Tag:

Billion

Electronic Arts Is Being Acquired For $55 Billion And Will Go Private

by admin September 29, 2025

Electronic Arts is being acquired for $55 billion by an investor consortium consisting of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF), Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners. The all-cash transaction sees this collective absorb 100 percent of the publisher, effectively taking the company private.

The transaction is the largest all-cash sponsor take-private investment in history, said to “accelerate innovation and growth to build the future of entertainment,” according to a press release. The deal was approved by the EA’s board of directors and is expected to close during Q1 of the 2027 fiscal year, pending customary regulatory approvals.

Once the acquisition is complete, EA will stay headquartered in Redwood City, California, and Andrew Wilson will remain CEO. Stockholders will receive $210 per share in cash, representing a 25 percent premium to the unaffected share price ($168.32 at market close on September 25, 2025). Following the acquisition, EA’s common stock will no longer be listed on any public market.

“Our creative and passionate teams at EA have delivered extraordinary experiences for hundreds of millions of fans, built some of the world’s most iconic IP, and created significant value for our business. This moment is a powerful recognition of their remarkable work,” said Andrew Wilson in a press release. “Looking ahead, we will continue to push the boundaries of entertainment, sports, and technology, unlocking new opportunities. Together with our partners, we will create transformative experiences to inspire generations to come. I am more energized than ever about the future we are building.”

Battlefield 6

The acquisition group, dubbed “The Consortium,” consists of three companies. First is the PIF, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. The PIF has expanded its reach into the video game industry through its Savvy Games Group, an entity founded in 2021. In the last four years, the PIF has purchased stakes in gaming companies such as Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, Take-Two Interactive, Capcom, Embracer Group, and Nexon. The Savvy Games Group also owns American mobile gaming company Scopley, and earlier this year, announced plans to acquire the game division of Pokémon Go developer Niantic. The PIF had an existing stake in EA before its full acquisition of the company.

The second company is Silver Lake, a multi-billion-dollar global technology investment firm based in North America, Europe, and Asia. Lastly, Affinity Partners is a Miami-based investment firm founded in 2021 by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, who once served as White House senior advisor during Trump’s first term.

The Consortium states it will “bring deep sector experience, committed capital, and global portfolios with networks across gaming, entertainment, and sports that offer unique possibilities for EA to blend physical and digital experiences, enhance fan engagement, and create new growth opportunities.”

Madden NFL 26

The acquisition comes as EA gears up for the October 10 launch of Battlefield 6, which is shaping up to be its biggest release of the year. EA’s portfolio of upcoming titles also includes Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted, next year’s Star Wars Zero Company, and more distant projects such as the next Mass Effect, a third Star Wars Jedi title, and Motive Studios’ Iron Man.

It also comes after two years of massive layoffs across EA. In February 2024, EA laid off over 600 employees. Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment suffered cuts this past April, which resulted in two project cancellations. In May, EA closed Cliffhanger Games, canceling the studio’s in-development Black Panther game.

Source link

September 29, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

EA Announces Unprecedented $55 Billion Sale To Saudi Arabia, Jared Kushner’s Private Equity Group, And Others

by admin September 29, 2025

Another one of the biggest game publishers in the world is being sold. On Monday, Electronic Arts announced a $55 billion deal to take the publisher behind massive franchises like Madden, The Sims, and Apex Legends private, selling to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and President Donald Trump nephew Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners.

The all-cash deal values the company at a 25 percent premium over its mid-august stock price and is set to be finalized by mid-2026 pending shareholder and regulatory approvals. Current CEO Andrew Wilson will remain the head of the publisher which will stay headquartered in California. Roughly $20 billion of the sale is debt-financed through JPMorgan Chase Bank.

