Saudi Arabia buys EA: What does it mean for the future of gaming?

It’s the entertainment giant behind much-loved classics such as Fifa, The Sims, and Battlefield – and its future could now look very different.

Entertainment Arts (EA) is being bought by Saudi Arabia, among other investors, in the biggest private equity-funded buyout in history.

CEO Andrew Wilson has said EA will continue to “push the boundaries” and “unlock new opportunities” ahead of the $55bn (£40bn) deal.

But with the much-anticipated release of Battlefield 6 on the horizon, and household-name games at stake, what does the move mean for gamers and the wider industry?

The investor group behind the buyout includes Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, and a company managed by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.

The move could lead to further cuts to studios and designers, impacting game development. Several hundred EA employees were laid off in May this year after the company cut five per cent of its workforce in 2024.

The debt brought on by shifting to private financing could also lead to cuts.

Grant Taylor-Hill from Insider Gaming told ITV News that the announcement of Saudi investment had not come as a surprise to the gaming community, but studio closures, project cancellations and layoffs were a concern.

“Where they’ve [Saudi Arabia] been going in the last couple of years, getting into esports, competitive gaming, they have a big foothold in the sports gaming space, and that’s one of EA’s biggest draws.

While Taylor-Hill, like many, expects the takeover to lead to redundancies, some believe private financing could allow the company to develop further, free from shareholder interest or fears of upsetting the markets.

The PIF, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, has become an active player in the gaming industry in the past few years, buying several other companies and owning a minority stake in Nintendo.

Saudi Arabia also hosts the Esports World Cup, a tournament for professional and competitive gamers from across the globe.

But charities such as Amnesty International have been critical of the Saudi’s mass investment in esports and sport more broadly, accusing it of a strategy of distraction and deflection away from the country’s human rights record.

In a 2023 interview with Fox News, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (MBS) said he did not “care” if the country’s investments were labelled as so-called sportswashing, as long as they “increase my GDP by one per cent”.

Amnesty International has said LGBTQ+ people can face the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, and women remain subject to discrimination. Migrant workers have been subject to forced labour and abuse while working in the country.

Saudi Arabia has also been accused of carrying out executions abroad, including the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul – something leader MBS has long denied.

“People look out for things like censorship, so the average end user looks at some games they might be waiting for and thinks, ‘how is this going to pan out with Saudi having such a major stake in this brand now, in Electronic Arts?’,” Grant Taylor-Hill says.

“They have been pretty harsh with censorship and banning certain games in the past, games like Grand Theft Auto, they’ve not leaned too nicely towards.

“Could we see certain games cancelled entirely?

“There is a studio under EA called BioWare, they’ve been making games for decades, and they’ve long featured some LGBTQ themes.

“You can have same sex romance options, trans identities, will that fly under the new Saudi ownership?

“I think one of the key concerns, always, with Saudi is censorship.