Electronic Arts, one of the biggest publishers in the gaming industry, has just been bought by an investment group. Three firms--the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners--will be purchasing EA for a massive $55 billion dollars. This buyout will make EA a private company, with shareholders receiving a 25% bonus payout to their share price. As to how this will affect EA and its gaming divisions going forward, the press release and statements from the investment firms simply state that this move will help EA to expand their worldwide reach and accelerate their innovation and growth within the industry.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) (“EA” or the “Company”), a global leader in interactive entertainment, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an investor consortium (“the Consortium”) comprised of PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners in an all-cash transaction that values EA at an enterprise value of approximately $55 billion. The transaction positions EA to accelerate innovation and growth to build the future of entertainment.

The deal will close sometime in the 2027 fiscal year. Of the $55 billion dollars purchase price, $20 billion will come from debt financing between the three investment groups. This debt could lead to EA cutting even more jobs and limiting what projects the publisher decides to take on, as they pay down the balance over the next few years, according to industry analysists. Electronic Arts' current CEO, Andrew Wilson, will remain with the company after the buyout.

The revenue generated by big games like EA Sports FC, Madden and Battlefield 6 will be needed to service this debt, which may impact EA's ability to invest in new games,

Source

 

[CoolMe]

$55 is an insane amount of cash, holy shit..
that said, with EA, it can't get any worse than it is, right?
not sure who'll be in charge or what, but knowing the Saudis they'll make the new?/ old EA work more on soccer/football games, focusing on their national teams most likely. and wrestling, they looove american (wwe) wrestling, so expect them either to buy the rights to wwe or atleast be allowed to make their own version of it.

Wonder when it's Ubishit's turn.

soon. probably after the alleged AC:IV remake flops hard (even tho i like the og release of that game)

 

[MPRTwice]

"EA Games (*whisper* was bought out for everything *whisper*)."

Post automatically merged: Sep 29, 2025

Good luck with that. Trump's son in law and the Saudis are now in charge

Is _that_ why the world got so violent and sent me so many death threats when I proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Khabib took drugs the entire time and I easily defeated people he said were beyond his fighting level? Sheesh no wonder they got very violent against me after that crushing loss by my hand, literally.

Sad that a spider (brown widow) is more dangerous than the best of the UFC actors, yet both are not even on my radar anymore; I'm just nearly surprised that you are saying that.

 

[Lumpofcoal]

The revenue generated by big games like EA Sports FC, Madden and Battlefield 6 will be needed to service this debt, which may impact EA's ability to invest in new games,

Which means an even greater motivation (pressure on the devs) to use AI for their games. Let's not forget their previous showcase of their attempt at an AI generated game.

By the way, EA along with "innovation" and "growth" in the same sentence is equivalent to an oxymoron.

 

[chrisrlink]

When do we get Battlefield Saudi Arabia?

watch them turn battlefield into a terrorist training tool, pretty sure EA execs won't hear the end of that now will they?

 

[liquidgykill]

This will make them a lootbox only company
I hope this backfires and EA finally dies

 

[xpoverzion]

Maybe being a private company again they can focus on making good games again instead of maximizing shareholder profit. I mean I know the new owners will want to recoup their investment but it depends on whether they're smart enough to go for stable long term profit or if they're just going to keep wringing customers and releasing low effort slop for maximum short term profit. I still say for gaming studios being privately owned is a massive advantage. Not having to please the leeches on Wall Street. Depends on how smart the new owners are really.

(Hopium)

Nope. The investors that bought EA have already mentioned that they want EA to become an industry leader in using as much AI as possible in their game development, to maximize profit as much as possible. This means their future games will be even worse than they already are.

 

[raxadian]

I am curious, has EA made any good game in the past decade or at least published it?

 

[Stroopwaffel]

I am curious, has EA made any good game in the past decade or at least published it?

Only one I know of is Titanfall 2.

 

[HellGhast]

Rumors have it that a free Qatari 747 jet will be thrown in to sweeten the deal

 

[Xzi]

that said, with EA, it can't get any worse than it is, right?

Reports are the new ownership group is hoping AI can cut costs and boost profits, so it can in fact get worse. Hopefully the company goes bankrupt before they can make their money from the purchase back.

 

[The Catboy]

Saudi Arabia

Oh, they gonna make EA worse…

 

[Stroopwaffel]

Reports are the new ownership group is hoping AI can cut costs and boost profits, so it can in fact get worse. Hopefully the company goes bankrupt before they can make their money from the purchase back.

I find this almost ironic that EA was originally founded as a programmer's first company, emphasizing their developers as artists...

From humble origins we've fallen into this cesspool.

 

[tpax]

Good luck but it would be very least of your worries and EA will face a bigger problem with other topics.

They are likely to lose a lot of talented developers and replace with inexperienced developers. Go private don't translate to better games. If you know EA culture, so you will understand.

Every self-respecting human being has left EA a long time ago anyway. EA can't become worse than it already is.

 

[Plume]

I am curious, has EA made any good game in the past decade or at least published it?

As much as I hate EA overall, here's some good games they published/made that are not super old:
- Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order
- It Takes Two
- Split Fiction
- The Dead Space Remake

 

[Moe87]

Every self-respecting human being has left EA a long time ago anyway. EA can't become worse than it already is.

There are still some working at EA and Maxis, so games would be much worse state when they are all gone.

I had a lot of respect for Maxis when I was kid because I love their Sim games in 1990s and 2000s, so they aren't same after SimCity 4 released.

I remember about freebie Sim games that come with new computers, also bundle at heavy discount.

I have no interest in sport games, so didn't bother to buy Madden games.

I do think EA needs to spin Maxis off into own company again, so they can focus on simulation and management games.

 

[LightBeam]

Not sure that's going to change much, doubt they're going to introduce things that we haven't seen yet. People are scared of saudis but I haven't seen much trouble with SNK.

 

[legaiaflame]

$55 Billion! Where did they get the money from? The Moon?!!

 

[Skelletonike]

What's next? Is someone gonna buy Disney? Is someone with infinity money going to purchase Pokemon?

The Pokemon Company cannot be bought.

Also, EA was valued at roughly 50 billion, Nintendo is valued at 110 billion or so.

 

[emigre]

Not sure that's going to change much, doubt they're going to introduce things that we haven't seen yet. People are scared of saudis but I haven't seen much trouble with SNK.

I think the issues with the Saudi administration is their history of cutting up journalists in their embassies. Call me crazy, but I think that's worse than predatory micro transactions.

 

[tpax]

So all female characters now wearing burkas ingame confirmed?