EA bought out and taken private: what changes for players

On August 4, 2026, Electronic Arts officially changed hands. No more EA action on the Nasdaq. No more accounts to report to public shareholders. The publisher of FIFA, Battlefield, The Sims, and Madden is now owned by a consortium led by the Saudi sovereign fund PIF, with Silver Lake and Affinity Partners — the fund of Jared Kushner, son-in-law of Donald Trump — as minority shareholders.

The amount? $55 billion. The biggest leveraged buyout in history. Ahead of the RJR Nabisco buyout in 1989, ahead of Dell in 2013, ahead of everything. And behind it, a colossal debt of $18 billion that EA will have to repay — with $1.8 billion in interest per year. You read that right: every year, even before paying a single developer, EA has to cough up almost $2 billion just for its creditors.

And guess who is going to pay the bill.

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The consortium, it's three names to remember:

• Public Investment Fund (PIF) — the sovereign fund of Saudi Arabia. 93.4% of the shares. They are the real bosses. PIF already held 10% of EA before the deal, plus shares in Take-Two Interactive and Savvy Games Group. This fits into their Vision 2030 strategy: diversifying the Saudi economy beyond oil, and video games are a massive lever.
• Silver Lake — Californian private equity funds, 5.5%. Their leader Egon Durban has been eyeing EA since 2011. Fifteen years of patience.
• Affinity Partners — Jared Kushner's fund, 1.1%. Yes, Trump's son-in-law. It was him who approached Silver Lake in August 2025 and who used his connections with Mohammed bin Salman to secure the financing. JPMorgan Chase arranged the 20 billion debt.

Shareholders received $210 per share, a 25% premium over the market price. The deal was announced on September 29, 2025. Ten months of regulation later - approval from the American CFIUS, from the European Commission on July 23, 2026 - it's done. EA is no longer listed on the stock exchange.

To put things in perspective: it is the second largest gaming acquisition in history , behind Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023 (69 billion). Except that Microsoft had paid cash. Here, 20 billion come from debt. And that's what changes everything.

An LBO, it's simple in theory: you borrow a lot to buy out a company, then you make it pay back itself. The debt shifts onto the shoulders of the acquired company. In other words, EA went from a debt of 2.2 billion to 18 billion overnight.

To reimburse, cash must be generated. EA has already announced its intention to reduce its costs by $700 million per year. The official wording speaks of "organizational inefficiencies". Bloomberg, via Jason Schreier — probably the most knowledgeable journalist in the video game industry — translates this simply as: layoffs.

700 million to find, it's not trivial. To give a scale, it represents roughly the development budget of two big AAA games. Or the salaries of 5,000 to 7,000 developers. Out of 14,500 employees, you do the math.

The United Videogame Workers-CWA union, representing EA employees, denounced the deal as early as October 2025, accusing the consortium of wanting to "sacrifice jobs to line the pockets of investors." Hard to blame them when you see the numbers.

EA was clear about this: the post-acquisition strategy is focus on main franchises, abandonment of secondary projects, and more AI in development Let's break it down.

EA Sports FC (formerly FIFA), Madden NFL, Battlefield, The Sims, Need for Speed. These licenses generate almost all of the revenue. They will remain a priority — it is even for them that the PIF signed the check. The Saudi fund is particularly interested in sports franchises, which makes sense when you know that they also invest heavily in football and Formula 1.

EA has explicitly stated that it wants to "refocus" and move away from more modest games. Translation: experimental projects like It Takes Two, attempts at new IPs, niche games — all of that will be scrapped. When you have to repay 1.8 billion in interest per year, you don't take risks on an indie game that might sell 500,000 copies.

It's the same pattern we've seen after every big acquisition in the industry. Less diversity, more sequels, more DLC, more microtransactions. Investors want a return on investment, not innovation.

The other pillar of the post-LBO strategy: integrating more artificial intelligence into the development process. This can mean AI for asset generation, NPC dialogues, automated level design, QA... So many steps that were done by humans.