The sale builds on Saudi Arabia’s existing 10 percent ownership of the company which was built up in recent years amid investments across the larger gaming industry. Those included the $4.9 billion purchase of Monopoly Go! mobile game maker Scopely in 2023 and the gobbling up of Pokémon Go and Niantic’s other gaming businesses earlier this year for $3.5 billion. The current $55 billion buyout of EA is not just the government-backed Public Investment Fund’s largest gaming acquisition to date, it’s also the largest sale ever to take an existing public company private.

“Our creative and passionate teams at EA have delivered extraordinary experiences for hundreds of millions of fans, built some of the world’s most iconic IP, and created significant value for our business. This moment is a powerful recognition of their remarkable work,” Wilson said in a press release. “Looking ahead, we will continue to push the boundaries of entertainment, sports, and technology, unlocking new opportunities. Together with our partners, we will create transformative experiences to inspire generations to come. I am more energized than ever about the future we are building.”

Founded back in 1982, EA’s gaming empire is vast with studios across the globe and franchises ranging from blockbusters like Battlefield and EA Sports FC (formally known as FIFA) to Mass Effect maker BioWare and smaller label signings this year’s critically-acclaimed GOTY-contender Split Fiction. It’s not yet clear how the deal will effect the size and scope of the roughly 15,000 person publisher, though this much money rarely changes hands without lots of people losing their jobs.

“EA has been challenged to innovate in the last decade,” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter told Kotaku in an email over the weekend after news of the deal first leaked. “Several franchises have faded (Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Burnout, NFS), some failed (Anthem) and only a handful continue to produce. They suck at mobile and appear too focused on pleasing investors and not focused enough on pleasing gamers. I think the Saudis have the potential to jump start mobile and to try innovative moves like making Ultimate Team free. We’ll see if it works

Saudi Arabia’s funding partners include the private equity firms Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, the latter of which was founded by Kushner after Trump left office in 2021. Roughly half of its reported funding, approximately $2 billion, is also from Saudi Arabia. “Electronic Arts is an extraordinary company with a world-class management team and a bold vision for the future,” he said in a statement. “I’ve admired their ability to create iconic, lasting experiences, and as someone who grew up playing their games - and now enjoys them with his kids–I couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead.”

The deal arrives amid fresh criticism of people selling out to the Saudi Royal family despite its record of human rights abuses. Organizations backed by PIF held the Esports World Cup in Riyadh this summer and hosted talks with high-profile industry figures like Hideo Kojima and Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, whose company is currently producing an Assassin’s Creed DLC set in Saudi Arabia. Outside the world of gaming, famous comedians like Bill Burr and Dave Chappelle were recently criticized for attending the Riyadh Comedy Festival.

“From the folks that brought you 9/11,” quipped WTF podcast host Marc Maron last week. “Two weeks of laughter in the desert, don’t miss it! The same guy that’s gonna pay them is the same guy that paid that guy to bone-saw Jamal Khashoggi and put him in a f***ing suitcase. But don’t let that stop the yucks, it’s gonna be a good time!”

The full press release is below:

Under the terms of the agreement, the Consortium will acquire 100% of EA, with PIF rolling over its existing 9.9% stake in the Company. EA stockholders will receive $210 per share in cash. The per share purchase price represents a 25% premium to EA’s unaffected share price of $168.32 at market close on September 25, 2025, the last fully unaffected trading day, and a premium to EA’s unaffected all-time high of $179.01 at market close on August 14, 2025.

PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners bring deep sector experience, committed capital, and global portfolios with networks across gaming, entertainment, and sports that offer unique possibilities for EA to blend physical and digital experiences, enhance fan engagement, and create new growth opportunities. The transaction represents the largest all-cash sponsor take-private investment in history, with the Consortium partnering closely with EA to enable the Company to move faster and unlock new opportunities on a global stage.

“Our creative and passionate teams at EA have delivered extraordinary experiences for hundreds of millions of fans, built some of the world’s most iconic IP, and created significant value for our business. This moment is a powerful recognition of their remarkable work,” said Andrew Wilson, Chairman & CEO of Electronic Arts. “Looking ahead, we will continue to push the boundaries of entertainment, sports, and technology, unlocking new opportunities. Together with our partners, we will create transformative experiences to inspire generations to come. I am more energized than ever about the future we are building.”

