Electronic Arts, the publisher behind EA Sports FC, Madden, Apex Legendsand The Sims, is being acquired in the largest leveraged buyout in history. The $55B deal is led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) in partnership with private equity firm Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners, a Saudi-backed investment firm led by Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

The buyers are paying $36B in cash and taking on $20B in debt. The transaction ends EA’s three-decade run as a publicly traded company, valuing EA at roughly a 25% premium over its market cap.

A Well-Oiled, Predictable Machine

If there’s one thing EA is world-class at, it’s shipping sequels on time and at quality. For better or worse, the company has built its business on predictability. Its annual sports releases, first and foremost the EA Sports FC series (formerly FIFA), arrive with clockwork precision, delivering steady profits year after year.

Sports games now make up over half of EA’s revenue, led by EA FC, estimated to generate around $2B–$3B annually, and Madden, which recently surpassed $1B in yearly bookings. (EA doesn’t publish franchise-level numbers, but Madden’s $1B mark was reported in an investor call.)

Still, growth has stalled. EA’s revenues have hovered around $7.5B for several years, and profits have barely moved. This has left the stock underperforming for years and has put steady pressure on management. EA continues to print money, but it’s not growing. 

Outside sports, EA’s track record has been uneven. Flagship nonsports franchises like Battlefield and Dragon Age have stumbled, and even Apex Legends has cooled off. There’s only so much left to squeeze from even the most loyal soccer and Madden fans. And with a company this size, big turns come slowly.

Part of EA’s stagnation comes from its struggles in the mobile sector. The company spent years trying to build a serious mobile business, acquiring Glu Mobile and Playdemic for billions, but returns never met expectations. (To its credit, EA Sports FC Mobile has been a quiet but steady performer.)

In hindsight, EA’s big mobile bets were costly but lacked direction. Meanwhile, competitors like Activision Blizzard (King), Take-Two (Zynga), and Saudi-owned Scopely carved out clearer identities. EA’s failure to build or buy a breakout mobile business left it reliant on the same core sports business that’s now driving this sale.

After 13 years as CEO, Andrew Wilson has seen EA go through both major wins and recurring frustrations. It’s no surprise, then, that EA had been quietly seeking a buyer for years. Reportedly, Disney, Amazon, Microsoft, and even Apple have all kicked the tires at some point and walked away. With growth flat, stock at record highs, and a buyer willing to keep EA’s identity intact, the timing couldn’t be better.

EA didn’t sell because it was struggling. It sold because it had peaked and because a buyer with deep enough pockets came knocking.

Inside Saudi Arabia’s Gaming Drive

To understand why Saudi Arabia wanted EA, you have to look beyond gaming. The acquisition fits squarely into “Vision 2030,” the country’s long-term plan to reduce its dependence on oil and expand into technology and entertainment, and the game industry is a key part of that push.

The Public Investment Fund is the main vehicle driving that diversification. It’s one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, with $900B under management and $38B set aside exclusively for games. Through its gaming arm, Savvy Games Group, the PIF has already spent billions acquiring Scopely, Niantic, and ESL FACEIT Group. Beyond video games, it’s been steadily buying its way into sports culture from soccer clubs like Newcastle United (acquired in 2021) to golf leagues LIV Golf (launched in 2021, merged with the PGA Tour in 2023). EA fits that play perfectly: It’s gaming and sports in one. (We wrote about the fund when it acquired Scopely in 2023.)

This time, though, the buyout wasn’t done through Savvy. Instead, Silver Lake acted as the Western-facing partner, while Trump-affiliated Affinity Partners provided a political bridge. From the PIF’s perspective, the debt money helps, but the real reason for this structure is optics: navigating regulatory and political sensitivities while keeping control with the Saudis.

Silver Lake isn’t new to high-profile deals. Among its biggest wins are investments in Skype (2009, sold to Microsoft two years later, a four-time return) and Alibaba (participation in secondaries in 2011–2012, ahead of its 2014 NYSE listing). More recently, the firm bought Endeavor Group, the parent company of WWE and UFC, and is reportedly circling the U.S. arm of TikTok.

