Mass Effect: Universe

What A $500 Million Game Actually Means

• Video game budgets are accounting-based figures that are highly mutable, making direct comparisons between different studios or projects fundamentally misleading.
• The primary driver of rising game budgets is labor cost, which is further inflated by development delays, co-development arrangements, and the inclusion of complex compensation packages like multi-year equity vesting.
• Corporate accounting practices allow studios to shift costs between projects, such as burying expenses from unsuccessful or R&D projects into the P&L of highly profitable titles to improve fiscal optics.

How PC Gaming Came Back From the Dead

The visible content of this SuperJoost Playlist post by Joost van Dreunen, dated October 23, 2026, is largely paywalled.

• Electronic Arts has shuttered BioWare as a direct consequence of the $55 billion leveraged buyout led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
• The $55 billion acquisition of EA included $20 billion in debt, resulting in annual interest payments of approximately $1.5 billion, an amount roughly equal to the company's total annual profit.
• The financial pressure from the leveraged buyout is forcing EA to prioritize mainstream predictability over the development of high-risk, large-scale creative projects.