In itself, using AI as a tool, no one is against it. But when it comes in a context of "we are looking for 700 million in savings," the subtext is clear. AI does not replace developers — it serves as an excuse to get rid of them.

When the announcement of the acquisition fell in September 2025, The Sims community reacted immediately. Several major content creators — Kayla Sims, James Turner, Jesse McNamara — left EA's creator program. Their concern: that the inclusivity that defines the franchise could be threatened by owners linked to Saudi Arabia, a country where homosexuality is criminalized.

Maxis, the studio behind The Sims, released a statement in January 2026: the values and creative control would remain "unchanged." OK. But Maxis no longer decides. The PIF does. And even if nothing has changed in the game for now, trust is broken among a part of the community.

The question goes beyond The Sims. Dragon Age, Mass Effect — these franchises are known for their LGBTQ+ romance options. BioWare, the studio behind, still belongs to EA. Will the next Mass Effect have the same narrative freedoms? No one knows. But doubt exists, and that's already a problem.

We cannot talk about this deal without talking about politics. Affinity Partners, Jared Kushner's fund, only represents 1.1% of the capital. But it's Kushner who orchestrated the deal. It's him who went to see Silver Lake in August 2025. It's him who convinced Mohammed bin Salman to involve the PIF. It's him who brought in JPMorgan.

In October 2025, Democratic senators Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut) and Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts) sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and EA CEO Andrew Wilson. Their concern: that the acquisition could serve as a vehicle for foreign influence, particularly through EA players' personal data — hundreds of millions of accounts worldwide.

The CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) still validated. According to the Financial Times, several sources close to the file estimated that the deal would pass "easily" given the Kushner-Trump links and the relations between Washington and Riyadh under this administration. It went through.

Going private means zero transparency. No more public quarterly reports. No more investor conferences where sales figures are disclosed. The New York Times notes that going private precisely allows unpopular moves — such as converting franchises into mobile games — without having to justify them to the markets.

Concretely, here is what can be expected in the next 12-24 months:

• Waves of layoffs — the 700 million in savings have to come from somewhere. Entire studios could close.
• More mobile and free-to-play — PIF wants to monetize licenses. Mobile is the most profitable segment of the video game. FC Mobile, Madden Mobile, The Sims FreePlay will probably receive even more investment.
• Less creative risk-taking — the new IPs are expensive and uncertain. Expect Battlefield 7, FIFA 28, Need for Speed 47.
• More microtransactions — when your debt costs you 1.8 billion a year, every penny counts. EA was already the champion of the Ultimate Team. It's going to intensify.
• Total opacity — no more stock market listing, no more obligation to communicate its results. What happens internally, we will only know through leaks.

The model, that's what private equity funds have been doing for decades: buy, streamline, make profitable, resell in 5-7 years with a capital gain. The players are the last in the equation.

No. EA continues to exist, with the same name, the same studios, the same CEO Andrew Wilson. What changes is the ownership structure: instead of public shareholders on the Nasdaq, it is the Saudi PIF that holds 93% of the company.

Yes. EA Sports FC, Battlefield, The Sims, everything continues as normal. The servers remain online, updates follow the planned schedule. The acquisition does not affect games already released in the short term.

A Leveraged Buyout (LBO) is when investors buy a company mainly with borrowed money. The acquired company finds itself carrying the debt. In the case of EA, out of the 55 billion deal, around 18-20 billion come from loans arranged by JPMorgan Chase.

This is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 strategy: preparing for the post-oil era by investing heavily in entertainment, sports, and tech. PIF already owns Savvy Games Group and shares in Take-Two (GTA). The video game market is a $200 billion per year industry, steadily growing.

It's almost certain. EA announced seeking 700 million in annual savings through "organizational efficiencies." Jason Schreier from Bloomberg, who has been covering the industry for years, interprets this as massive layoffs. With 14,500 employees and a debt of 18 billion, cuts are inevitable.