Saudi Arabia Is Reportedly Weighing a Merger Between EA and Savvy Games Group, Just Weeks After Closing Its $55 Billion Buyout

Barely five weeks after closing its record-breaking $55 billion buyout, Electronic Arts could already be facing another major shakeup. According to a Bloomberg report published on September 10, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is weighing a full merger between EA and Savvy Games Group, the sovereign wealth fund’s dedicated gaming arm, which would fold the Madden and Battlefield publisher directly into a much larger PIF-controlled gaming empire.

What the Report Actually Says

The idea, per Bloomberg’s sources, is to bring EA and Savvy under one roof to streamline operations across PIF’s expanding gaming portfolio rather than running its assets as separate, loosely connected businesses. Crucially, the report is careful to note that this is still just deliberation. No final decisions have been made, and any merger would likely be held off until Savvy finishes absorbing its other big pending purchase first.

That other deal is Savvy’s roughly $6 billion acquisition of Moonton, the Chinese studio behind Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which was announced back in March 2026 and is still working its way through the approval process. EA itself declined to comment on the merger report, while PIF and Savvy Games Group did not respond to Bloomberg’s requests for comment at all, leaving the story in classic “nobody’s confirming, nobody’s denying” territory for now.

Savvy Games Group’s current portfolio of gaming and esports brands, as shown on its own website.

What Savvy Games Group Would Bring to the Table

Savvy Games Group isn’t a small side project. It’s PIF’s purpose built gaming holding company, and it already owns some serious names in mobile and competitive gaming.

• Scopely: The mobile publisher behind the massively popular Monopoly GO!, and, since acquiring it from Niantic in 2025, Pokémon GO as well.
• ESL FACEIT Group: One of the largest esports organizers in the world, running tournaments across dozens of competitive titles.
• Moonton (pending): Developer of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, one of the biggest mobile MOBAs on the planet, currently being acquired for around $6 billion.

Merge that lineup with EA’s console and PC heavy hitters, and PIF would end up controlling one of the broadest gaming portfolios on Earth, spanning mobile hits, esports infrastructure, and premium AAA franchises all at once.

A Buyout That Closed Faster Than Anyone Expected

To understand why this is happening so soon, it helps to look back at how fast EA’s original sale moved. When the $55 billion take-private deal was first announced in September 2025, the consortium of PIF, Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners projected a close in the first quarter of 2027. Instead, the deal cleared regulatory approval well ahead of schedule and officially closed on August 4, 2026, months earlier than EA’s own initial guidance.

That speed came with a price tag. EA is reportedly carrying around $18 billion in debt as a direct result of the leveraged buyout, the kind of load that tends to push new owners toward consolidation and cost cutting to make the numbers work. A merger with Savvy, which would let PIF centralize back office functions, live service infrastructure, and esports operations across both companies, fits that pattern.

Debt, Job Worries, and What’s Still Just Speculation

Unsurprisingly, EA employees are on edge. Some workers have voiced concern that a merger could bring deep staff cuts, given the debt overhang from the buyout, but it’s worth being precise here: no layoffs have actually been announced or confirmed as a consequence of a potential EA Savvy merger. That’s employee anxiety and outside speculation, not a stated plan from PIF, Savvy, or EA.

Regulatory risk is also easy to overstate. EA’s original buyout actually cleared with fewer obstacles than Microsoft faced buying Activision Blizzard, and a Savvy merger would still need its own antitrust review somewhere down the line, but there’s no indication yet that it would face the kind of prolonged fight that deal did.

What This Means for EA’s Games, for Now

For players, the immediate takeaway is that nothing changes yet. EA Sports FC, Madden NFL, The Sims, Apex Legends, and Battlefield remain EA franchises, and development continues as normal, including EA Motive’s still unannounced Iron Man game, which has already leaked gameplay footage ahead of any official reveal. A merger, if it happens, would be a corporate restructuring above the studios rather than an immediate shakeup of what’s shipping.

Still, five weeks after becoming a PIF owned company, EA already finding itself in merger talks says a lot about how fast Saudi Arabia’s gaming ambitions are moving. We’ll keep tracking this one as it develops.

Keep the adventure going! Check out more Gaming News on Gamersuniverse.

Picture Source: Savvy Games Group