According to the latest news, the European Union is expected to formally approve the acquisition of well-known game publisher EA by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) before the end of July. If the rumors are true, it means that the acquisition plan, which has been developing for nearly a full year, will officially pass the last important milestone before completion.
Over the years, EA has always been one of the most well-known publishers in the game industry. It owns many well-known game brands and development studios, including Maxis, the developer of “The Sims”, and Respawn of “Apex Legends”. As for their EA Sports brand, it is an important overlord in the sports game market. Every year, they regularly launch official league-licensed works with themes such as football, American football, and professional baseball.
At the end of 2025, news broke in the industry that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund intended to acquire EA, which also triggered a high degree of discussion among the gaming industry. Although some players were skeptical about the changes after the acquisition was completed, just recently, relevant rumors suggested that the acquisition seemed to be officially approved by another important regulatory agency.
The latest reports indicate that the European Commission has begun preparations to formally approve Saudi Arabia’s acquisition of EA, and is expected to pass the review in accordance with the Foreign Subsidy Rules on July 22, and the final procedures for the acquisition will be officially completed on July 30. The deal encountered a lot of political resistance, including calls from U.S. Democrats for the Federal Trade Commission to intervene. However, after it is officially approved by the European Union, it will become the second-largest acquisition in the gaming industry after Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Just last September, EA officially confirmed that they would sell the company to an investment consortium composed of Silver Lake, Affinity Partners and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, but since then, the development of this acquisition plan has encountered many obstacles. At the same time, EA also confirmed that current CEO Andrew Wilson will remain in office after the acquisition is completed, and the headquarters in California, USA, will also maintain operations.
In the past few years, mergers and acquisitions between large game companies seem to have become the norm. For example, when Microsoft announced its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2022, Sony quickly followed up and successfully acquired Bungie, the developer of the “Destiny” series in July of that year. In addition, Take-Two, the parent company of Rockstar Games, the development team of “Grand Theft Auto”, also recently revealed that it plans to continue to expand its territory through the acquisition of studios in the future, and it is expected that “Grand Theft Auto 6” will bring extremely amazing profits.
It remains to be seen what changes will occur to EA after the acquisition is completed. However, when the deal was first announced, news indicated that EA would continue to retain “creative autonomy” over its games and studios, even though Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund would then own more than 90% of the entire company.
Source: KOCPC Chinese