In late September, Electronic Arts (EA) announced a $55 billion deal to become a private company, backed by a new group of owners including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, and Silver Lake. This is the biggest leveraged buyout ever, and EA will need to manage $20 billion in debt as a result. Many industry analysts believe the quickest way for EA to pay down this debt is to close or sell off some of its game development studios.
As a big fan of BioWare, I’ve been really worried about the studio lately, and it sounds like my fears might be coming true. Polygon is reporting that a lot of industry analysts think BioWare could be sold off. They’ve had a tough time for the last ten years, and the recent Dragon Age game didn’t do well at all, which led to layoffs. The good news, if there is any, is that they’re still working on the next Mass Effect game with a smaller team, and that might actually attract some buyers. It’s just…sad to see it come to this.
Electronic Arts is heavily promoting Battlefield 6, their new first-person shooter designed to rival Call of Duty. Though this focus currently protects the game’s developer, DICE, from being sold, experts believe that could change if Battlefield 6 doesn’t sell well.
Because The Sims 4 continues to be a major money-maker for EA, most experts think the game studio Maxis is secure and won’t be sold. However, David Cole from DFC Intelligence suggests that Maxis *could* be sold if a company made a very attractive offer. He also anticipates significant job cuts at EA’s studios, even if those studios aren’t bought by other companies.
According to Cole, companies that are bought through leveraged buyouts usually start by reducing costs and selling off assets that aren’t critical. While this might allow a company like EA to take more creative risks in the future, since they won’t be as concerned with public shareholders, we can expect them to prioritize their most profitable games and products and try to maximize revenue from everything else in the near term.
The agreement isn’t official yet and might not be completed until early 2027. EA owns a lot of valuable content, and TopMob has already analyzed the deal and potential future developments.
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2025-10-08 19:40