EA has published a (rather concise) FAQ that was made available to all employees on September 29, 2025—just days after it agreed to be acquired by an investor consortium that includes Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and an investment firm founded by U.S. president Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
As you might imagine, the news rocked the video game industry and presumably turned a few heads within EA itself. Not least because the deal is being partly financed with a $20 billion debt package from JPMorgan Chase & Co. The remaining $36 billion is being put up in cash by EA’s new private owners.
As Bloomberg noted this week, taking on that much debt will be risky for EA, so how is the publisher looking to reassure its workforce that the future remains bright? For starters, the company said “there will be no immediate changes to your job, team, or daily work, as a result of this transaction.”
That statement was in response to a very simple question: Will private ownership lead to layoffs?
It’s unclear what “immediate” means in this context, but it’s a word that doesn’t offer long-term guarantees. EA, however, insisted it will need “world class teams” to expand its global reach and drive innovation as a private company.
It remains to be seen how those teams will shape up once the deal closes in what EA estimates will be around “six to nine months.” Earlier this week, the Financial Times said investors close to the deal are betting that AI-based cost reductions will significantly boost EA’s profits in the future.
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EA boss Andrew Wilson, who will retain his position as CEO under the new regime, has previously thrown his weight behind generative AI as a cost-cutting tool.
During an investor day in 2024, Wilson said the divisive technology could drive efficiency by enabling EA to make products “faster, cheaper, and at a higher quality.” Prior to that, he claimed 60 percent of EA’s development processes could eventually be “impacted” by generative AI.
EA seeks to address cultural concerns but is the company’s commitment to inclusion and diversity intact?
There was no mention of AI in the employee FAQ—made public via an SEC filing—but EA did attempt to address any cultural concerns sparked by the deal.
The company said its “mission, values, and commitment to players and fans around the world remain unchanged,” and claimed it will continue to be guided by cultural values of “creativity, pioneering, passion, determination, learning, and teamwork.”
Game Developer has reached out to EA to ask whether the company still intends to foster an “inclusive culture” that champions marginalized groups such as the LGBTQ+ community, as currently stated on its People and Culture page. Those words were notably missing from the FAQ.
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“We believe that a global workforce with elements of diversity such as experiences, abilities, ideas, backgrounds, generations, and tenure power our culture of learning and generate the ideas that create the immersive worlds, characters, stories and communities that resonate with our global audiences,” reads an excerpt from EA’s current culture statement.
It’s an important question to ask given EA is about to become part-owned by Saudi Arabia’s state-backed Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is chaired by the country’s de-facto ruler and crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Saudi Arabia and Mohammed bin Salman have been heavily criticized by advocacy groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for a litany of human rights abuses such as restricting free speech, discriminating against women, and prohibiting LGBTQ+ relationships and gender expression.
What does EA make of PIF? Well, in what was the group’s only mention in the FAQ, EA said the Saudi wealth fund has been a “significant stockholder in EA, and the broader gaming industry, for many years.”
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