as long as my gear, in total, has the right number of slots I am good to go.  The only consideration is if you need a specific weapon perk on a weapon where it will be stronger than if it was on armor then you'd want to make sure to get a skill slot on your weapon.

 Lastly you need to consider gems and gem slots as they compete with offense/defense/skill charm slots. The general consensus at this point is that gem slots are a "best" option on weapons.  A gem will do more for a weapon than any other perk will do in terms of damage.  Gems on armor are up for debate as the % reduction gems offer was nerfed from 6% to 4% and other perks like conditioning offer 5% so in theory could be better than a gem slot (though a gem can be changed out if needed with another gem of a different type).  Runeglass gems may be a different decision to make because  they offer protection + other effects; for example I run 4x runeglass gems that increase my fire damage so am leaning more on gem slots in my armor.  Gem slots in jewelry are a hot debate so probably comes down to preference there.

 If I take this into account for my heavy flamethrower build here is what I am looking for on gear:

• I need 5x defensive slots for Enchanted Ward II
• I need 1x skill slot on armor for Accelerating Flamethrower II
• I need 1x skill slot on my sword for Contagious Upheaval
• I don't need many, if any offensive skill slots if I keep using my current artifact firestaffs which have them baked in
• I want slash conditioning, thrust conditioning, fire conditioning, and likely a few of the new perks that drop in the fixed perk bucket (I don't have a list together yet) 

 And if this wasn't enough; we have to consider that OLD perks and gear are still in the game and can be upgraded.  There may be a situation where that old armor piece with refreshing/wellness/health/<whatever> is a stronger option.  Note: not all old gear scales to 800 properly so check all stats like damage and armor values before committing to an upgrade.  For example; Frigid Dawn armor value does not scale to 800.

 So now that I have somewhat of an idea what I am looking for I can start sorting my inventory by the mandatory needs.   I know I am looking for X slots of Y type and the best mix of Z fixed perks/infix.

A note on infixes and set bonuses

 I am also paying attention to infix perks which are unique perks on specific items.  The rest of the item is still randomly generated for charm slots and fixed perks but the infix will always be the same for that item type.  Research the infixes you may be interested in and its worth likely saving any of them. 

 Then there are set bonus which are in addition to the other perks.  Set bonus trigger bonuses when you have the right number of set bonus gear equipped.  At this stage it's best to just keep any set bonus gear and assume it may fill a spot.  It is possible you will find unlocking a set bonus milestone is better than a gear item with better perks.

Evaluating armor

 For armor the mandatory need is that skill slot so I am going to be looking for pieces with a skill slot and looking at their fixed perks first.  I then set all of them aside (i.e. lock them in my inventory).

 Next I am looking for those armor pieces with defensive slots; whether it is one or multiple slots on a single item.  For example; I have a heavy glove with 3 defensive slots to fill.  Bonus points if I get skill + defensive slot together; that goes to the top of my list. 

 With what I've carved out I am then looking at fixed perks and finding the best combination of them between pieces.  This means a lot of items stick around in storage as the puzzle will evolve over time.

Evaluating weapons

 For weapons I will give some more general advice on what I think is best: right charm slots + gem slot + attunement (which are fixed perks).  I think an ideal weapon would be 3x attunements, gem slot, skill slot.  Again the gem slot and the skill slot are pretty much make or break.  This load out on a weapon basically makes it a "stat stick" and it is becoming evident that is going to be the meta on weapons that are not artifacts.  There are certainly viable other fixed perks but as most of us are after damage the attunements are going to be key.

 One thing you can consider, if you have a build like me, is that you may not need that gem slot on the weapon you use less.  For example; I rarely use my sword so it's damage is not a concern so when I got a sword that had flame attunement + 4 slots (2 skill, 2 offense) from the crafting fall out after the patch I started using it.  Now I have attunement, contagious upheaval II, empowering leaping strike II, and 2 offense slots to play with for a weapon that is only out when I am leaping striking or upheaving.

