Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is reportedly exploring an EA Savvy Games merger that would fold Electronic Arts into its dedicated gaming conglomerate, according to a new Bloomberg report. The move comes barely a month after the Public Investment Fund, alongside Silver Lake Partners and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, completed its takeover of the Sims and Apex Legends publisher. Now, attention has turned to what the PIF plans to do with its newest and biggest gaming asset.
Bloomberg’s sources say the fund is looking at whether combining EA with Savvy Games Group, its existing games holding company, would let it run its various investments as a single, coordinated operation rather than a scattered collection of studios and publishers. Nothing has been decided yet, and any formal move is expected to wait until Savvy finishes its own $6 billion acquisition of Chinese mobile developer Moonton, a deal first announced in March.
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What the EA Savvy Games merger report reveals
The logic behind an EA Savvy Games merger is fairly simple from the PIF’s point of view. Savvy already controls a sprawling portfolio that includes esports operator ESL Faceit Group and Scopely, the studio behind Pokémon Go, and it will soon add Moonton’s mobile titles once that deal closes. Bringing EA’s franchises, including FIFA-successor EA Sports FC, Battlefield, and The Sims, under the same roof would give the fund one central vehicle for acquisitions and game development instead of managing separate entities with overlapping ambitions.
Bloomberg’s report frames the potential deal as a way to “ensure better coordination” between the PIF’s gaming assets. That framing matters because it suggests Riyadh is thinking less about EA as a standalone trophy and more as a piece of a much larger games business it is quietly assembling piece by piece, deal by deal.
Cost pressure and the shadow of layoffs
Money is likely a factor too. EA took on roughly 18 billion US dollars in debt as part of the leveraged buyout that handed control to the PIF-led group, and mergers are a well-worn way to trim duplicated departments, marketing teams, and back-office functions. Reports from inside EA already suggest staff have been left largely in the dark about what ownership changes mean for their jobs, and many expect significant cuts across the company’s studios regardless of whether a Savvy merger goes ahead.
That uncertainty is not unique to EA. Consolidation has become a recurring feature of the games industry over the past few years, and it tends to hit workers hardest. Amid that pattern, efforts like Mark Cerny’s Nova Games Foundation Fellowship have emerged specifically to support people affected by industry upheaval, a sign of how normalised these disruptions have become for developers and support staff alike.
Regulatory hurdles and political connections
Combining EA and Savvy Games Group would not be a simple administrative exercise. The resulting company would sit under the effective control of a single figure, PIF chairman and Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman, who has been accused of ordering the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. A merger of this scale would likely draw the kind of antitrust scrutiny that Microsoft faced during its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, though that scrutiny ultimately failed to block the deal.
Political ties may smooth the path regardless. Bin Salman’s relationship with US President Donald Trump, and the involvement of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in facilitating the original EA takeover through Affinity Partners, could give the PIF more room to manoeuvre than a typical foreign buyer would expect. Regulators in other markets, including the UK and EU, may take a harder line, but the American political relationships at play here are unusual for a deal of this size.
What it means for players and the industry
For players, an EA Savvy Games merger would not change what shows up on shelves or storefronts overnight, but it could reshape how EA’s studios are funded and staffed over the medium term. A combined entity spanning EA’s console and PC output, Scopely’s mobile games, and ESL Faceit Group’s esports events would represent one of the largest gaming businesses on the planet, with influence stretching from competitive tournaments to casual mobile titles.
Electronic Arts declined to comment when approached about the report, and neither the Public Investment Fund nor Savvy Games Group has confirmed any timeline. Until Savvy’s Moonton acquisition closes and regulators weigh in, the merger remains speculative rather than settled. Anyone following EA’s ownership saga should expect more incremental reports before a formal announcement, if one comes at all.