“PIF is uniquely positioned in the global gaming and esports sectors, building and supporting ecosystems that connect fans, developers, and IP creators,” said Turqi Alnowaiser, Deputy Governor and Head of International Investments at PIF. “PIF has demonstrated a strong commitment to these sectors, and this partnership will help further drive EA’s long-term growth, while fueling innovation within the industry on a global scale.”

“This investment embodies Silver Lake’s mission to partner with exceptional management teams at the highest quality companies. EA is a special company: a global leader in interactive entertainment, anchored by its premier sports franchise, with accelerating revenue growth and strong and scaling free cash flow. We are honored to invest and partner with Andrew – an extraordinary CEO who has doubled revenue, nearly tripled EBITDA, and driven a fivefold increase in market cap during his tenure,” said Egon Durban, Co-CEO and Managing Partner of Silver Lake. “The future for EA is bright, we are going to invest heavily to grow the business and we are excited to support Andrew and the EA team as the company accelerates innovation, expands its reach worldwide, and continues to deliver incredible experiences to players and fans across generations.”

“Electronic Arts is an extraordinary company with a world-class management team and a bold vision for the future. I’ve admired their ability to create iconic, lasting experiences, and as someone who grew up playing their games - and now enjoys them with his kids – I couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead,” said Jared Kushner, Chief Executive Officer of Affinity Partners.

“The Board carefully evaluated this opportunity and concluded it delivers compelling value for stockholders and is in the best interests of all stakeholders,” said Luis A. Ubiñas, Lead Independent Director of EA’s Board of Directors. “We are pleased that this transaction delivers immediate and certain cash value to our stockholders while strengthening EA’s ability to continue building the communities and experiences that define the future of entertainment.”

Transaction Details

The transaction was approved by EA’s Board of Directors, is expected to close in Q1 FY27 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of required regulatory approvals and approval by EA stockholders. Following the close of the transaction, EA’s common stock will no longer be listed on any public market.

The transaction will be funded by a combination of cash from each of PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners as well as roll-over of PIF’s existing stake in EA, constituting an equity investment of approximately $36 billion, and $20 billion of debt financing fully and solely committed by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., $18 billion of which is expected to be funded at close. Each of PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners plan to fund the equity component of the financing entirely from capital under their respective control.

Upon completion of the transaction, EA will remain headquartered in Redwood City, California and continue to be led by Andrew Wilson as CEO.

Update: 9/29/2025 8:58 a.m. ET: Added more information about EA, details of the deal, and a quote from an analyst.

Source link

September 29, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

EA are about to be bought for $50 billion by Saudi Arabia and Jared Kushner’s investment firms, claims report

by admin September 29, 2025

Battlefield, EA Sports FC and Apex Legends publishers Electronic Arts are holding “advanced talks” to go private with a valuation of $50 billion after 35 years as a public company, according to reports this weekend.

If rumour breathe true, the buyers are a group of investors that include private equity firm Silver Lake, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, and Affinity Partners, the Saudi-backed investment firm founded by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The report comes via the Wall Street Journal (paywall) and Reuters, the latter of whom cite “sources familiar with the matter”. They claim that if the deal goes through, it could happen this week.

If the deal does happen, it will mean that BioWare, Criterion Games, DICE, Motive Studio, and Respawn Entertainment are now partly overseen by the investment arm of a state that oppresses women and queer people, executes journalists and imprisons political dissenters. Mass Effect and Dragon Age developers may find the prospect especially unwelcome, given the focus their games place on diverse casts.