 Shields, which fall into weapons in the game, are a bit harder to evaluate because some perks slotted on a shield may apply even when that shield is not your current equipped weapon.  For example; when I swap to my firestaff from my sword/shield perks like keenly jagged II on my shield will still proc.  Since I have keenly jagged II on my firestaff I'd not want it on the shield but the situation could have been reversed and the shield could have covered for a firestaff that didn't have it.  It's not clear yet to me how you tell what perks work "when equipped" vs "when slotted" so more diligence is needed. 

Evaluating jewelry 

 I will admit I am stuck on how to best evaluate jewelry at the moment.  I need to spend more time with it but the core concept remains the same; look for the right fixed perks and the right slots needed to fill in your over all build.  A gem slot on a jewelry piece may be useful if you need more protection of a specific type or another of the new perks may be more interesting.  Then consider set bonuses and infixes and it gets complicated.  Needless to say the underlying rules remain of counting the slots/perks on your jewelry in your over all build. Jewelry can host offensive and defensive charm slots like armor and weapons.

Nighthaven A Week Later

Zero challenge, no skill, and mostly AFK gear farming.

 It's been a week since the Season 10 Nighthaven patch landed in New World Aeternum.  I've completed the new story quest line, leveled up to 70, upgraded some gear, and I have some thoughts to share.

 The big elephant in the New World community is the new gear system and understanding what gear is good so you can be confident in investing resources into upgrading items to the new 800 GS max.  The conversation breaks down into a few different aspects: perk charms, artifacts, loot sources/drops, and bugs.

 First, lets hit the major bug with crafted armor, weapons, and jewelry.  The crafting recipes were allowing players to add an old perk mod to the new items.  This allowed players, for example, to stack Enchanted Ward (old perk) with Enchanted Ward II (new perk) which was not intended.  This gear has been fixed and a slot replaced the old perk.  This fix is still fresh so I haven't been able to assess crafted gear with the fix in place.

 The addition of perk charms feels promising for the game.  Gear now can have perk charm slots and the charms can be changed, for free, at anytime.  Slotting a new charm replaces the old charm (which is destroyed in the process).  The promise is more variety in builds and the ability to change key perks on an item without having to replace the entire item.

 The only main issue I see with the system is that the slots that are available on gear is completely random. Whether crafted or dropped (open world or chest) the slot types are randomly applied to the gear.  That means you can end up with a weapon drop that doesn't have a gem slot or a skill slot for weapon perks (weapon perks are stronger when on the weapon).  Or a piece of armor with all offense slots and no defense slots.

 There are also only so many charm slots on gear depending on the content it was dropped in.  Mutations drop gear with up to 4 slots while open world drops have 3 slots (note: I need to check in on what is in crafting now with the patch).  The rest of the perk slots are filled in by fixed perks that are static and can't be changed.  The fixed perks also roll randomly so now not only do you need to luck into the right charm slots but you also have luck into the right fixed perks.

 Artifacts avoid this as the slots and fixed perks are static to the artifacts.  Unfortunately many artifacts were changed and the general consensus is many of them are now worse than new gear that can be obtained.  Some artifacts are still strong because of their unique ability, but most have had a downside added to offset their bonus. Worst of all is many weapon artifacts lost their gem slot. A slotted gem is universally agreed to be better than any other perk being in the slot.

 With these changes the gear system is now centered around randomness.  There is no longer a deterministic way to obtain the exact gear you want  which is a complete turnaround from the previous state of the game and puts us right back where we were at launch of the game.  It felt like for three years the New World developers slowly worked towards a system where we could either wait to get lucky for specific gear or we could invest a large number of resources into exactly what we wanted (either crafting or upgrading named gear).

 I am on the fence whether I like the old or new system.  The old system had the drawback that it was much easier to get the gear you wanted and thus any content lost it's draw as far as rewards go.  The new system offers a lottery where every item is a chance to be a winning ticket so you are constantly looking to do more content to get more drops.  The old system kept the maximum value of an item capped because anyone could always craft an exact copy for X gold.  The new system has no cap as a perfect item, as it stands now, can only be obtained via luck.  We are already seeing items selling for a million gold! 

