Gaming

AZProgressive

(29,742 posts) Mon Sep 29, 2025, 08:10 PM Monday

Jared Kushner, Saudi Arabia, more backers to buy EA in $55B deal. What this means for gamers.

President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Saudi Arabia's government and other backers are closing in on a $55 billion deal to purchase the video game company responsible for developing and publishing popular game franchises like The Sims, Madden NFL and Battlefield.

Electronic Arts, or EA, announced on Monday, Sept. 29 that it will be privately acquired by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake and Affinity Partners during the 2027 fiscal year. The latter of the investors, Affinity Partners, was founded by Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, who is married to Trump's eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump.

Upon the finalization of the acquisition, EA will remain headquartered in Redwood City, California, and Andrew Wilson will continue to serve as CEO, according to a news release.

The acquisition announcement comes less than a month before the release of EA's highly-anticipated Battlefield 6. Set to release on Oct. 10, the first-person shooter game has turned heads for its trailer featuring actors Zac Efron, Morgan Wallen, Jimmy Butler and Paddy Pimblett.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jared-kushner-saudi-arabia-buy-170906607.html

I was a big fan of the last 2 college football games and planned to purchase the game in upcoming years but not anymore. I stopped buying golf video games after golf merged with the Saudis.

I mainly play games to avoid politics I don't like, now politics I don't like is getting into gaming.

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Jared Kushner, Saudi Arabia, more backers to buy EA in $55B deal. What this means for gamers. (Original Post) AZProgressive Monday OP

Kushner may be buying into a dying industry, wouldn't that be poetic. yliza Monday #1

oh, yay: "EA's New Owner Plans AI Pivot 'To Significantly Cut Operating Costs'-- Report" eShirl Tuesday #2

yliza

(186 posts)

1. Kushner may be buying into a dying industry, wouldn't that be poetic.

Reply to AZProgressive (Original post)

Mon Sep 29, 2025, 09:42 PM

Monday

A lot of gamers are tired of the triple-A gaming labels and their aggressive monetization. I’ve heard rumblings of a kind of revolt against The Sims franchise recently, though I’m not sure what it’s about as I haven’t played The Sims in years, but this is one of EA’s cash cows. Additionally, the EU looks ready to pass the Stop Killing Games initiative, which will significantly change the landscape for game development, live service games in particular. EA gets the bulk of its revenue from live service games, I believe. Anyway, this is the kind of chatter I’ve been hearing about recently on gaming sites. Wouldn’t it be a hoot if Kushner and the Saudis bought into a company that’s on the verge of collapse. One can hope.

eShirl

(19,707 posts)

2. oh, yay: "EA's New Owner Plans AI Pivot 'To Significantly Cut Operating Costs'-- Report"

Reply to AZProgressive (Original post)

Tue Sep 30, 2025, 04:49 AM

Tuesday

https://www.techpowerup.com/341464/eas-new-owner-plans-ai-pivot-to-significantly-cut-operating-costs-report

According to the new report, investors are banking on using AI to cut EA's operating costs and "manage a large debt load," indicating that we may see a drastic shift to the inclusion of AI in games, where it may replace developers and actors, although it is so far unclear exactly how EA and its new owners plan to leverage AI in the company's projects. This news comes mere months after the United Videogame Workers Union was founded, partially in response to the rise of artificial intelligence in gaming and mass layoffs that have plagued the gaming industry of late.

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