A now-legendary, much-memed Electronic Arts print advertisement from not long after the company’s founding in 1983. | Image credit: Jordan Maynard / Chris Hecker

Reuters frame the investments as part of Saudi Arabia’s “Vision 2030” strategy to diversify the Kingdom’s heavily oil-reliant economy. The PIF were rumoured to be discussing a $2 billion investment deal via their subsidiary Savvy Games with the infamously acquisition-happy Embracer Group some years ago. These talks reportedly fell through in May 2023, triggering a brutal period of mass layoffs and cancellations.

More recently, the PIF acquired Scopely, US publishers of licensed games like Marvel Strike Force and the current developers of Pokemon Go. They have also funded the creation of a new Assassin’s Creed: Mirage DLC pack set in the historic city of AlUla, prompting internal criticism from Ubisoft developers.

In addition to investing in games publishers, the PIF have poured a lot of money into esports, acquiring companies and hosting tournaments in what has been widely styled a case of ‘sportswashing’ the Kingdom’s abysmal human rights record. Earlier this month, the Public Investment Fund-backed company Qiddiya became co-owner of fighting game tournament Evo. Savvy Games already own ESL FACEIT Group, a merger of two esports organisers, who are organising next year’s much-trumpeted Esports World Cup in Riyadh.

As for the other two investment groups who are allegedly party to the EA deal, Silver Lake are a 1999-founded firm who once owned Skype, and who have also sunk a few doubloons into game engine company Unity and PC manufacturer Dell. Affinity Partners were founded by Kushner in 2021, and have received billions from the PIF, with Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman personally intervening to push the investment through. Kushner is the subject of scrutiny as to whether his Saudi partnerships have influenced his work in the US government.

The rumoured EA buyout would continue the past decade’s consolidation of game developers and publishers in the hands of a select few megacorporations. Microsoft completed their acquisition of Activision-Blizzard last year, adding Call of Duty, Diablo and Candy Crush Saga to the Xbox haggis. The world’s largest videogame publisher, Tencent, have scooped up big outfits like Riot Games, Sumo Group and Funcom, while acquiring majority stakes or sizeable minority shares in the likes of Epic, Krafton and Paradox Interactive. Tencent recently funnelled a large reservoir of money into Ubisoft as part of the latter’s wider corporate restructuring to focus on Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six.

EA have seen “better-than-expected” revenue growth lately, but they’ve had some significant disappointments in the past year or two, and are currently betting rather a lot on Battlefield 6, with executives allegedly hell-bent on attracting 100 million players. Whatever their current fortunes, it seems plausible that layoffs will follow any buyout, as the new overlords seek to ‘optimise’ their investment.

I’ll wire EA a request for comment.

Source link

September 29, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin Dive as Crypto Liquidations Top $1 Billion

by admin September 28, 2025

In brief

Liquidations topped $1.1 billion, most of the them long positions.
Bitcoin was down 3.6% over the past 24 hours and nearly 7% for the week.
Glassnode said that crypto markets were showing “signs of exhaustion.”

Major digital coins including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin plunged on Thursday, with liquidations over a 24-hour period topping $1 billion.

Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, was recently down by 3.6% over the past 24 hours, trading for under $109,554, crypto data provider CoinGecko shows. BTC is down nearly 7% for the week.

While Ethereum, the second biggest digital coin, dropped 7% to trade at $3,887 Thursday afternoon New York time.

Other major cryptocurrencies were battered harder, with Dogecoin plunging by 7.6%. The original meme coin and eighth-biggest digital asset was trading close to $0.23.

Solana also sank by 7.7% to $197. 52. Both SOL and DOGE are down about 21% over the last week alone, making them the biggest losers among the top 100 coins by market cap.

The drop in crypto prices came with a dip in the stock market, with the S&P 500, tech-heavy Nasdaq, and Dow Jones Industrial Average all shedding value.

CoinGlass data shows that over $1.1 billion in traders’ positions betting on the future prices of cryptocurrencies had been liquidated. The vast majority of that number—over $1 billion—were long positions.