On paper, the transaction is a leveraged buyout, and EA is, in fact, a decent leveraged buyout target. It has consistent free cash flow, a defensible moat built around its sports franchises, a committed management team, and no major capital expenditure requirements prior to the leveraged buyout. But this isn’t your usual buyout. This is patient empire-building capital, not a quick flip.

With this deal, the Saudi gaming empire now spans mobile free-to-play through Scopely, esports through ESL FACEIT, and console and PC through EA. EA Sports FC hasbecome the crown jewel, tying Saudi Arabia’s gaming ambitions to the world’s biggest sport. And with the $38B set aside for games now deployed, the PIF will likely pause to digest before chasing more gaming acquisitions.

What’s Next for EA

For now, EA will mostly carry on as usual: the same franchises, steady profits, fewer shareholder calls. The company will stay headquartered in California, and Wilson is expected to remain CEO for several years. Some cuts may happen, but large-scale layoffs aren’t expected.

The $20B in debt does make EA more exposed. It can’t take big creative swings, chase acquisitions, or easily ride out an industry downturn. Even so, it’s a manageable load. Assuming a 7% interest rate, EA would pay around $1.4B in interest yearly. The company generates over $2B in free cash flow, easily enough to service the loans.

Operationally, not much will change. EA hasn’t been spending heavily on R&D anyway; it has used most of its profits for buybacks and dividends. Now that same money will go toward paying debt instead. If interest rates fall, the company could even refinance and ease the pressure further. And if EA ever ran into real liquidity trouble, the PIF could easily step in to cover it.

More likely, it’s a refocus on EA’s core. EA will be able to concentrate on console and PC and double down on the big-budget franchises that define its identity. EA Sports FC will clearly remain central, but the core also includes Madden, Apex, The Sims, and Battlefield. Battlefield is now poised for a comeback if Battlefield 6 delivers on expectations and reestablishes a steady release cadence. 

These core franchises are what will carry EA’s business while it refocuses as a private company. Mobile need not be a priority at all. In fact, with Scopely now serving the Saudis’ mobile interests, handing off mobile titles like The Sims FreePlay, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, and SimCity BuildIt to Scopely wouldn’t be a bad move.

Perhaps the bigger change is structural.With EA going private, one of the last major public publishers disappears. Investors lose a key benchmark, and the industry loses some transparency. At the same time, EA gains something that public markets rarely allow: the freedom to think long term. Without the pressure of quarterly earnings, it can plan in years, not quarters. The real upside would be taking smart, long-term bets on new IP. The least it can do is rebuild Battlefield. 

As for the deal itself, the endgame is less certain. Most leveraged buyouts eventually end in a sale or a return to the public markets. That could happen here too — Silver Lake and Affinity exit, while the PIF holds on. For now, though, it’s unclear what value the consortium brings to EA beyond capital and political cover.

For Saudi Arabia, this is part investment, part soft power. Whether Saudi conservative values will affect the content of games such as The Sims and Mass Effect remains to be seen. However, do expect EA Sports FC covers to feature Saudi Pro League stars and future esports events to find homes in Riyadh. These moves won’t drive revenue, but they will signal influence. (We talk more about the business of esports in our interview with EA’s head of esports in August.)

Saudi Arabia doesn’t just want to host global entertainment; it wants to own it. The deal gives the kingdom control of one of the world’s most recognizable sports entertainment brands. It’s the culmination of the Saudi royal family’s passion for soccer and gaming, and EA is the ultimate trophy in that pursuit. Whether it turns out to be a good investment almost doesn’t matter. This deal is more about prestige, not just profits.

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In Other News

💸 Funding & Acquisitions:

• Kakao Games secures $111M through a subsidiary sale and paid-in capital increase.
• Swiss-based Sbarter is raising €40M to “redefine” skill-based games with blockchain technology.
• Fragbite sells Playdigious to venture fund Griffin Gaming Partners for $12.2M.
• Royal Bank of Scotland to launch IP-backed loans ranging between £250K to £10M.
• PolyDream Studio raises $500K to accelerate the development of White Desert.

