Does the EA Buyout Mark the End of Video Games as We Know Them?

Electronic Arts, also known as EA, is to go private after a record breaking 55 billion dollar leveraged buyout deal, with 20 billion in debt financed by JPMorgan. The buyers, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners will soon be taking control of one of the largest and most culturally significant video game publishers of all time.

EA is a company that despite it's pitfalls, has shaped people's experience of video games and the culture around them for decades, whether it was growing up with an older sibling that was obsessed with FIFA, cruising through the streets of Need For Speed, surviving the chaos in Battlefield, or watching that one crush you had that absolutely adored The Sims. With this buyout many fans of popular EA franchises feel concerned for the future of the experiences they've fallen in love with.

One of the biggest concerns among fans is that the leveraged nature of this deal will lead, layoffs, cost cutting, and loss of creative freedom within EA, another major concern for fans is that this deal might set a precedent in which other game publishers might end up following in the future, leading to the loss of the "Art" which companies like Electronic Arts used to symbolize.