Electronic Arts officially went private on 4 August after being acquired in a $55 billion (£43 billion) all-cash deal by a consortium including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, along with Affinity Partners and Silver Lake. The transaction is believed to be the largest leveraged buyout in history, funded partly by around $20 billion in borrowed money, and raises questions across the games industry about EA's future direction, including whether creative control, studio operations or content could be affected under the new ownership.

EA leadership has stated in an internal memo, later disclosed via the US Securities and Exchange Commission, that the company will retain creative control and that the new owners are "supportive of and committed to investing" in staff and culture, though industry observers remain sceptical. EA owns more than 20 studios, including BioWare (now focused on Mass Effect), Codemasters (working on F1 27), Criterion (supporting Battlefield), and DICE, whose Battlefield 6 sold 20 million copies within months of its 2024 release.