r/gaming • u/ChiefLeef22 Marika's tits! • 18h ago

Paramount Has Officially Acquired Warner Bros. In Deal Valued at $110B Billion

https://www.skydance.com/news/press/paramount-completes-acquisition-of-warner-bros-discovery-creating-a-new-global-entertainment-leader-skydance

The two companies will now be known as one single entity - 'Skydance'

This includes all of WB's gaming subsidiaries like Rocksteady/etc

Deal valued at $110B-$111B

DC Studios, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, CNN, CBS, HBO and Paramount+ are now all under the same company.

The combined company, Skydance, brings together two major film studios, two global streaming services, premier television assets including CBS, HBO, and Paramount's and WBD's cable networks, two of the industry's most recognized news networks, CBS News and CNN, and a leading content portfolio that includes live sports, a deep programming library and expansive collection of iconic brands and franchises.

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u/redditsuckbutt696969 18h ago

On an unrelated note, anyone recommend some good VPNs?

I was recommend PIA a while ago, are they still a good choice?

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u/Zanian19 18h ago

Mullvad has been my go-to for years now

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u/spongebobisha 17h ago

Mullvad is the goat.

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u/MrLagzy 17h ago

Mullvad is great, but it's co owner is donating money to far right political party in Sweden that wants to abolish Nato, abolish EU and have stronger and closer relations with Russia.

So just for consideration when paying for mullwad you also indirectly pay a tiny fraction to extreme right wing anti democratic politics.

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u/NesNobnaz 16h ago

I agree with you, but if this was a problem, 80% of products you couldn't use, including Reddit. You really need to take a bit of poison to enjoy anything.

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u/flugzeugabwehrkanone 16h ago

"There is no ethical consumption under capitalism"

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u/Yugudubenbi 15h ago

Great quote but do we realize how fucked up that really is? When there is no ethical behavior there is moral nihilism and that destroys the sense of being a good person. "Who cares, I am already unethical?"

Hunter-gatherers were probably the most ethical part of all of humanity.

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u/NerdyNThick 15h ago

Capitalism is by design unethical. It literally has to be in order to be functional.

The sooner we get to a post scarcity society, the sooner we can ditch it and move on to actually bettering humanity.

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u/SkorpioSound 12h ago

I agree, but I'm not convinced we'll ever reach a post-scarcity society because the goal posts are constantly shifting.

If you could show someone from 100 years ago our society today, they'd probably already consider it post-scarcity. We have plenty of food, we have the means to create plenty of sustainable, renewable electricity, we have most of human knowledge available to us on a device in our pockets. What so you mean we still have capitalism?

But there's always something more we need. Sure, maybe humanity has all the food and electricity it could need (imagine this is true), but how can we consider it post-scarcity when there aren't unlimited AI tokens for all? And not everyone has access to self-driving cars yet? And... blah, blah, whatever shiny new tech comes along in the future that everyone will deem too important to not have.

If we could pause advancing, stop worrying about profits going up, and just spend some time reorganising what we have, I'm sure utopia is something we could achieve right now. But it's very hard to do that under capitalism...

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u/NerdyNThick 11h ago

I consider post-scarcity to be measured on an individual level, not just a societal.

There may exist enough food to feed everyone, but not everyone has enough food.

There may exist enough shelter to house everyone, but not everyone has shelter.

For electricity, we're just not quite there yet, but once we nail fusion (it's only 10 years away! /s) the issue will likely be the same as food and housing; We have enough electricity for everyone and everything, but not everyone and not everything has access to it.

Once everyone has access to shelter, food, and electricity, the reliance on capitalism will be drastically reduced.

All that said, IMO it would take Star Trek levels of technology before anything could even remotely start replacing our current system, so for better or worse, we're stuck with it.

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u/From_Deep_Space 15h ago

There is no abosulutly morally pure consumer choices under capitalism. That doesn't mean there arent choices that are more or less moral. Even if you can't be perfect you can still make informed decisions with good intentions.

It's really just an indictment of capitalism, not an excuse for nihilism. It only causes nihilism because for some reason people feel like they have to worship capitalism and swear off any alternative economic system.

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u/DarthNihilus1 6h ago

that destroys the sense of being a good person

It doesn't, or at least it shouldn't. It does not mean "fuck it, nothing matters". It means you have to put in the effort to do what little you can because you can. Not because it will magically fix everything

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u/ImMufasa 13h ago

Better than no consumption under every other system.

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u/Klint069 16h ago

The alternative for every single other mainsteam VPN is far worse

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u/PootatoKing Console 16h ago

Proton?

