Electronic Arts is going private in an acquisition that values the company at $55 billion, EA announced today, following an initial report from The Wall Street Journal last week. The company will be purchased by a "consortium" of investors that includes Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners. None of this is good.
The deal is the "largest leveraged buyout on record," according to Bloomberg, and includes $20 billion in debt. In a leveraged buyout, the purchasers largely borrow money to fund the acquisition, and can use the purchased company’s assets as collateral. Basically, this means the buyers need the company they bought to make a hell of a lot of money to both pay down the debt and make the profit they’re in it for. They’re incentivized to cut costs to get there; leveraged buyouts have spelled the end of companies including Toys R Us and Party City. Despite this grim portend, CEO Andrew Wilson will stay on, and wrote in a message to EA employees that "This is one of the largest and most significant investments ever made in the entertainment industry. Our new partners... believe in our people, our leadership, and the long-term vision we are now building together."
Let's look at those partners. The PIF already owned a nearly 10% stake in EA, alongside shares in other games companies like Nintendo and Take-Two. It has also invested heavily in co-buyer Affinity Partners, the firm formed in 2021 by Donald Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. Affinity faced inquiry by the Senate last year over, according to Senator Ron Wyden, fears that "Affinity’s investors may not be motivated by commercial considerations, but rather the opportunity to funnel foreign government money to members of President Trump’s family." Kushner is apparently a fan of EA’s games, saying, “I’ve admired [EA’s] ability to create iconic, lasting experiences, and as someone who grew up playing their games — and now enjoys them with his kids — I couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead.”
Silver Lake, meanwhile, is rumored to be one of the new owners of the US-based TikTok, in a long-running clusterfuck of a deal that could also see Oracle and MGX grab a slice.
But the PIF is a uniquely concerning partner. (Update, 9/29/25, 3:16pm--According to Bloomberg, the PIF is providing "more fresh capital" than Silver Lake and Affinity.) It's the money arm of Saudi Arabia's plunge into gaming, using subsidiary Savvy Games Group to acquire games like Pokemon Go and pushing massively into esports, with the New York Times writing last year that "Savvy Games Group now owns 40 percent of the total e-sports market share… The P.I.F. and its subsidiaries have spent roughly $6 billion buying up game companies and $14 billion on stock investments." The collapse of a $2 billion deal between Savvy and Embracer in 2023 precipitated mass layoffs and studio closures at Embracer that further exacerbated the games industry's freefall. Saudi Arabia recently held the Esports World Cup, a flashy love letter to games-washing that saw rebellion by GeoGuessr map creators, censorship of queer content, and a whole bunch of song and dance meant to further position Saudi Arabia as a tech and gaming hub and not a place where, according to Human Rights Watch, 241 people have been executed as of August. The Kingdom's push into gaming is the pet project of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is alleged to have ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, which he denies.
Suffice it to say, I doubt any of these people are motivated to, in Wilson's words, "create experiences that are bold, expressive, and deeply connected to inspire generations of players around the world." Fans of EA's games are worried what this means for some of their favorite series, including those that feature queer characters, like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Dragon Age: The Veilguard saw a troubled development cycle and has had the finger pointed at its sales performance for the several rounds of layoffs EA has seen in 2025, among other causes. With $20 billion in debt to pay down, those layoffs are likely to continue; if there's one thing private equity loves, it's cost-cutting, and people--you know, the ones who actually make the video games--are usually the first on the chopping block.
Whether or not the PIF or Kushner's firm will be interested in exerting fine-level control of game content, either globally or just in their own jurisdictions, there's no doubt this deal and its attendant debt will affect the kinds of games EA puts out. The company will certainly need to lean into sure-fire hits and broadly popular series, alongside whatever schemes it can drum up to squeeze as much money from players as possible. Niche favorites or one-and-done single-player games aren’t going to pay the kinds of bills EA now needs to pay. EA was already headed down this path: Following layoffs in late May, Wilson said that EA intends to "double down on our biggest opportunities — including our owned IP, sports, and massive online communities." We've already seen that playing out this year, with the company shuttering less popular games like Anthem and a variety of mobile and sports games, while touting absurd expectations for the Battlefield series. And, like every idiot these days, EA is exploring AI, with Wilson saying in a May earnings call that "We view AI as a powerful accelerator of creativity, innovation and player connection... Across our teams, we're investing in new workflows and capabilities to integrate AI to enhance how we build, scale and personalize experiences." So this deal certainly won't mean anything good for workers at EA and its studios. And it won’t mean anything good for players of the company’s games, whether that’s sports series that will need to make more money than ever or smaller games that might get deprioritized.
Beyond this, continuing the trend of fewer and fewer powerful people and companies owning more and more things, both in the games industry and beyond, is no good for anyone. As companies consolidate, their leaders’ choices and priorities ripple out into everything they own, letting them alter massive swathes of industries. In the case of this consortium, those choices are motivated by far more than just a desire to make a shit-ton of money–members have ties to, or literally are, some of the most powerful and conservative governments in the world. The PIF is a political project above all, with games being a means to an end. Kushner is obviously susceptible to the Trump administration’s meddling, as is Silver Lake, with its rumored TikTok deal deeply embedded in Trump’s priorities. As games swing back into the Right’s spotlight, everyone involved will surely feel the pressure of the Trump administration on whatever happens next. Once the deal closes in 2027, a handful of people are going to come out richer than ever, and a majority of people are going to get fucked.