Glassnode analysts said in a Thursday report that the biggest digital coin was now “showing signs of exhaustion” as long-term holders had taken profits and ETF flows had slowed down.

“Unless demand from institutions and holders aligns again, the risk of deeper cooling remains high, highlighting a macro structure that increasingly resembles exhaustion,” Glassnode said, noting that the current up cycle has already lasted 1,030 days, just short of the roughly 1,060-day span of the past two bull markets.

Those placing bets on Myriad, a prediction market owned by Decrypt‘s parent company, DASTAN, are also feeling bearish: 70% of betters expect BTC will drop to $105,000 before it reaches $125,000.

Bitcoin’s all-time high currently stands at $124,128. It broke that record in August.

Juan Leon, senior investment strategist at crypto asset manager Bitwise, told Decrypt in an interview that crypto was “at the mercy of macro right now.” Leon noted the specter of a U.S. government shutdown that could lead to mass layoffs, rising geopolitical tensions, and a toxic mix of sagging job markets and upwardly revised GDP numbers that could make an interest rate cut less likely.

“Bitcoin and other crypto assets were already hovering in uncertain territory over the last couple of weeks, and so investors were already a little skittish trying to figure out what direction the market is going to take going into Q4,” Leon said. “So I think investors are just bracing into safety, and crypto assets are getting sold down as a result.”

Leon added, however, that he did not believe that crypto prices had topped out, highlighting the enactment of the Genius Act and likely passage of additional crypto friendly legislation and growing institutional interest in digital assets.

“This cycle is fundamentally different than past cycles, and we have to adjust to the new reality,” Leon said. “This is the first cycle where we have regulatory clarity that is just starting. And this is the first cycle that is being driven by institutional adoption instead of retail adoption. As we know, institutional adoption is slower and more spaced out than the retail sort of driven euphoria that we’ve seen in the past.”

Analysts now await Friday’s Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE), a favored measure of the Federal Reserve, which could determine the U.S. central bank’s next move.

An increase in the PCE could lead to a second consecutive interest rate cut in 2025, which could benefit Bitcoin and other risk assets that traditionally respond well to surges of liquidity in markets.

UPDATE (September 25, 2025, 2:49 p.m. ET): Updates headline, liquidation totals and prices, adds Leon and Glassnode quotes.

Daily Debrief Newsletter

Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

Source link

September 28, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

EA Nearing $50 Billion Deal With Saudi Arabia And Other Investors To Go Private – Report

by admin September 27, 2025

EA could reportedly go private with a $50 billion deal to be revealed as early as next week between a group of investors, which includes Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), according to The Wall Street Journal.

Alongside PIF, according to people the WSJ said are familiar with the matter, private-equity firm Silver Lake is also reportedly involved with the deal. While EA has a market value of approximately $43 billion, two people told the WSJ that the behind-closed-doors discussions have valued the sports-sim maker closer to $50 billion.

According to the WSJ, if the deal comes together and goes through, this will be the “largest leveraged buyout of all time.” The last mega-buyout was in 2007, when Texas-based utility company TXU was purchased by a group of private-equity firms for about $32 billion.

Sadia Arabia has made a few investments in the games industry over the last few years. The country’s mobile developer Scopely–which the Saudi government owns through PIF–scooped up Pokemon Go developer Niantic’s gaming division for $3.5 billion in March 2025. The country also has stakes in both in Activision Blizzard, Take-Two, Embracer, and Nintendo, and currently holds a 2.6% stake in EA.

EA doesn’t need much of an introduction, but the company is best known for its widely successful sports-sim franchises like FIFA, Madden, and NBA. The latest release by the publisher has been Skate, the newly revamped, free-to-play skateboarding sim that will get its first official season on October 7.

The country’s Public Investment Fund has also attracted significant controversy as its chairman is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. One of the most powerful people in Saudi Arabia and the de facto ruler of the country, he’s now widely considered to be responsible for the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. The country has been accused of a wide range of human rights violations, as well.