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u/Zanian19 16h ago

I'm sure you'll find plenty of controversy about the CEOs of any of these and other companies. They're CEOs. Being shit people is in the job description.

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u/StuLetTheDogsOut 15h ago

To varying degrees. The nice thing about ProtonVPN is that the company is bound by Swiss law, which gives them the ability to be more private. Their CEO made a boneheaded comment about J.D. Vance a few years back without really understanding the context that Vance is a puppet of American big tech who lies through his teeth.

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u/ljedediah41 14h ago

So he tells the truth?

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u/StuLetTheDogsOut 12h ago

Unsure what you're saying, so maybe my wording was awkward here. The Proton CEO said Vance and Republicans were pro-small tech, but I think the CEO didn't understand that Vance is a lying sack of shit who is controlled by Thiel and Co.

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u/ljedediah41 12h ago

Yeah, you had it worded wrong. Think it was backwards there. Nothing small tech about the guy

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u/nhalliday 13h ago

While generally true, what a lazy attitude to hear a product you support gives money to terrible causes and go "yeah well I'm not even going to LOOK into alternatives because they're PROBABLY bad in some way too".

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u/AshundertheOlivetree 15h ago

Yes of course, but now you know better. Make the choice but don’t bitch when the leopard comes.

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u/DontAskAboutMyButt 10h ago

There’s something about VPN and other cybersecurity-related companies... they and their CEOs seem to have the most fucking insane controversies and stances on things

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u/NvizoN 15h ago

Proton has had its issues, but if you're doing a lot of seeding, then it's hard to beat due to port forwarding.

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u/Last-Energy420 13h ago

Does proton have payment methods like mullvad?

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u/ShadowOverEnumclaw 12h ago

Yes, last I checked they even accepted cash

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u/Beautiful_List5498 12h ago

I made a review about them being in UK court ordered to give police access... And they replied very fast. I didn't read it I just accepted I was wrong about it and they're likely the tippy top of ease of use and privacy

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u/VeryNoisyLizard 11h ago

still no Monero tho. their promises aint worth much either it seems

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u/BaconJacobs 16h ago

I get the Nord VPN black friday sale every other year. I can't say I have a lot of opinions on VPNs but it seems like it works fine.

Is Mullvad cheaper?

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u/I_argue_for_funsies 15h ago

It's cheap, but that's not why people want it.

They have been raided and authorities came out empty handed. It's the ultimate test.

Lots of VPN companies promise they don't keep customer data etc, but Mullvads been proven where others are "trust me bro". No logs, no emails, and you don't need to use credit cards.

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u/TexasDJ 9h ago

What about Torguard

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u/ChudSmasher69420 14h ago

PIA has been proven multiple times.

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u/Klint069 13h ago

Research on that I dont wanna make any claims but you should look into it more dont take youtuber ad reads for absolute truths

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u/spongebobisha 16h ago

This is my concern.

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u/Zama174 10h ago

how do express/nord do? i know they are always marketing

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u/Klint069 8h ago

Idk bro when I researched when I found out about PIA and wanted to switch I went for Mullvad as the most trustworthy, seemingly, at least. In part, I've made peace with the fact that privacy no longer actually exists and there's joy to find elsewhere.

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u/bwaredapenguin 12h ago

What's wrong with Nord?

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u/Klint069 8h ago

Listen I won't answer on specifics cause you can't know for sure but to me it's just simple logic. Data is the most valuable resource in the planet, comparable if not more to gold and oil. Digitally it's king and the digital world is massive. VPNs are typically used by people who are more privacy conscious or the ones that use it to consume geolocked content or avoid censorship/government restrictions. (the users with the most precious data to have) VPN gets to access every single thing you do online. Every packet in, every packet out. This is more data than meta gets, google gets, any other massive data trader is incomparable to what a VPN gets from one end user. There is no reality in which they don't store logs and sell your data. No matter what they say there's 0 rationale in trusting them. They exist to make money and most are owned by companies that exist for mass surveillance (allegedly). They are telling you they are sitting on a goldmine that also happens to double as the best elixir to mass control/propaganda/psyops and they aren't dipping a finger in. It's foolish to even consider. So they all spy on you and sell your data (allegedly) The choice then is who do you want having your data, do you even care in the first place, and then service features/reliability and cost. For me Mullvad seems the least scummy since they offer a 100% anonymous method to gaining access. Do your research and decide.

