Gaming

Saudi Wealth Fund Weighs Folding EA and Savvy Into One Gaming Giant

By Omar aka Crypt0 · Sep 13, 2026

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is considering merging Electronic Arts with Savvy Games Group, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, a move that would create one of the largest gaming companies on the planet. Both companies are controlled by the PIF, and a combination would unite EA Sports FC, Battlefield, and The Sims with Savvy's mobile hits Monopoly Go and Pokemon Go under a single roof.

The scale is hard to overstate. The PIF took EA private last month through a consortium deal worth roughly $55 billion, the second largest deal in gaming history after Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition. The fund holds a 93.4 percent stake, with Silver Lake and Affinity Partners holding the rest. Adding Savvy's portfolio, plus its pending $6 billion acquisition of Chinese mobile developer Moonton, would assemble a catalog spanning console, PC, and mobile with enormous recurring revenue.

The stated goal, per Bloomberg's sources, is better coordination between the fund's gaming assets. That is corporate speak for the obvious: one giant can share technology, marketing, and live service infrastructure across franchises instead of running parallel empires. The PIF already owns Pokemon Go developer Scopely, a 97 percent stake in SNK, and sizable stakes in Nintendo, Capcom, and Koei Tecmo. A merged EA and Savvy would be the centerpiece of a gaming portfolio with few rivals.

Two questions hang over the idea. First, regulators. A combination of this size would invite antitrust scrutiny, and authorities took a hard look at Microsoft's Activision deal. Second, the human cost of consolidation: GameSpot reports EA may target $700 million in cost savings, and developers at BioWare and The Sims teams are already voicing concern about the studios' direction under new ownership. Savvy CEO Brian Ward stepped down last week after leading the fund's acquisition push.

The industry context matters. Gaming is working through a post pandemic slowdown, with cost cuts and layoffs across major publishers while companies chase scale and durable recurring revenue. The PIF is betting that scale is the answer, assembling in a few years what took other giants decades.

The gamer's angle: consolidation at this scale brings both promise and worry for players. Shared tech and bigger budgets can mean better games and longer supported live services. The optimistic read is a well funded EA with the patience to let studios cook. The industry will be watching what happens to beloved studios first.

For players, the next year will reveal what this empire means for the games themselves. Mega mergers promise efficiency, and the best outcome is that efficiency funds creativity. EA Sports FC, Battlefield, and The Sims all have huge communities who will hold the new owners to that promise. A final decision has yet to be made, so this story is still being written.

Sources

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