Saudi Arabia has purchased Electronic Arts (hereafter EA) for 55 billion USD, described as the largest private equity buyout in history.

EA have produced and published many globally popular titles with persistent playerbases, such as FIFA, Titanfall and The Sims. With additional purchases in-game for each title, EA stands to continually make money reliably through Intellectual Properties (IPs). EA recently released another title, Battlefield 6, in October, which will also highly contribute towards their revenue and valuation.

Saudi Arabia is attempting to divest its economy from the oil industry to become a global cultural and technological hub. The private investment fund is therefore investing in large gaming companies, amongst other things, to rebrand its global image. This also includes funding other forms of entertainment, such as the Riyadh Comedy Festival.

The modern games industry heavily involves monetisation and global politics. For instance, Microsoft purchased significant development studios such as Mojang in 2014 and Activision Blizzard in 2023.

The resulting trajectory for these companies has involved introducing more in-game purchases, with a very mixed reception from gamers. The influence of large buyouts in the gaming industry — especially on the treatment of IPs — therefore cannot be ignored.

As a result of this purchase, gamers have expressed concerns about certain topics in EA titles. For example, many gamers are concerned about Saudi Arabia’s influence over LGBTQ+ and women’s rights representation in The Sims series. Potential discontinuation of less profitable titles like Mass Effect is also a major concern of the buyout.

This large amount of money used to purchase a popular studio is also noticeably at odds with the increasing cost on gamers to purchase software and hardware. With the overall difficulty of the rising cost of living, affordable hobbies are far and few between. For example, Microsoft has recently increased the price of their gamepass by fifty percent, leading to a rush for cancellations.

In contrast, Hollow Knight: Silksong surprised fans with a 20 USD price for a polished title, highlighting a pushback against the pricing practices recently set by AAA (major publisher) games.

Jared Kushner, founder of Affinity Partners and son-in-law of current President Donald Trump, is involved in the EA buyout. He is managing the United States’ side of the transaction alongside EA’s CEO, Andrew Wilson. According to Wilson, EA will maintain their main offices in California, and he will also remain CEO after completing the deal.

Though the future is bright for the executives and officials of Saudi Arabia and Electronic Arts alike, it is uncertain whether this deal will have any positive impacts for the wider gaming community.

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