EA's $55 billion deal to go private officially closes today, with the company falling under the ownership of a group of investors led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. It's natural to wonder what that means for the future of one of the games industry's most enduring and prolific publishers, and not everyone's optimistic.
In a statement sent to GamesRadar+, Shams Jorjani, CEO of Helldivers 2 studio Arrowhead Game Studios, expresses concern that the buyout could mean fewer original ideas and more "safe bet" investments in tried-and-true franchises.
"The industry needs business diversity as much as it needs creative diversity — the more studios and publishers operating at different scales, taking different bets, the healthier games get," says Jorjani.
"EA's portfolio has always had that range: Battlefield, the Sims, and Mass Effect are some of my favourite blockbusters of the last 15 years, but so are Split Fiction and Unravel, and classics like C&C Generals and SimCity 2000 (yes, 2000) that still hold up. This deal is consolidation, no question — and I wonder whether new ownership optimizes for the safe bet, more sequels, more mega-franchises, over that breadth."
EA is a massive publisher with a diverse network of internal studios which will hopefully continue operating under new ownership despite the ever-present threat of post-acquisition restructuring. $55 billion buyouts don't typically spell good news for the creative independence of developers, but Jorjani is "hopeful this leads to more of that range, not less," warning that "if it turns EA into a sequel-and-mega-franchise machine, that's a real waste of one of the best catalogues in the industry."
Jorjani's fears are actually among the tamer reactions to the Saudi PIF's takeover of EA. Prominent developers think it means layoffs and studio closures are coming, while US senators are sounding the alarm on potential "foreign influence and national security risks."
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Watch has accused Saudi's PIF of investing in sports and entertainment to "whitewash the country's abysmal human rights record," which carries potentially dire implications for EA's commitment to inclusivity in games.
