It’s the deal that unleashed an industrial earthquake: The Saudi Arabian government, in partnership with an investor group that includes private equity firm Silver Lake Partners and Donald Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, is poised to purchase video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA).
The $55 billion purchase will take EA private, a move provoking speculation about the future of EA-affiliated studios and game development. Company officials describe the deal as the largest leveraged buyout in history and the second-largest gaming acquisition just behind Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard for $69 billion in 2022.
"While that in itself is a milestone, it also officially waves the green flag on sponsors resuming megadeal transactions following several years of fishing for opportunities down market due to market headwinds such as higher borrowing costs," Kyle Walters, a private equity analyst at PitchBook, told The National.
So why is Saudi Arabia taking such a keen interest in a gaming giant like EA, which controls massive sports game series like FIFA and Madden NFL under its EA Sports brand, an internationally popular online multiplayer shooter series in the Battlefield series, the enduringly beloved Sims franchise, and BioWare, the iconic studio behind RPGs like the original Baldur’s Gate trilogy, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect? Well, it’s of a piece with previous efforts under the Kingdom’s Savvy Games Group to expand Saudi influence within the high-tech industry.
A load-bearing pillar of Saudi Arabia’s ambitious Vision 2030 economic diversification and development program is the technology sector, and video games stand at a unique intersection of computer technology and artistry. Acquiring EA elevates Saudi Arabia from an influential investor and market in the gaming industry to one of its biggest players.
"With this deal, it's not just a seat at the table any more — it's control," George Osborn, editor of Video Games Industry Memo, told BBC Sport. "When you've got control, you've got the ability to really drive the direction of that business towards your goal. That's what the Saudi state is going to be interested in."
Video games are also a major driver of internet culture, and over the past several years, the Saudi government has positioned itself as increasingly central to that culture. It’s already the largest player in the competitive Esports scene, hosting the Esports World Cup in Riyadh. The EA acquisition grants Saudi Arabia even more room to maneuver within that cultural space.
As Osborn explained to BBC Sport, that may largely be the point. The nation already made waves and headlines when it imported the world’s highest-tier comedy talent for Riyadh Comedy Festival 2025. Expanding its reach within the video game space could serve a similar purpose.
"Let's say, for example, a mum goes to the supermarket and picks up a copy of EA Sports FC off the shelf,” Osborn told BBC Sport. “They're not thinking about the geopolitics. They are just thinking of fun. And this is the genius of Saudi Arabia's strategy — that the country becomes associated with fun. They recognise that video games have cultural influence. By buying these companies, they are attracting people to their cause for the politics behind this."
While discussion and debate over the EA acquisition will rage for months, it’s likely good news for Arabic gamers and localization professionals. Advocates have long pushed for more frequent and higher-quality Arabic localization efforts in major gaming releases. As Arab News observes, the EA deal could put real weight behind those calls as the company invests expanded resources in Arabic translation and representation. And that’s a trend that could well ripple outward given the company’s size and influence.
“As a significant market and now an investor, Saudi Arabia’s preferences will carry more weight,” Yazeed Abunayyan of Arab News wrote. “We could see better Arabic language support in EA titles, culturally relevant content, and regional marketing campaigns that speak to our local identity.”
As for EA itself, the buyout is yet another unusual chapter in an exceptionally strange saga. According to the High Score! Expanded: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games by Rusel DeMaria, EA’s founding vision in 1982 was to treat game development like an artform, with its designers and coders referred to as “software artists.” But the subsequent decades saw EA transform into one of the industry’s biggest juggernauts, frequently earning gamers’ ire for perceived profits-first policies and mismanagement of beloved franchises.
Only time will tell what this deal means for EA’s next chapter and the industry as a whole, but for Arabic enthusiasts, Abunayyan sees cause for optimism.
“For Saudi Arabia, this moment solidifies its transition from a consumer to a creator in the world of games,” he wrote. “The Kingdom is leveraging its passion (millions of eager gamers) and its resources (Vision 2030 investments) to shape the future of a sector that speaks to the next generation.”