EA is now a private company, with stakeholders that include Saudi's PIF and Affinity Partners

· PCGamesN

In September 2025, EA confirmed that it was set to go private as part of a $55 billion (£41 billion) buyout. The deal - the second biggest in gaming history following Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard King - will see the company fall under the control of stakeholders that include Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), and Affinity Partners, which is owned by US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Today (Wednesday, August 5) marks the completion of the sale which, per the BBC, "is thought to be the largest leveraged buyout in history." This means that most of the money involved is borrowed, and will have to be paid back.

The deal has caused concerns among fans, with the PIF being tied to Saudi Arabia's prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose government has been implicated in various human rights abuses. Amnesty International notes that "women continue to face discrimination" in the country, with "unfair trials" for criminal offenses remaining commonplace. Per the UN (via Amnesty), the government is allegedly "responsible" for the "pre-meditated extrajudicial killing" of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist that voiced criticisms towards the Saudi government. The country has denied its involvement.

It has also sparked a conversation around LGBTQ+ issues, as EA owns The Sims, a game with a huge LGBTQ+ community. It also owns BioWare, the brainchild behind both the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series, which also include queer themes. Queer romance and same-sex involvement remains illegal in the country, with the death penalty being the maximum penalty. It's unclear how the franchises will look going forward.

EA itself is in a bit of an odd state. Dragon Age: The Veilguard was a commercial failure, and despite a promising launch, Battlefield 6 has struggled to keep up with the competition, with player peaks sitting between 55k and 59k on Steam, alongside a middling 67% rating. While sports games like EA Sports FC and Madden used to be yearly cash cows, other competitors like GOALS are coming out of the woodwork with hopes to challenge pre-established behemoths - especially on PC.

It's unclear what the company is working on at the moment bar a new Mass Effect game. Dragon Age looks like it's been shelved, and there's nothing immediate on the horizon. Bloomberg's Jason Schreier believes that the buyout will lead to "mass layoffs, more aggressive monetization, and other big cost-cutting measures;" something that feels somewhat inevitable. As a longtime BioWare fan and Apex Legends player, I hope things work out. We'll have to wait and see.