 One issue is pushing me towards wanting the old system back though and that is the braindead gear farming that is possible in the open world. Certain enemies drop a legendary 730 GS item every time they are killed and with the spawn rates ratcheted up (assumed for the player spike for the update) the enemies spawn every few seconds.  If you can get into a raid killing these enemies you can go AFK and come back to your computer every few minutes to pick up the loot bags.  The loot will have the random mix of slots and fixed perks and at the current rates you can get hundreds, if not thousands, per day.

 This behavior and "AFK farming" irritates me more than it should.  I'm the type of player that embraces the grind and I was known to spend hours grinding for named drops I never used in the old system.  But this AFK farming just has zero interest for me. Rarely in the old system were there more than one or two of us farming a named drop.  In the new farming there are often hundreds of players at each location.  There is zero challenge to it and I personally feel there are detrimental impacts to the game.

 Since the gear system is entirely random, regardless of whether an item is crafted or dropped, the key to getting the right gear is volume of random drops that can be achieved.  Thus the AFK farming is the fastest way to the most drops.  This means other great content in the game that offers less drops for time spent feels less rewarding.  Why spend 30 minutes in a mutation or the new catacombs to walk away with a couple lottery tickets when 30 minutes AFK farming nets 50 lottery tickets? The AFK farming in the open world is making actual end game content feel "meh".

 Then there is the impact of this much gear being dropped and mostly salvaged (as it is all bind on pickup).  Gold is being pumped into the playerbase and prices are inflating because of it.  Items like infused scraps, from salvaging, are plummeting in price and value.

 Worst of all, for me, is that this model gives the game a bad look.  While us longtime New World players are excited to have a system to invest our time into there are many players returning from the launch of the game that are finding the same confusing random reward end game in place.  All of the goodness we've seen over the last few years in making the end game loop better vanished overnight.

 It is a recoverable situation for the developers.  They need to reduce the spawn rates of the enemies so these farming methods go from seconds per spawn to minutes per spawn.  There is plenty of old content that didn't get updated to drop the new items; for example the FFA PvP zone in Cutlass Keys and it's Well of Fortune has not been updated.  PvP mode caches are still dropping a lot of old gear. The developers can spread this new random loot drop to more areas and thus avoid clumping players into braindead, dumbest I've ever seen in 30 years of online gaming, AFK farming.

 Most important is the developers absolutely have to get crafting back to a deterministic path.  It is fine to have "gamble crafting" where you take a chance, with fewer resources, at a lucky outcome.  But there needs to be that deterministic path where I can invest time and resources to a specific end goal.  It doesn't need to produce the end game gear with set bonuses but crafting should let us get to a baseline item with, for example, 3 fixed perks of our choice and 2 slots of our choice. 

 Over all I am happy with the Nighthaven and Season 10 update. I'm excited at working towards my new gear and getting back into PvP with friends who have returned for the game. There is content like the new raid (and old raids for that matter) that I am interested in.  Catacombs, which I've not posted about yet, are an amazing system and have huge potential.  But, and this is a big but, they have to sort this random gear system out or it will be a problem for the game.

Sunday 10/19/2025 Post: Packers beat Cardinals

 27 is the magic number for the Green Bay Packers.  In four of their six games the team has scored 27 points and won the games.  On top of that the Packers QB, Jordan Love, is 27.  You know what happened the last time a Packers starting QB was 27?  They won a Super Bowl and that was with Aaron Rodgers.  And you know what happened when Brett Favre was 27 and the starting QB before Rodgers? You guessed it; the team won a Super Bowl.  So we are definitely winning the Super Bowl this year.

 

Nighthaven Day 2 AKA WHAT IS UP WITH PERKS AND GEAR!?

A dream item!

 We are two days into the Nighthaven update for New World: Aeternum, and the community is lit up about the new gear system. There is confusion about how perks should work. There is excitement at the new possibilities. There are cooks in the kitchen, brewing up the next meta. And I'm just over here saying, “folks, this ain’t right.”

