Electronic Arts (EA) is a game company that hasn’t been on the good graces of many gamers these days, from the massive graveyard of game studios that have been shut down under the EA brand, to the more recent failures such as Dragon Age, The Veilguard and more.
But all of this could be changing soon, as it has recently been reported that Electronic Arts will bought out for $55 billion dollars and will be going private.
As reported by BusinessWire, The buyers have been reported to be investors from the government of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake, a global investment firm, and a private equity firm “Affinity Partners” owned by Donald Trump’s son in law: Jared Kushner.
EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners for $55 Billion https://t.co/1rTs2glb78 pic.twitter.com/sWNikOiLPt
— Wario64 (@Wario64) September 29, 2025
As the deal seems to more or less set in stone, many users have openly stated their feelings on the matter:
“Well they finally figured out how to make EA more evil, gotta hand it to them.” -@TommyPaine2020 via X/Twitter
“EA is now wholly owned by a consortium consisting of the Saudi royal family, a private equity firm, and Jared f***ing Kushner. WELP. That’s certainly a way to make all my hype for Battlefield 6 instantly turn to dust. :|” -@KodaKazar via X/Twitter
“while this does come with benefits like going private usually means more freedom. But for EA, it probably just means freedom to monetize harder and triple down on what works.” -@KenWal9 via X/Twitter
The progressive side of the gaming community are also not too happy about the news. As mentioned by Mark Kern (Grummz) on X/Twitter: The Sims Community in particular are the most displeased regarding the buyout.
The Sims community is in full meltdown over the prospects of Jared Kushner and the Saudis buying out EA. pic.twitter.com/VHkEc8PxaL
— Grummz (@Grummz) September 27, 2025
These very same sentiments regarding buyouts from Saudi Arabia have been echoed across the gaming space as recently as early September, as Saudi Arabia’s Qiddiya fully acquired EVO, the world’s most prestigious fighting game championship series, with many people pointing out Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations.
While I am not fond of Saudi Arabia and its worldview, the issue I have with most of the outrage is that it comes off as selective and performative. While many people have a problem with Saudi Arabia for moral reasons, this same energy was nearly absent for SNK, developers behind the popular King of Fighters series and the recently released Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, as they were bought out by the Saudi Arabian MiSK Foundation several years ago.
There also hasn’t been much outrage when games like Marvel Rivals, one of the biggest team-based free-to-play games of the year, or Riot Games, creators of League of Legends (and more recently: 2XKO), are owned by Netease Games and Tencent, respectively. Both of these companies are directly linked to the Chinese Communist Party, which is known for some of the biggest human rights violations in the world. I could go on with examples, but the point I’m making here is this: You can follow the money from just about any AAA game company out there and find that they are tied to an organization or business practice that may go against one’s morals and ethics.
As far as my concern goes, the intent behind these acquisitions is what matters. If these Saudi Arabia groups are strictly keeping things focused on business and appealing to select demographics, then I will not have a problem with them. If they decide to start covering up female characters in burkas or force players to start reading scriptures from the Quran, then I’ll certainly speak up against them. Likewise, I don’t want to start seeing pro-Trump or pro-MAGA messaging in my games due to Jared Kushner’s influence, either. Just keep the playing field neutral, while focusing on fun and escapism. It’s that simple.
