- EA will rack up $20 billion in debt following its takeover by Saudi Arabia’s PIF.
- The deal will be financed by $36 billion in private investment and $20 billion in debt financing.
- This amount of debt is 10x more than Ubisoft, which has had to fire 2,000 employees over the last three years to cut costs.
From asking developers to make titles for in-game ads to pricing FC 27 higher than the Ultimate Edition of GTA 6, EA has a habit of setting the wrong trends in the gaming industry. The gaming giant has been under fire for its upcoming takeover by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund ever since the official announcement last year.
The merger has already been approved by most regulators, including the European Union, and is set to be finalised on August 4th, 2026. As it turns out, EA will be taking on an exorbitant amount of debt following the takeover, even beating competitors like Ubisoft in the metric.
Why it matters: EA might not be affected as much as Ubisoft by the massive debt. But, considering the company’s history, it’s highly probable that employees will face the brunt of any financial failures.
As reported by Mike Straw on X, EA will be racking up $20 billion in debt following its $55 billion takeover led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. PIF is financing the deal with $36 billion of equity investment and $20 billion in debt financing, leading to the gaming giant going private and taking on this exorbitant debt.
To put this number into perspective, EA will have 10x more debt than Ubisoft, which is only over $2 billion in the red, as reported in March. Despite owing a much smaller amount than EA, however, the French gaming giant has been cutting costs and restructuring to improve its financial position.
Ubisoft has cut over 2,000 jobs in the last three years alone and recently fired developers after the successful release of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced.
When you consider how EA CEO Andrew Wilson was recently criticised for taking a major bonus thanks to the success of Battlefield 6 while firing developers who worked on the game, EA’s future after going private doesn’t sound too enticing.
Do you think EA will be fine incurring this much debt thanks to its income? Do you support the PIF-led takeover of the gaming giant? Tell us in the comments below or head to the Tech4Gamers forum for discussion.
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Shameer Sarfaraz has previously worked for eXputer as a Senior News Writer for several years. Now with Tech4Gamers, he loves to devoutly keep up with the latest gaming and entertainment industries. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and years of experience reporting on games. Besides his passion for breaking news stories, Shahmeer loves spending his leisure time farming away in Stardew Valley. VGC, IGN, GameSpot, Game Rant, TheGamer, GamingBolt, The Verge, NME, Metro, Dot Esports, GameByte, Kotaku Australia, PC Gamer, and more have cited his articles.
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