We now have official confirmation of the rumoured EA buyout, with the company announcing its acquisition by a private consortium for $55 billion. The list of buyers contains the typical heavy-hitters from the private equity world, but the most interesting by far was Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).
It’s not hard to see why EA are an attractive target for private equity. In 2025, 75% of the company’s revenue came from live services rather than new releases, providing a steady flow of cash that doesn’t require a lot of risk-taking.
EA already have something of a reputation for corporate soullessness, and yet its flagship franchises continue to sell steadily. The move to market themselves for a buyout does however signal their fears over the future.
Spilt Milk Studios co-founder Nicholas Lovell suggested that EA executives may well have seen this uptick in live service revenue as an indication that the company had reached its “peak valuation” — that is, the company’s valuation has nowhere to go other than downwards, even in the face of rising profits.
As for the Saudi PIF, it has long had a broad range of interests around the world and within the country itself.
Their ‘soft power’ infiltration of everything from infrastructure and tourism, to sport and gaming has not been without controversy.
Saudi Arabia’s complicated human rights record has inevitably created unease in these sectors. Certain stakeholders are unwilling to be swayed by boundless capital fulled by bountiful natural resources, in order to protect their own values.
Sport is perhaps its most prominent area of investment. The launch of LIV golf was met with widespread criticism before household names began jumping ship en masse to swell the ranks of the new tour. The takeover of Newcastle United also caused significant backlash from fans of the Premier League, while combat sports and motorsports are now regularly held in the country.
Saudi Arabia EA Buyout – Is it Gameswashing?
The source of the uproar has been “sportswashing”, which Claudio Francavilla of Human Rights Watch describes as “laundering a government’s reputation by hosting major sport events that attract widespread, positive media attention, while diverting it away from the hosts abuses. Saudi Arabia has been doing that for years and intends to continue doing so.”
The focus of these efforts by Saudi Arabia and other countries with poor human rights records has been on sport. And now, video games are quickly becoming an area of interest.
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Economically, this shouldn’t be a surprise. By 2030, estimates from Grand View Research and Kearney suggest that worldwide revenue from video games will match that of sports (itself in a period of rapid growth) at $600 billion. Gaming has grown into the premier entertainment media in developed countries, and with it, its potential for shaping hearts and minds.
Speaking to the Guardian, video game business expert Joost van Dreunen said: “ Gaming is Saudi Arabia’s bet on a post-oil economy, and a way to grow soft power. This isn’t just about returns – it’s about relevance.”
The vision fits in with that of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Price, Mohammed Bin Salman, the de facto ruler of the country, and a reported avid gamer having spent his formative years playing Age of Empires.
Yet his goals for sportswashing aren’t just internal, but external, too. Speaking to the Guardian, an expert in Saudi Arabia, Bradley Hope, said: “A lot of things that Saudi Arabia does originate from his interests. The demographic that is really his base are the millennials and gen Z of Saudi Arabia. He’s always doing things that are like: ‘I got you guys’.”
Saudi Arabia Gaming Investment
The country has committed to spend $38bn across the gaming sector by 2030 through its Public Investment Fund.
Nintendo, Take-Two Interactive, Activision Blizzard are among the gaming behemoths the PIF have purchased equity stakes in, but EA is by far its most significant soft power move.
EA, with ownership of the likes of FC, is a logical step to take between sports and video games. But the efforts won’t be confined to the sports genre.
The Esports World Cup, now the most prestigious event in competitive gaming, is hosted annually in Riyadh, and a deal with the IOC now means that the Esports Olympics will take place there too.
Nor are demographics the only reason that video games offer an attractive outlet for sportswashing. EA, as discussed, is a money-printing machine, and many other intellectual properties carry the same low-risk high-reward profile.
There’s no need for compliance and passing through arbitration and legal disputes, as was the case with the takeover of Newcastle United. Unlike hosting a World Cup or Olympics, there’s no need for major white elephant construction projects or the need to accommodate hundreds of thousands of visitors. If they’re attending your servers rather than your streets, there’s little need to clean up your act.
All of this should give food for thought for gamers. Newcastle United were a highly thought-of team in England, well-liked by neutrals for their spirit and passion, despite their lack of success. The incoming trophies that inevitably follow wealth are likely to change some of that, but so did the willingness of their fans to jump on board with the PIF project, turning a blind eye to the problematic aspects of the takeover in the pursuit of glory.
We all know how partisan gamers can be in defending their preferred franchises, characters, and developers. That could provide fertile ground for anyone looking to turn gaming fandom into something more sinister. Video games have long faced an uphill battle to be considered a mature, serious art form, but the stakes might be about to become higher in a way that nobody would have wanted.
