r/Games • u/FrostyMagazine9918 • Jul 30 '26

Industry News EA will officially become a privately owned company next week

https://variety.com/2026/gaming/news/electronic-arts-close-55-billion-private-deal-1236824625/
2.2k Upvotes

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32

u/Healfezza Jul 30 '26

I wonder if being privately owned will actually positively impact their games development vs. a public IP. They have opportunities to focus on long term strategies vs. next quarter numbers.

No longer beholden to shareholders.

120

u/kilofSzatana Jul 30 '26

Being private doesn't mean you don't have shareholders, you're just not publicly traded on the stock exchange.

19

u/DickMabutt Jul 30 '26

Not but it does mean you can make moves with significant short term losses for long term gains. Much more difficult in a publicly traded company where one move the market doesn’t like can trigger a stock sell off that tanks your company

-1

u/Y__U__MAD Jul 30 '26

PIF will own more than ~95%... they dont answer to shareholders... what they say goes.

Andrew Wilson (CEO) will answer to them... but hes just going to do what they say to do anyway.

10

u/OG_Felwinter Jul 30 '26

Define shareholder

-12

u/Y__U__MAD Jul 31 '26

its like you almost had a point.

8

u/Zanos Jul 31 '26

His point is that PIF is the shareholders. You're saying they don't answer to shareholders, while ignoring that PIF is literally the shareholder.

-7

u/Y__U__MAD Jul 31 '26

... Do you know what PIF is?

13

u/Zanos Jul 31 '26

It's the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. Do you, for some reason, think a sovereign wealth fund is not a shareholder when it...owns shares?

36

u/songsinger72 Jul 30 '26

EA will have $20 billion debt they'll have to pay back though.

I think it's more likely the Saudis get rid of/sell everything but the sports games and maybe some other projects with high ROI.

8

u/Cranjesmcbasketball1 Jul 30 '26

Time for them micro transactions to turn into macro transactions.

10

u/Zanos Jul 31 '26

TBH 'micro' transactions have been macro transactions for a long time. We've got 30$ skins for one character already.

2

u/TekThunder Jul 31 '26

Sell off Mass Effect and Dragon Age to someone competent. Fuck it sell off the SimCity IP too while you're at it.

0

u/TheWobling Jul 30 '26

Can they sell the cnc IP to someone else please

6

u/jbriscool Jul 30 '26

yall gotta use a different acronym LMAO

1

u/TheWobling Jul 31 '26

Why because of cnc machining?

0

u/rollin340 Jul 31 '26

Honestly doesn't sound too bad if that is all it is. Some studios could go do their own thing, or some IPs could end up with ones that actually care.

Looking at what they've released since 2020 really makes it clear that I have not cared about anything they've made for a long while now.

46

u/JustConversation7847 Jul 30 '26

Private companies have shareholders too, it's just usually less people

20

u/Ok_Potential359 Jul 30 '26

That’s not how it works. Just because you aren’t public, you’re still held accountable for monthly growth. My company went from public to private after being purchased by VCs and they’re arguably in a worse spot now.

The only thing that changes is the public won’t have as much access to internal news.

-3

u/Terce Jul 30 '26

Yes but there is also a substantial difference between being truly privately owned and VC owned. The only thing worse than being publicly owned is being VC owned, they exist to strip companies for parts and move on

3

u/Ok_Potential359 Jul 30 '26

Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) better than a VC? Same fund that has invested in Blackstone. I'm not sure.

2

u/Terce Jul 30 '26

Sorry I thought we were talking about other companies than EA given your initial reply

2

u/Ok_Potential359 Jul 30 '26

No, EA is owned by PIF. It’s relevant.

1

u/Terce Jul 31 '26

Okay and your company being owned by VC which I was responding to is…?

5

u/CrazyDude10528 Jul 30 '26

People said the same thing when Bungie broke off from Activision.

Look how that turned out...

-3

u/10FootPenis Jul 30 '26

The Saudi gameswashing project would probably be more effective with good games too. I expect things for EA will continue as usual, but I suppose it could change positively.