Tech

It’s not just a game. It’s not just an escape. This is real commerce | ticker VIEWS

Published

4 years ago

September 10, 2021

ticker NEWS

Vans’ collaboration with Roblox highlights the endless commercial possibilities of the metaverse

The Virtual experience inside the video game creation platform Roblox will allow people to create a custom avatar and visit a Vans store, where they can purchase virtual items.

Players will be able to purchase virtual items with in game currency – Roblox – and skate around in virtual recreations of famous skate parks.

The move is an example of commercial businesses exploring the metaverse, which combines virtual and augmented reality.

Mat Cole, from ACT Capital Partners, told Ticker News the experience was another step towards commerce embracing the metaverse.

“The metaverse is essentially a convergence between your physical world and the digital world where you can actually sort of simultaneously in real time connect with people through avatars or shared experiences.” he said.

Cole believes the experience will allow Vans the ability to reach a new audience, through giving people the ability to engage with the brand through the metaverse.

“It allows people to build a really emotional attachment to the Vans brand inside the inside the metaverse.”

According to Cole the metaverse can create an inclusive experience for customers to engage with the world’s biggest brands.

“If I speak French, Italian, German Mandarin, I can log on in my own portal and have a metaverse experience and talk to someone inside the Nike flagship store in my own language and purchase something that is then sent to my house,” Cole said.

“So we know we’ve got this frictionless E-commerce now, where things are delivered in 24 hours, 48 hours.”

Cole does however highlight the potential ethical issues in marketing through a platform geared towards children in Roblox.

“The challenge with Roblox is because it’s got a younger audience. How do you how do you monetize it?” he said.
“It’s an ethical issue of how you start monetizing and getting kids to pay for consumers and consumer goods.”

The metaverse term was first coined by writer Neal Stephenson in his 1993 sci-fi novel Snow Crash. In the book, the metaverse was the successor to the internet, and was used as an escape by people from the dystopian earth.

People in the metaverse would express their status through the appearance of their digital avatars. In recent years payable skins have become common in video games.

Non Fungible Tokens (NFT) have allowed people to have ownership of digital assets in recent times, and can contribute to the E-commerce that is beginning to boom within the digital world.

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What Saudi Arabia’s role in the Electronic Arts buyout tells us about ‘game-washing’

Published

2 hours ago

October 2, 2025

The Conversation

What Saudi Arabia’s role in the Electronic Arts buyout tells us about image, power and ‘game-washing’

Jacqueline Burgess, University of the Sunshine Coast

Video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA), one of the biggest video game companies in the world behind games such as The Sims and Battlefield, has been sold to a consortium of buyers for US$55 billion (about A$83 billion). It is potentially the largest-ever buyout funded by private equity firms. Not AI, nor mining or banking, but video games.

The members of the consortium include: Silver Lake Partners, an American private global equity firm focusing on technology; the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund; and the investment firm Affinity Partners, run by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of American President Donald Trump.

The consortium will purchase all of the publicly traded company’s shares, making it private. But while the consortium and EA’s shareholders will likely be celebrating – each share was valued at US$210, representing a 25% premium – it’s not all good news.

PIF acquiring EA raises concerns about possible “game-washing”, and less than ideal future business practices.

EA’s poor reputation

Video games are big business. The global video game industry is worth more than the film and music industries combined. But why would these buyers specifically want to buy EA, an entity that has won The Worst Company in America award twice?

It has been criticised for alleged poor labour practices, a focus on online gaming (even when it’s not ideal, such as in single-player stories), and a history of acquiring popular game studios and franchises and running them into the ground.

Players of some of EA’s most beloved franchises, such as The Sims, Dragon Age and Star Wars Battlefront II, believe the games have been negatively impacted due to the company meddling in production, and wanting to focus on online play and micro-transactions.

Microtransactions are small amounts of money paid to access, or potentially access, in-game items or currency. Over time, they can add up to a lot of money, and have even been linked to the creation of problem gambling behaviours. Unsurprisingly, they are not popular among players.

Current global economic stresses have affected video games and other high-tech industries. The development costs of a video game can be hundreds of millions of dollars. EA has reacted to its slowing growth by cancelling games and laying-off close to 2,000 workers since 2023. So a US$55 billion offer probably looked enticing.

Saudi Arabia’s investment spree

In recent years, the Saudi wealth fund has been on an entertainment investment splurge. Before this latest acquisition, PIF invested heavily in both golf and tennis.

It is a sponsor and official naming rights partner of both the Women’s Tennis Association rankings and the Association of Tennis Professionals rankings.

The wealth fund also helped establish the LIV Golf tour in 2022, in opposition to the Professional Golf Association (PGA). By offering huge sums of money, it was able to attract players away from the PGA. One player was reportedly offered US$125 million (A$189 million). This tactic worked; a merger was announced between LIV, the DPA (European golf tour) and the PGA (North American golf tour) in 2023, with PIF as the main funder.