📊 Business & Products:

• Unity discovers "major security vulnerability" in a development tool dating back to 2017.
• 87% of mobile game developers rely on Google and Apple for most of their revenue.
• Breakout hit Megabonk sells more than a million copies on Steam.
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 tops 5M sales worldwide in five months.
• The U.S. Supreme Court rejects Google’s bid to block a Play Store overhaul.

👾 Miscellaneous:

• The Top 50 Mobile Game Makers of 2025.
• 2000s portal Shockwave gets a mobile-first reimagining with daily games and AI at its core.
• The SEC has launched an investigation into AppLovin’s data-collection practices.
• Sustainable Games Alliance unveils a new sustainability framework for the game industry.
• What to expect as the game industry gathers in Aqaba, Jordan.

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Content Worth Consuming

Why Relic Entertainment Wants to Make Games More Quickly (gamesindustry.biz): “Relic Entertainment has been on something of a roller-coaster ride over the past couple of decades. The studio leapt to fame in the late 1990s with the release of the critically acclaimed and commercially successful real-time strategy (RTS) title Homeworld, and the firm was soon snapped up by THQ. More RTS hits followed — notably Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War in 2004 and Company of Heroes in 2006 — and Relic would go on to produce various sequels for both. But THQ's bankruptcy saw the studio pass into the hands of Sega in 2013, and whereas RTS games ruled the PC roost in the 2000s, they have since become a much more niche market concern.”

Power of Play 2025 Global Video Games Report (theesa.com): “In our second iteration of the global Power of Play report, trade associations representing the video game industry around the world came together to create one of the largest surveys ever conducted of video game players. Speaking with 24,216 players (ages 16 and older), we asked people across 21 countries — Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States — why they play, how they play, and the perceived benefits of play.”

Ghost of Yotei's Mud, Blood, and Steel, with Sucker Punch (The Fourth Curtain): “It's a one-two move with Sucker Punch's Chris Zimmerman and Brian Fleming. Now shipping Ghost of Yotei, they tell us about leaving Microsoft for Sony and becoming a game dev powerhouse. Tales of exact pitches and being great instead of good.”

5 Game Dev Delusions That Kill Studios (Building Better Games): “Is your studio living in a delusion that will only end in pain? Seemingly great teams burn millions of dollars only to shut down because they left reality behind. This episode breaks down the five game dev delusions that kill studios, which I've seen in well-funded, 100+ person teams, unfunded indies, and VC-backed startups.”

Inside EA’s $55B LBO, Lessons from Grow A Garden, and the Intent to Action Gap ("Alien's Eye View") (GameMakers Podcast): “This week, we're breaking down the end of an era: the historic $55 billion acquisition of Electronic Arts. Go inside the deal to hear the likely banker's pitch that sold EA's board and what this massive leveraged buyout means for the future of the games industry. Then, we shift from titans to upstarts to uncover the secrets behind Grow a Garden, the Roblox game from a 16-year-old developer that quietly became the biggest in the world with over 22 million concurrent players. Learn how reviving and adapting a classic formula can lead to massive success on new platforms. Finally, we share a powerful mental model called the ‘Alien's Eye View’— a simple framework to expose the gap between your team's intentions and its actions, helping you align your goals and maximize development velocity.”

Resilient or Fragile — Inside the Shifting Dynamics of Korea’s Game Industry (pocketgamer.biz): “One of the world’s top five games markets, Korea is home to giants like Krafton, Nexon, NCSoft, Netmarble, Wemade, Com2uS, Pearl Abyss and Kakao Games. Over a couple of decades, these companies have turned Korean games into a major global export industry, especially for PC and mobile. Korea has also been a pioneer in game monetisation, with its players accounting for some of the highest average revenue per user (ARPU) globally.”

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