 The main thing that "ain't right" is that the old perks are showing up on new gear drops, allowing for super-stacking of old and new perks together. Then, with the new perk charm slots, where you can slot one of the new perk charms, you can pick the same perk that is already on the item. For example: I was able to stack four instances of Enchanted Ward on a single armor piece—a dream for a tank, but a setup that makes zero logical sense.

 I scoured for dev updates all day yesterday, and the only hint that something might be wrong was a note from Kay (the lead for New World) that the team was investigating the reports. Investigating—not "fixing a bug." I was worried this might be the new state of gear and was not excited about what it might mean.

 Fortunately, fast forward to today, and NW Joel posted that it was not working as intended and provided clarity on what should or should not be happening. The old perks should not be allowed on new gear, and the same perk should not be allowed twice on the same item. Other perk stacking, like having multiple magical resists on a single armor piece, was confirmed as "working as expected," which is fine.

 Now we wait for a fix to be rolled out, which will involve updating a lot of perks on gear drops and will no doubt ruffle some feathers for players who have invested upgrade materials into gear. The devs were clear they are not planning on refunding any materials or umbral crystals invested in crafting or upgrades (full text copy of the dev response pasted below).

 So I sit at level 70 still, with some slightly upgraded gear from my old gear set. I'll be waiting for the fix to be deployed before I jump into targeting my endgame build update.

 

Reddit thread discussing NW Joel's update

Text of what NW Joel posted: 

    Hey all,

    Wanted to give a couple updates on a few issues related to perks and gear that you may have encountered recently.

    Old Perks on new gear. This is unintentional. We are investigating this right now and a likely fix will be replacing old perks with new sockets if you end up in this scenario. Again this is still under investigation so the outcome may change here. For now have fun min/maxing these combos, but this gear will be subject to change for anyone that uses old perk mods on new gear and the mods will not be refunded if we decide to change this interaction.

    I have seen screenshots of multiple of the same charm on an item. Though it is intentional to have multiple of the same socket type it is not intentional to have multiple of the exact same charm itself. If you are in this state any duplicate charms do not stack and you are wasting perk space. An additional note that it is intended for multiple variant perks such as Void Protection II & Flame Protection II to roll on the same items. There is diminishing returns when stacking perks and its something we are watching.

    Spider Cave: There was a cave that was giving out a considerable volume of loot that attracted players to it. Overall much of this loot is what I would consider entry gear for endgame and much of the chase will be around sets and 4 sockets. If it werent for the performance concerns, we would have left it. With that being said I will look towards alternative paths long term like this without congregating every last one of you to the same spot.

    I added a known issue where upgrading artifacts final perk can revert your gs back down to 700 if you have spent umbral. We are working on a fix for this. For now I would recommend against it.

    Focused on getting fixes for gear and content ASAP so I am less active in here than the last week apologies.

    Sorry for the delay in responses from me, I have been busy working on fixes.

    Edit for clarity: Replace old perks with new perks not new sockets. Items would stay 3 socket. Sorry noticed that in the first paragraph.


    From above - An additional note that it is intended for multiple variant perks such as Void Protection II & Flame Protection II to roll on the same items. There is diminishing returns when stacking perks and its something we are watching. Yes this is by design currently. I cant speak to all the math behind it though thats more the combat teams deal.

Nighthaven Day 1

 The Nighthaven update for New World is now a full day old and as of this morning one bug fix patch better.  I put in a few hours last night and made some progress through the new zone and story quests.  Here are some quick thoughts.