PIF, via its subsidiaries, has also been acquiring stakes in other video game companies. For example, it is one of the largest shareholders in Nintendo, the developer behind Mario, and purchased Niantic (the company behind Pokémon Go) earlier this year for US$3.5 billion (A$5.3 billion)

Why does PIF want video game companies?

Live sport and video games have a few things in common: they are fun, engaging and entertaining. And being known for entertainment is good PR for a country that has been accused of human rights abuses.

PIF’s investment in sport has been called “sportswashing”: using an association with sport to counteract bad publicity and a tarnished moral reputation. Video games, with their interactivity and entertainment value, represent an opportunity for game-washing.

The fact EA owns many sports games’ franchises would also be a bonus, potentially allowing for further video game and sport collaboration. And the fact the video game industry is projected to keep growing globally makes it a good investment for an oil-rich nation looking to economically diversify.

Beyond game-washing concerns, we also need to pay attention to the type of buyout happening here. This is a “leveraged” buyout, meaning part of the purchase price – in this case US$20 billion (A$30 billion) – is funded as debt taken on by the company. So once the acquisition is complete, EA will have US$20 billion of new debt.

With all that new debt to service, it would only be natural to have concerns about more lay-offs, cost-cutting and increasing monetisation via strategies such as microtransactions. Ultimately, this would result in a poorer experience for players. It seems the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Jacqueline Burgess, Lecturer in International Business, University of the Sunshine Coast

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Tech

80% of ransomware victims pay ransom, says report

Hiscox report reveals 80% of ransomware victims pay ransom, but only 60% recover data successfully

Published

11 hours ago

October 1, 2025

ticker NEWS

Hiscox report reveals 80% of ransomware victims pay ransom, but only 60% recover data successfully

In Short:
– Cyber attacks increasingly target businesses, with 80% of ransomware victims opting to pay ransoms.
– SMEs are often affected, with only 60% recovering data after paying ransoms amidst rising cyber insurance costs.

Cyber attacks are increasingly targeting sensitive business data, with many companies paying ransoms. A report from Hiscox indicates that 80% of businesses affected by ransomware over the past year opted to pay.The annual Cyber Readiness Report highlights a concerning trend in ransomware attacks against well-known companies, including Marks and Spencer, the Co-op, and Jaguar Land Rover.

The latter recently received a £1.5bn government loan guarantee aimed at protecting its supply chain, which includes numerous small firms.

Many victims of cyber attacks are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which often require assistance to recover. Hiscox reported that while 27% of the surveyed 5,750 SMEs faced ransomware attacks, only 60% that paid the ransom managed to recover their data.

Impact on Firms

The broader findings revealed that nearly 60% experienced some form of cyber attack, with numerous businesses attributing their vulnerabilities to artificial intelligence.

Companies face not only financial repercussions, including fines and lost revenue, but also damage to their reputations. Eddie Lamb of Hiscox warned against underestimating the severe consequences of cyber attacks on all business sizes.

Jaguar Land Rover was reportedly finalising cyber insurance when it was attacked, incurring significant losses. Industry experts note that the rising costs of comprehensive cyber insurance policies may leave many firms unprotected. The cyber insurance market is growing, responding to the high-profile impacts experienced by businesses like M&S, which anticipates recovering losses through insurance after its own ransomware incident.

Tech

OpenAI to launch TikTok-like AI video app Sora

OpenAI to launch Sora, an AI-driven social app with TikTok-like features amid TikTok’s regulatory uncertainties

Published

1 day ago

October 1, 2025

Ahron Young

OpenAI to launch Sora, an AI-driven social app with TikTok-like features amid TikTok’s regulatory uncertainties

In Short:
– OpenAI is launching Sora 2, a social media app with AI-generated videos, competing with TikTok.
– The app features a unique identity verification system and provides short video content without uploads.

OpenAI is set to unveil Sora 2, a new social media app that imitates TikTok by offering AI-generated video content. The strategy positions OpenAI to directly challenge established platforms in the AI video market.The platform has begun internal testing. Employees have reacted positively, raising productivity concerns among managers. Sora 2 features swipe-to-scroll navigation and offers personalized video recommendations.

A unique identity verification system allows users to authenticate their likeness for use in AI-generated videos. Users will be notified when their likeness is used in videos, regardless of whether these are published. Video lengths are capped at 10 seconds, with no capability to upload personal content.

The app includes typical social media features like likes and comments, with a user interface that resembles TikTok’s “For You” page.

Strategic Launch

OpenAI’s timing for this launch is strategic, coinciding with uncertainties surrounding TikTok’s U.S. operations. Recent deals aim to transfer majority control of TikTok’s American business to U.S. investors while permitting ByteDance a minority stake.

OpenAI perceives the current turbulence as a unique opportunity to introduce a competitive platform for short-form videos, appealing to users seeking alternatives during this period of regulatory scrutiny.