Saudi Arabia has been significantly involved in sports over the last several years, including forming the LIV golf organization, which caused major controversy after several PGA golfers jumped ship. The two organizations laterannounced plans to merge, but this has not happened.

Source link

September 27, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

Cipher Stock Rises as Bitcoin Miner Boosts Debt Offering to $1.1 Billion Following Google Deal

by admin September 27, 2025

In brief

Cipher Mining on Friday announced it had upped the price of its convertible debt offering.
The Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin miner revealed a $3 billion AI hosting deal on Thursday, backstopped by Google.
Bitcoin miners are increasingly delving into the world of AI computing, as both require immense computing power.

Bitcoin miner Cipher Mining on Friday announced it had upped the price of its convertible debt offering, one day after revealing a $3 billion AI cloud hosting deal backstopped by Google.

The Nasdaq-listed miner said its convertible senior notes were now priced at $1.1 billion after initially being offered for $800 million.

The notes will be for “persons reasonably believed to be qualified institutional buyers,” and will be due in 2031. Senior notes are a form of debt a company can issue to investors. Convertible notes can be turned into company equity by the buyer.

Cipher’s stock (CIFR) was trading up by nearly 5% on Friday at a price around $12.20 a share, after falling sharply on Thursday following an initial spike at the start of the trading. CIFR has nearly pulled even on the week after being significantly down earlier in the day.

The company on Thursday announced that it signed a 10-year, roughly $3 billion high-performance computing colocation agreement with Fluidstack. The deal will see Cipher deliver 168 MW of critical IT load, supported by a maximum of 244 MW of gross capacity, at its Barber Lake site in Colorado City, Texas.

As part of the deal, Google said it would backstop $1.4 billion of Fluidstack’s lease obligations to support project-related debt financing. In return, the tech giant will receive warrants to acquire approximately 24 million shares of Cipher common stock, or a 5.4% pro forma equity ownership stake.

In the Bitcoin mining world, companies use warehouses full of computers to process transactions on the crypto network. Because they’ve amassed so much computing power, some miners have pivoted their infrastructure to address growing AI demand.

Experts previously told Decrypt that while both industries use data centers, it can be difficult to make the swing from AI to crypto mining.

Bitcoin miner TeraWulf announced in August that Google was providing an incremental $1.4 billion backstop to support project-related debt financing, upping its total stake to $3.2 billion.

Daily Debrief Newsletter

Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

Source link

September 27, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

EA is reportedly about to be sold in a record-setting $50 billion buyout to an investor group that includes private equity and Saudi Arabia

by admin September 27, 2025

As reported by the The Wall Street Journal, gaming giant EA is set to go private⁠—that is, no longer be traded on the stock market⁠—in a $50 billion deal with an investor group. This would be the largest such leveraged buyout ever recorded.

According to the WSJ’s anonymous sources, EA could be sold for as much as $50 billion, though the final price has not yet been agreed on, and EA has an estimated market value of $43 billion. The group of investors reportedly includes the private equity firm Silver Lake and the government of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

The deal could be announced as early as next week, and would be the largest leveraged buyout ever recorded. A leveraged buyout is when a private equity firm uses a significant amount of borrowed money to seal the deal, with the asset set to be acquired used as collateral in the debt.

This effectively leaves the acquired company liable for the debt⁠—if its income can’t adequately service the debt, it will bear the consequences of a default, not the investors who made the purchase, and that usually means closures and layoffs. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, one such leveraged buyout eventually resulted in bankruptcy and closure for the once-ubiquitous toy retailer, Toys R Us.

The fact that the reported cost of the deal—up to $50 billion—is close to EA’s estimated value (what’s $7 billion between friends?) could give reason for optimism that EA’s debt burden would be proportional to its means. Even aside from eventual bankruptcy, though, there’s precedent for acquisitions like this causing massive disruptions to the company: Microsoft cut 1,900 jobs at Xbox in January 2024 shortly after its acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, and Blizzard Entertainment was heavily affected in particular.

