The EA Saudi takeover completes on Tuesday. Electronic Arts told regulators that every approval needed to finish the merger had been obtained as of 30 July. As a result, the company now expects the deal to close on or about the close of trading on 4 August.
The price is roughly $55 billion in cash, which makes it the largest leveraged buyout on record. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund takes 93.4 percent of the company. Meanwhile Silver Lake picks up 5.5 percent, and Affinity Partners takes the remaining 1.1 percent.
What actually changes on Tuesday
In practical terms, the shares stop trading. Electronic Arts leaves the public market, so there are no more quarterly earnings calls, no analyst questions and no published player numbers unless the new owners choose to share them. That last point matters more than it sounds.
For years, the earnings reports were how the public learned how Battlefield, Apex Legends and the football series were really performing. Consequently, that window closes this week. Anyone tracking the health of those games will lean on third-party estimates instead.
The deal itself is not new. The consortium announced it back in September 2025, and it has spent the months since clearing competition and foreign investment reviews. Because the European review under subsidy rules was the tallest hurdle, clearing it effectively ended the suspense. The Shacknews report on the filing lays out the timeline.
The EA Saudi takeover is the last piece, not the first
Most coverage treats Tuesday as the moment Saudi Arabia enters the games business. In fact, it arrived years ago, and this is simply the biggest purchase yet.
The fund already runs Savvy Games Group, its dedicated games arm. Savvy owns Scopely outright, so it already controls one of the largest mobile publishers in the world. It also owns ESL FACEIT Group, which means it already runs a large share of professional esports. On top of that, the fund holds minority positions in several Japanese and Korean publishers.
So the picture is not a newcomer buying its way in. Instead it is an investor that already owned pieces of the industry taking outright control of its biggest Western publisher. You can see the scope on the fund’s own portfolio page.
What it means for the games
The EA Saudi takeover changes nothing for anyone playing this week. Servers stay up, seasons keep running, and the studios keep shipping. However, private ownership removes the pressure to hit a quarterly number, and that cuts both ways. It can fund longer development, yet it can also hide decisions that shareholders would previously have questioned.
The honest answer is that nobody outside the deal knows yet. Still, the reporting that told us how these titles were doing disappears on Tuesday, so judging the next few years gets harder. Our look at EA Sports UFC 6 Grind vs Mortal Kombat 11 Krypt covers one of those games, while Xbox Four Priorities Revealed as Console Prices Rise shows what the other giants are doing.
Frequently asked questions
Will these games get more expensive? No pricing change has been announced. Private owners face different pressures than public ones, though, so this is worth watching rather than assuming.
Does Saudi Arabia now own Battlefield and Apex Legends? Effectively yes, through a 93.4 percent stake in their publisher. Day-to-day development still sits with the existing studios.
Can the deal still fall through? It looks very unlikely. Every required regulatory approval is in place, and the company has named a closing date.
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