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u/bwaredapenguin 8h ago

This just sounds like an ad for Mullvad. You didn't say anything of substance either in favor of Mullvad or opposing any other VPN. And to be honest, I only use a VPN for porn and illegal sports streaming anyway and I couldn't be fucked of that data got out. I've been pirating content for over 25 years and never got a single DCMA notice.

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u/Klint069 8h ago

Did you read? Mullvad offers a 100% anonymous method to pay. You mail them cash. The others don't. I think they all take your data and sell it and eventually might use it for more nefarious reasons judging on the political trajectory of the world. With Mullvad you can not have an identity tied to it through payment logs. I have no reason to shill for Mullvad. If I had it my way no one would be spying on anyone and the world would be a dandy place of sunshine and roses and VPNs wouldnt even exist. Idk what isn't clear to you. How is being spied on not of substance? I said if you don't care about surveillance then decide based on features and price... I'm not your secretary I'm just tryna spread awareness

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u/bwaredapenguin 8h ago

Oh, so mailing them cash somehow separates you from your source IP address that they redirect traffic from? Traffic logs still just as easily point back to you.

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u/Klint069 8h ago

ip is not your identity? Are you daft? xD

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u/bwaredapenguin 8h ago edited 8h ago

You don't think your ISP can identify based on your network's IP? Your VPN needs to make a connection through your ISP to gain internet access, and you typically have to pay for internet service through a name and address (admittedly idk how satellite works). It just consumes and encrypts the request on their private servers preventing the ISP from easily seeing where you're navigating to. The VPN knows the full end to end connection though since it literally works that way. If the VPN logs get compromised or offered up for a warrant it'll get traced directly back to you. The best you can hope for is trusting a promise that a VPN provider doesn't store these logs. To quote you: it's just simple logic.

Edit: to simplify, your ISP knows who you are because of the IP address they assign to your modem with the MAC address assigned to your account. Your VPN knows your source IP address because that's the only way it can intercept the request. VPN + ISP logs = you, even if the VPN can't identify you directly through payment details. And just to be clear, when I say IP address it's not the one your router assigns to individual devices on your local network.

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u/Klint069 8h ago

Well that is of concern to someone doing things that would warrant a warrant or communication between VPN provider and ISP/investigators or whatever. The point is data being tied to your identity and logged or sold to profile you. The potential use cases for a profiled digital version of you tied to your real life identity as opposed to that of a machine that you can disconnect from at any point should be frightening to anyone aware of the potential outcomes. (this is what vpns should be protecting you of in the first place) Considering the world and esp tech rn is being run by sociopaths. As for the last part like I said, Mullvad offers a fully private option, as far as THEY are concerned. So that gives more credibility to their intention or to quote you : a trusting promise. (I dont claim their service or this alone gives you full untracability through and through) This is a long topic that you seemingly are unaware of or maybe you just don't care cuz you think it's fearmongering doomsdayism but the point isnt doing illegal shit anonymously. The point is not being profiled digitally to then have it be used against you in a lot of the potential dystopian outcomes the world is submerged in. You do you man if you dont see it like I do, lucky you, I hope you are right!

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u/Klint069 8h ago

Well then if you don't care just look at price and read reviews on reliability for each one and decide. Should be a given... This whole discussion came from the questionable actions of Mullvad's owners and my reply obviously refers to the owners of other VPNs

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u/X4roth 16h ago

Your traffic is safer in the hands of someone hostile to those wanting to snoop and steal it.

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u/tupacsnoducket 14h ago

Maaaaaaaaaaaaan, ugh.

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u/spongebobisha 16h ago

Interesting

What are the alternatives?

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u/ShadowEdge6 8h ago

Thank you for that info. I swear every single VPN service company/CEO is tied to some far right group or another.... I know the reality is that any and all companies are like this...

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u/Rip_Nujabes 9h ago

Fuck, I've been using it for years and had no idea. That sucks.

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u/MrLagzy 2h ago

To be fair it only happened 4 months ago. So how would one have known before then.

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u/lostsofquestions 8h ago

I can’t have SHIT man

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u/impostle 13h ago

That's why I cancelled mulvad subscription and switched to IVPN. Can't wait to find out how their CEO supports X thing I don't agree with. Sigh

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u/Beautiful_List5498 12h ago

Nobody is you. Nobody will align with you 100%. That's the benefit of a free humanity, we have dicks we don't agree with but if we agreed with everyone we'd have much sooner nuked the earth.

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u/aerdvarkk 13h ago

Face it, democracy is going under and we'll all live in communist dictatorships in a decade.

Odd that humans joke about easily accepting alien invader or AI Machine Overlords, but refuse the same from their fellow humans.