The other known quantity in the purported deal, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, has been making inroads in games for several years as part of a multifaceted push into global media and entertainment. This has included:

Critics of the Saudi Arabian government have called this practice “sportswashing,” or using a growing influence and ubiquity in the entertainment industries to distract from the government’s human rights record.

EA, much like its competitor Ubisoft, has struggled in recent years. Once formidable titans, both have been left behind as consolidation efforts have turned Microsoft and Sony into unassailable super heavyweights. At the same time, smaller publishers like DreadXP, Devolver, and Playstack have become ubiquitous at the other end of the budget spectrum.

EA lost the lucrative FIFA license, leading to its new, genericized EA FC series. Beloved RPG developer BioWare was sharply downsized after Dragon Age: The Veilguard proved a relative sales failure. The impending release of Battlefield 6, which has seen massive beta numbers and a positive critical reception, is looking like a much-needed win for the company.

Should the deal go through, here are some of the major studios and games that could be affected:

BioWare: Mass Effect and Dragon Age.
Respawn: Titanfall, Apex Legends, the Star Wars: Jedi series.
DICE (and the other ‘Battlefield Studios’): Battlefield and Mirror’s Edge
Maxis: The Sims 4 and Project Rene.
The Madden NFL and EA Sports College Football series (and other EA Sports games).
The dormant Dead Space and Need for Speed series.
The once-dormant Skate, recently resurrected.
The Command & Conquer series.
The Origin Systems back catalogue, including Ultima and Wing Commander. Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Source link

September 27, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Saudi Arabia & Other Investors Nearing $50 Billion Deal To Buy EA

by admin September 27, 2025

A new report claims that Electronic Arts is close to finalizing a deal to go completely private via a $50 billion buyout being put together by a group of investors that includes multiple private-equity companies as well as Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). The deal could be unveiled as soon as next week.

On September 26, The Wall Street Journal reported that massive video game publisher EA, the company behind popular and lucrative annual sports games like Madden, was currently negotiating a deal with various private equity companies, including Silver Lake, that could be worth nearly $50 billion, according to sources that spoke with the outlet. The groups involved in the deal include the controversial Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, which has invested a lot of money in the video game industry over the last few years.

Kotaku has contacted EA about the reported deal.

Update: 9/26/2025: 5:30 p.m. EST: CNBC reports that among the investors is Affinity Partners. Notably, this is an investment company founded in 2021 by Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Kushner’s firm relies heavily on money from Saudi Arabia. Original story continues below.

The Wall Street Journal’s report claims that the deal is still being negotiated and discussions over price are still ongoing, but sources say EA could be valued at $50 billion. The outlet claims this would likely be the largest leveraged buyout of a company in history. Previously, the largest similar deal occurred in 2007 when a group of private-equity firms spent $32 billion on buying up Texas utility company TXU. This new reported deal, which has not yet been officially announced by EA or any parties involved, would be nearly twice as big, if you don’t factor in inflation.

If this all goes through, it’s just one more (very) big video game deal that the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund has made in recent years as part of the country’s government, trying to “sportswash” or, in this case, “gamewash” its abysmal human rights reputation and the fact that the nation is still ruled by a literal monarch. In recent years, the PIF has invested billions across multiple gaming companies, including Activision, Blizzard, Nintendo, Capcom, and Nexon. It also completely owns King of Fighters and Metal Slug publisher SNK Corp, which reportedly led to the devs being forced to add famous soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo to the fighting game Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves earlier this year.

