The European Union has approved the $55bn acquisition of Electronic Arts by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, private equity firm Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, clearing the path for the largest private leveraged buyout in history.

The European Commission announced its decision in an official bulletin, stating the deal passed its standard merger review without raising competition concerns. The approval follows EA shareholders voting to accept the offer in December last year, which at the time left only the US government as a realistic blocker. With Brussels now on board, no major national regulatory barriers to completion appear to remain.

The buyout is a leveraged acquisition, meaning the purchase is financed predominantly with borrowed debt — a structure that puts pressure on the target's balance sheet and typically signals an expectation of aggressive cost discipline and cash generation from acquired assets. For EA's roughly 13,000-plus workforce across studios including BioWare, DICE, Motive and EA Sports, the mechanics of servicing that debt will shape decisions on headcount, project greenlights and internal budgets once the deal closes.

Who is buying EA?

The consortium spans three distinct capital sources:

• Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth fund driving the kingdom's sustained spending spree across game developers, publishers and esports events
• Silver Lake, the US private equity giant with a track record of large-scale leveraged technology takeovers
• Affinity Partners, the investment firm led by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US president Donald Trump

PIF's involvement has drawn sustained criticism from human rights organisations, who have characterised Saudi Arabia's gaming investments as sportswashing — an effort to rehabilitate the country's international standing following documented human rights abuses and the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

What opposition remains?

Industry unions have mounted the most organised resistance to the deal. Last October, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) rallied EA workers against the acquisition with a formal petition to regulators, and later wrote directly to the US Federal Trade Commission requesting assistance in opposing the transaction.

The union campaign has so far failed to slow regulatory approvals. The FTC did not act to block the deal before the EU's clearance, and with shareholder approval secured in December, the transaction now moves toward closing unless a late intervention emerges from Washington.

What changes for EA's business?

Once completed, EA transitions from a publicly traded company to private ownership under a consortium combining sovereign capital, private equity and a politically connected investment firm. That removes quarterly earnings pressure but replaces it with debt obligations and owner expectations typical of leveraged buyouts — a dynamic that historically translates into cost rationalisation, portfolio pruning and monetisation intensification.

EA's slate — including the next Mass Effect, currently teased but undated, the Battlefield franchise and the annual EA Sports lineup — will be evaluated against those new financial realities. The level of borrowing involved in a $55bn leveraged structure leaves limited tolerance for underperformance.

A separate signal on physical media

In an unrelated but adjacent signal for the industry's distribution model, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi confirmed this week that the 2027 release will ship with a disc on PS5 and Xbox Series X, but that disc functions only as a "key disc" containing the game's opening — the remainder requires a download.

"As the director, it's my responsibility to look after the content of the game to make sure it's fun, really exciting," Hamaguchi told Radio Times. "The product line-up, the SKUs, how it's going on sale — that is the responsibility of the publishing team. So my authority there is somewhat limited."

Hamaguchi said he pushed for a full physical version "as much as possible" in negotiations "both internally and with first parties", and acknowledged fans who have said "no disc, no purchase". His comments land as Sony confirmed on 1st July that it will cease production of PlayStation discs in January 2028, after which PlayStation games will be digital-only at retail.

The EA buyout now awaits its formal closing. Whether the FTC responds to the CWA's petition with any last-minute action — and how quickly the consortium begins restructuring EA's cost base to service the buyout debt — are the immediate signals to watch.