• The visual are amazing and it is a treat to run across the zone and explore the numerous locations.  Multiple locations have spyglasses at their highest points that give a cinematic view of nearby locations which has driven me to immediately go explore further.
• Sound is bugged and in some instances deafening as loud bell sounds or loud metal grating sounds override everything else.  This makes combat feel off and required me to reduce over all volume in the game to save my sanity.  It seems to mostly be an issue in indoor areas.
• Doors.  So many doors.  There are several haunted castles and catacombs that are interconnected mini-areas separated by doors. Some doors open and you walk through; others are a teleport.  I am not the biggest fan of this design choice; I'd prefer all doors work equally the same.
• I made level 70 at the end of my play session.  I still am in progress on the main story quest and have multiple side quests in the new zone to pick up yet.  I won't complain about fast leveling but had hoped I'd of needed to invest a little more time and effort to max my level.
• I was able to upgrade one item to 780 GS with the umbrals that I achieved via the quests and a few PvP arena matches.  Per the dev notes we should be able to get 5 pieces upgraded to 800 each week which means likely 2 weeks for a full set.
• Holy gear drops! Everything is dropping gear.  I have so much stuff in my inventory and I didn't even take advantage of the bugged super loot party that they patched out!  Since the new gear and upgrade system is new I am not sure what to salvage and what not to, but I am going to need to spend some time here because I can't keep going at this pace filling up storage!
• Attributes were squashed and with it the amount of damage players are doing is way down.  PvP encounters last longer and feel less spikey.  Also heavy armor players feel less tanky.  We are all still on old gear so I am sure this will change as we all move towards 800 GS.
• Performance has been great for me in the open world but FPS dips 

Things I still need to try:

• Catacombs; the new 3 person procedural dungeons
• The launch version of the new OPR map; Tower of Calomel
• Playing around with perk charms

Some screenshots to go with the adventures

 

Let's goooooooo!

My first werewolf encounter

The scene that greets players as they begin their adventure into Nighthaven

Don't mind my pumpkin helmet; I will get your thingy back!

Yep; there were lots and lots of players.

And I mean lots and lots and lots of players.

Underwater swimming was added.  Notice the missing health?  That's because I can't dodge the underwater lasers...

Wolves eating a dead deer; little touches like this are found all over the zone.

The first of many spooky haunted house/mansions I ventured into.

The first solo soul trial of the new story questline;  Part puzzle and part combat.  Was not a difficult fight with my best in slot 725 gear.

After most solo soul trials a portal is provided to the player to make quick travel out of the point of interest.  A nice touch.

Unlocking my first tarot card.  These cards let you open chests in the zone.  1 down and 24 more to go!

Lots of amazing sites tucked away in different areas.  Had to stop and take a no-UI screenshot.

Another tarot card.

A mini cinematic after using a spyglass to check out the next spooky-looking place to visit.

Big and gothic are the theme here!

A new gatherable, the Anima Quartz, that I found tucked in under a waterfall.

Instead of a normal town Nighthaven features a giant gothic castle for it's settlement.  Players can buy rooms that serve as a house and all of the services of a settlement are available from crafting stations to an inn to call home.

The bridge leading to the new settlement.  Ironically I ended up entering the settlement from the back and not via the scenic bridge route so I got this screenshot on my way out of town.

One of many rooms I explored inside the many buildings the main quest takes players through.

Nice!  Yes I am a young dumb gamer at heart still (pun intended).

During the quest players teleport into a shadow-like realm with a jumping puzzle as a path to get between rooms in a castle.  The jumping is easy enough so I made it through after a couple tries.

Another vista from a looking spyglass.

Eventually players end up at the carnival which serves as a small hub town (no housing, limited stations, but has a recall).  Here you get to meet the jester and other characters.

Meeting the jester who is the first boss in the new end game raid in Nighthaven.

Absolutely no abuse of a never ending loot drop here... sorry for those that missed out on this.  As they say; abuse early / abuse often.  Note: it was just trash gear drops that mostly get salvaged so you didn't miss much.

My first OPR after hitting 70.  My team got steamrolled as I tried to solo it myself.  Ended up in first over all which is sort of impressive as I was basically solo without any team support the entire time. 

New World Nighthaven Launches and Rise of the Angry Earth Now Free

 It's a great day to be a New World Aeternum fan. The new Season 10 update, titled Nighthaven, has launched bringing a new max level, new max gear score, new progression system, and so much more.  At the same time for PC players that bought the game at launch but didn't own Rise of the Angry Earth: that previous expansion is now FREE and included for all owners of New World!  Amazon Games Studio is winning today!

