Saudi Arabia’s All-Consuming Maw Devours Electronic Arts

Well, they found a way to make Electronic Arts an even shittier company. In an move notable for its size, though certainly not its content, a group of investors—including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner’s firm Affinity Partners—have purchased EA for $55 billion. It’s the second-biggest acquisition in video game history, after Microsoft’s $68.7 billion absorption of Activision Blizzard, but unlike that monstrosity, which was subject to antitrust regulations, this feels like a done deal, a straight purchase of one of gaming’s biggest and worst studios.