The PIF is run by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and these investments are part of the Saudi Vision 2030 strategy established during Salman’s mid-decade rise to power. While the plan is presented as a way for the country to diversify its oil-centric economy, the reality is much different. Here’s what former Kotaku writer Ian Walker wrote about Salman, the PIF, and Saudi Arabia’s plan in 2022:

In reality, however, Saudi Vision 2030 is largely a propaganda campaign focused on whitewashing Saudi Arabia’s atrocious human rights record. The regressive monarchy seemingly hopes that aligning itself with entertainment industries around the world might loosen the purse strings of businesses wary of investing in the oil-rich country’s economy, especially with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the ongoing, U.S.-backed Yemeni genocide still looming overhead.

So yeah, while it might sound nice that EA reportedly won’t answer to stockholders in the near future, the publisher’s potential new owners and investors are much, much worse than some annoying dudes in suits yelling about the number not going up fast enough.

Source link

September 27, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Nvidia pours $100 billion into OpenAI and supplies millions of chips, raising fresh questions about competition and market concentration

by admin September 25, 2025

Nvidia commits $100 billion to OpenAI while reinforcing demand for its hardware
Partnership builds massive data centers and fuels concerns over circular investment structures
Analysts warn deal may raise antitrust scrutiny as Nvidia strengthens AI dominance

Following its recent surprise $5 billion Intel deal, Nvidia is spending big again, this time committing up to $100 billion to OpenAI alongside supplying millions of its chips.

The move fits a broader pattern in which Nvidia channels money into businesses that rely on its own hardware, from $6.3 billion in CoreWeave to $700 million in nScale, effectively reinforcing demand for its products while bypassing hyperscalers like Google and Microsoft which are racing to reduce their dependence on Nvidia’s hardware.

This latest investment into the world’s best-known AI firm immediately lifted Nvidia’s market value by more than $220 billion.

Circular structure

The deal involves a circular structure and will see Nvidia will buy non-voting shares in OpenAI, which OpenAI will then spend mostly on Nvidia systems.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Reuters says the partnership will begin with a $10 billion investment and scale as OpenAI deploys more computing power.

“This is the biggest AI infrastructure project in history,” Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang said in an interview with CNBC’s Jon Fortt. “This partnership is about building an AI infrastructure that enables AI to go from the labs into the world.”

He said the companies will build data centers capable of running next-generation AI models, powered by Nvidia’s new Vera Rubin platform.

The first data centers are due online in 2026 and require 10 gigawatts of power, roughly equal to the needs of 8 million US households.

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said the capacity was essential for the company’s ambitions.

“Building this infrastructure is critical to everything we want to do,” Altman said. “This is the fuel that we need to drive improvement, drive better models, drive revenue, drive everything.”

Instagram reaches 3 billion monthly users

by admin September 24, 2025

Nearly 15 years in, Instagram has passed a new milestone: the app now reaches 3 billion monthly users, Mark Zuckerberg shared in a post on Threads. That’s up from 2 billion monthly users in 2022.

Meta doesn’t regularly share monthly or daily user numbers for its “family” of apps, but Facebook reached 2 billion daily users in 2023; WhatsApp passed 2 billion monthly users in 2020. The company reported 3.48 billion “daily active people” across facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger last quarter.

Meta shared the latest metric as it reportedly plans some significant changes to Instagram. According to Bloomberg, Meta will soon make Reels an even more prominent part of the app. Instagram exec Adam Mosseri told the publication that users will see a redesigned navigation bar that will “highlight private messaging and Reels.” The company will also run a test in South Korea and India that will allow users to set Reels as the default feed for the app. (Instagram’s newly-announced iPad app already makes Reels the default feed in order “to reflect how people use bigger screens today,” the company has said.)

It’s probably no coincidence that these changes come as the United States government edges closer toward an agreement that will put the US version of TikTok largely in the hands of US-based investors. Despite more than a year of uncertainty surrounding the app’s future in the United States, TikTok is still a formidable competitor to Meta more broadly and Instagram specifically.

Source link

September 24, 2025 0 comments

Billion

In brief

Daily Debrief Newsletter

In brief

Daily Debrief Newsletter

Circular structure

You might also like