 Reception so far is good with 38,000+ concurrent players enjoying the update so far:

 

ARC Raiders Projects

 

 The news drip from ARC Raiders is speeding up as we march towards the October 30th launch date. Today, there’s an update about how ARC Raiders will handle character wipes. The system is called Projects and is optional. It offers players who want to wipe their character and start over fresh the chance to do so—gaining some bragging rights and cosmetic rewards in the process. I think this is an interesting take on the topic.

 Many online action games with player progression systems have implemented the concept of “wipes” with the intent to reset everything back to even on a set cadence. The goal is to keep the game fresh for veteran players and ensure that newer players can enjoy the game without staring at a mountain of progress to get on equal footing with the veterans. This makes sense for dedicated veterans and new players alike but misses what is likely the biggest player group: what I call the “core gamer.”

 These core gamers, like myself, can’t put massive hours per week into a game, and thus, games with wipes become less attractive because the destination never feels reachable. We are always stuck in the progression step, and while progression is an attractive feature in the games we play, it’s the persistence of that progression that’s the main draw in the first place. Restarting after a mandatory wipe just feels bad. My friend and I quit Once Human, a game we both were enjoying, after the first wipe we were subjected to. We found ourselves logging in the next day irritated at the prospect of cutting down a hundred trees and breaking up a hundred rocks again to set out on the same journey we had just felt we’d reached an established point in.

 ARC Raiders smartly acknowledges that players like me are a core audience for their game, and the Projects concept seems like a good middle ground for all player groups—veterans, newbies, and the core alike. I really like how they’ve framed their decision here:

"Just to make it clear, we absolutely see the benefits a global wipe provides. Veteran players can experience the game fresh, the economy is reset to the baseline, and all players have about the same level of capabilities. At least for a little while.

 However, one thing a mandatory wipe does not do is respect the investment of those players who do not have as much time to play overall. So, as we have done with several other mechanics, before mimicking other established mechanics, we’d like to try our own method. Ideally to the end that best suits ARC Raiders and a larger majority of its players." 

The main concept of the Projects is that their initiation is player-controlled. If I have time in my upcoming gaming schedule, I can opt to start the project, and that will reset my character; my efforts will then go into the project. If I want to play the game more casually, without dedicated time in the schedule, then I don't have to start the project; I just keep on with my persistent progression.

There are still details to understand about how players on Projects interact with those that are not. I assume they will be mixed into matches to avoid creating a queue issue where players are waiting for matches to start. This would be ideal in my book, as it would mix players pursuing different goals into the same matches—and if there is anything ARC Raiders excels at, it’s player-versus-player confrontation.

Also, it will be key to enabling friends to play together that those on a Project can still play with those that are not. There are likely some considerations to avoid abuse—where, if a project (as featured in the article) requires certain items, those items can't just be given to a player by another player dropping them in a match. But the death knell for this type of system and game would be creating a barrier to friends playing together, so I can't imagine they'd block players based on Project status.

The one area I expect to be a hot topic is rewards. As noted in the post, the intent is for Projects to have a non–game-impacting reward structure. So, no combat bonuses just because you finished a project and another player did not. For some players, that may be a reason to question why they would even participate in a project if the reward is only intangible stuff like cosmetics or bragging rights. But just like the element of how wipes don’t respect the time of many players, giving those that complete Projects an advantage would also be a problem for those same players. I suspect that player group is larger than those that want an advantage for completing a Project. Lots of us “core gamers” love our cosmetics and bragging rights when we have the time to work on them and aren’t forced into them.

Overall, I like what I see here. There are lots of details to be felt out, and there will be questions about how fast and effectively new projects can be brought in. Even though the core gamers don’t want wipes, they do want fresh and new content—and a subset of us will be starting every project that comes down the pipeline. Veterans will sweat out every one of them, and new players will jump in and join us on the same journey!

