EA Sports Sold: What Are The Implications of $55 Billion Buyout

One of the biggest gaming franchises in the world, Electronic Arts, has reportedly agreed to sell the company for a staggering $55 billion. The franchise has been reportedly sold to a group of companies that include Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners. It’s known as the biggest leveraged buyout ever, which basically means a huge chunk of the purchase is paid for by borrowing money. Electronic Arts is one of the most popular gaming franchises and is best known for its series of EA FC games. More recently, it launched a new game, Battlefield 6.

Now that the EA Sports division has come under the authority of Saudi giants (PIF), you may find some surprising changes made to the in-game content. The change in ownership is sure to have its implications on both categories: Monetisation and Creative Content. We have compiled a list of implications that the EA Sports buyout may have on the various games of the franchise.

EA Sports Sold: Possible Implications

The possible monetisation and creative content implications are pretty serious to go with. From the removal of specific themes in EA Sports games to aggressive monetisation policies, this buyout is certain to have its repercussions in the entire EA Sports community. Some of the major implications are listed below:

Potential Censorship on LGBTQ+ Themes:

Popular EA games like The Sims and BioWare's RPGs are super popular for being LGBTQ+ friendly, offering diverse relationship choices, and letting players customise characters. Fans are pretty worried, though, because the new owners, especially the PIF from a country where same-sex relationships are banned, might push Electronic Arts to tone down, remove, or just skip over this kind of content to fit their views or avoid political backlash.

Focus on Apolitical Content:

EA's approach to political themes in its shooting games has been controversial. They've often been called out for trying to stay apolitical about conflicts that are pretty political by nature. Take Battlefield V from 2018, for example. The addition of female soldiers in World War II, including some with prosthetic arms, really got people talking. Some folks were pretty aggressive about it, claiming it was historically off-base or just “too political.”

Then there's Battlefield 2042 from 2021, which highlights a world hit hard by climate disasters and a conflict between the U.S. and Russia, featuring these fictional groups called "No-Pats" or PMCs. Many accused the game of diving into a political scenario.

Game content might start leaning towards themes that are seen as "safe" by the more conservative investors. This basically means we could see more "guns and football" instead of the deeper, socially aware storylines.

More Aggressive Monetisation:

You can expect that the live-service models, especially things like Ultimate Team in games such as EA FC and Madden NFL, are going to play an even bigger role in the business. This might mean: higher prices for in-game items, currency, or packs, more widespread microtransactions in major games, and a stronger push towards "games as a service" rather than sticking with the usual single-purchase games.

Cutting Costs in Game Development:

Chasing higher profits and paying off debts might mean the company may invest less in new game development. This could lead to less innovation and more of the same old stuff for sports titles, sticking to the "safe" annual updates. We might see budgets shrink for single-player modes or features that don’t rake in money from microtransactions (like Career Mode in EA FC games).

Many critics have been vocal about Saudi Arabia's deliberate attempts to 'Sportswash' its controversial human rights record. With PIF now being one of the major stakeholders in Electronic Arts Sports, it is undoubtedly going to impact the creative strategy moving forward. Only time holds the keys to what the future holds for one of the legacy gaming franchises as they step into a new era with different ownership.