Electronic Arts is now a private company, owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake and Affinity Partners.

The $55 billion acquisition of the gaming giant was first announced last September, approved by EA's shareholders in December, and completed on Tuesday, according to a press release. The deal marked the largest all-cash sponsor take-private investment ever, the company said. Saudi Arabia's PIF now controls most of the company, and EA agreed to take on roughly $20 billion in debt.

"Having been a minority investor in the company for more than five years, we have a deep understanding of Electronic Arts' unique platform, massive global sports and gaming franchises, and iconic IP," said Turqi Alnowaiser, PIF's deputy governor and head of international investments, in a statement. "Together, the consortium [EA's new owners] is uniquely positioned to be a long-term partner to EA's management team in driving sustained growth and innovation for EA and the industry."

Under its new owners, EA's headquarters will remain in Redwood City and Chief Executive Andrew Wilson will keep his position.

Recently, the company has been focusing on its major tentpole franchises. Some of its most notable IPs include Battlefield, The Sims and its variety of sports games like EA Sports FC and Madden NFL. It's likely that during this transition period, EA will depend more on its reliable releases rather than testing out new smaller games.

The acquisition from Saudi Arabia's PIF follows the funds efforts to consolidate some of its investments. The country's Public Investment Fund has another high-profile interest in Hollywood, including support to Paramount Skydance's now-paused acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery and sports, like in the recent FIFA World Cup.

"Entertainment and sports are key areas of strategic focus for PIF, and are among the fastest growing and evolving sectors around the world," Alnowaiser said.

There's a concern about how these new owners might affect the content in the games, said Sanjay Madhav, a technology professor at USC. For example, The Sims features same sex couples "which doesn't align with the Saudi Arabian government values," added Madhav.

"Ultimately, is this going to affect the types of games that EA makes in the future? That's the main concern," said Madhav. "Is it going to impact the people that work there right now?"

Electronic Arts was founded in 1982 in Northern California. The company maintains a presence in the Los Angeles area with offices in Marina del Rey and Chatsworth. It first went public in the late 1980s. Now, under its new owners, EA's common stock has stopped trading and will be delisted from NASDAQ. EA stockholders will receive $210 in cash for each share of stock.

In recent years, EA has undergone several rounds of layoffs, as the gaming industry consolidates. The industry saw a boost during the COVID-19 pandemic as people looked for ways to entertain themselves at home. But since then, many companies have undergone cuts as they adjust to increased production costs and the concentration of demand on a smaller number of mega-hit, live-play games.

Just last month, Microsoft began layoffs of 20% of its Xbox employees as part of a sweeping reorganization to revive the company's lagging games division.

The $20 billion of debt EA is taking on is a major concern for the industry, said Charlie Wilson, a member of the gaming coalition Players Alliance HQ. The group, made of nearly 100,000 gamers, creators and developers, previously protested the acquisition by gathering outside EA's Redwood City headquarters dressed as Sims in May. Wilson said now that this acquisition is complete, it's likely to result in layoffs and change the gaming experience.

"For [EA] to get out of that debt or to fight some of that debt, you're going to have to operate in ways that aren't going to be pro-consumer. You're going to have increased predatory actions," Wilson said. He suspects the company will increase subscription prices, microtransactions, in-game advertising and other forms of aggressive monetization.

Because of EA's leading role in the gaming industry, he said he fears that these potential actions could "set a precedent for other companies" to make these predatory practices standard.

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