The EA Buyout is Weird

 If you caught the news that EA is being bought out by a private firm and thought it was weird; you are not alone.  Gamers Nexus has a good video that goes over the details and outlines how shady of a deal this is.  It covers most of my thoughts so saves me having to type it all up.  Go watch the video.

Video summary with timestamps; thanks to Gemini

The video discusses the $55 billion acquisition of Electronic Arts (EA) Games by a consortium of three entities: Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners (0:02-0:50). The acquisition raises questions due to EA's history of being voted "Worst Company in America" and the seemingly high valuation compared to other major gaming acquisitions like Activision Blizzard (0:34-1:40).

The Three Buyers:

• Saudi Arabia's PIF: A government-controlled wealth fund with extensive investments in various sectors, including gaming companies like Take-Two Interactive, AMD, and Nvidia (3:42-4:33).
• Silver Lake: One of the world's largest private equity firms, known for its investment in Intel's Altera business and a past investment in a Chinese facial recognition surveillance company, SenseTime, which was later divested due to US government sanctions (4:34-5:46).
• Affinity Partners: An investment firm founded by Jared Kushner, which has received significant investment support from the Saudi Arabian government (5:46-6:25). The video highlights the complex web of connections between these entities and various governments (6:25-6:39).

EA Games' History and Valuation: EA Games is a major developer and publisher known for franchises like The Sims, Battlefield, and various sports games (7:18-8:06). However, the company has faced significant criticism for its microtransaction-focused business model and its tendency to acquire and then abandon or "run into the ground" smaller studios and their beloved franchises (8:21-8:49). The video argues that EA is wildly overvalued at $55 billion (13:44-14:05), especially when compared to the Activision Blizzard acquisition, which included more valuable and consistently high-grossing intellectual properties (14:21-15:46).

Implications and Concerns:

• Ownership Structure: Affinity Partners will hold a 5% stake, Silver Lake will be a substantial minority shareholder, and the PIF will own the rest (8:57-9:05). The transaction is an all-cash leveraged buyout, the largest in history (9:13-9:37).
• Leadership Continuity: EA's current CEO, Andrew Wilson, will remain in his position. The video notes his extensive history with EA and his involvement in the Business Council, a think tank advising US presidents (9:56-11:07).
• Political Connections and Ethical Concerns: The video points out the extensive government connections of the acquiring parties, particularly Jared Kushner's role in facilitating Saudi Arabia's interest in the deal (17:39-18:45). This raises ethical concerns and potential conflicts of interest, especially regarding regulatory oversight (18:45-20:06).
• The Role of AI: The deal is reportedly a "huge bet" that artificial intelligence can significantly reduce EA's operating costs, potentially boosting profits (20:10-20:46). The video speculates this could lead to more "soulless, lifeless cash grabs bloated with microtransactions" (20:46-20:52).
• Saudi Arabia's Gaming Investments: Saudi Arabia has a history of significant investments in the gaming industry, including Nintendo and Take-Two Interactive (20:56-21:10). The Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, established Savvy Games Group with a $38 billion budget to acquire mobile game companies and expand into China, with a potential interest in data acquisition through games like Pokémon Go (21:10-21:49).
• Impact on Consumers: The video concludes that the acquisition will likely be a negative development for consumers, leading to further consolidation of money and power in the gaming industry and potentially more aggressive monetization strategies (25:01-25:40).

 

Testing new Blogger Feature

A Blogger feature update!?  Which just lets me insert search results?  In 2025?

OK I guess.  Here is the "New World Aeternum" search insert.

 

Sunday 9/28/2025 Post: Packer Tie Cowboys

 The Packers went from Super Bowl favorites after weeks one and two; to being the favorite punching bag for /r/NFCMemeWar .  Last week it was an embarassing loss to the Browns after an unthinkable series of events.  Fast forward a week, and while not a loss, another series of unthinkable events lead to a tie with the Cowboys.  The game was a long slog and full of back and forth so was good football to watch, but for a Packers fan it was pure stress.  Below is a picture of my wife taking me to bed last night after the game.