Recently, the news broke that Electronic Arts is being acquired by a consortium of companies, including the Saudi Arabian PIF, Affinity Partners, and Silver Lake. The proposed transaction boasts a record-breaking price tag of $55 billion, which includes a whopping $20 billion in debt financing, adopted by Electronic Arts directly.
In a recent video, a former BioWare producer spoke up about the deal, suggesting that Electronic Arts has a vast portfolio of ‘dormant’ IPs that could potentially be sold to recoup against the staggering debt.
Every Little Helps Where EA is Concerned
Electronic Arts might be about to step into a new ownership space once the transaction of acquisition is settled in 2027, but it comes with a hefty sacrifice – debt financing worth a dizzying $20 billion.
To cover that debt, it has been theorized that the company will rely on more aggressive monetization, higher prices, and layoffs to balance the checkbook going forward.
In a new video uploaded online, Mark Darrah, a former producer and veteran of BioWare (departed in 2022), spoke about the EA deal, suggesting that a few million dollars could be made by selling off studios and IPs under the Electronic Arts umbrella:
EA has a huge repository of dormant IPs that are just sitting there. It seems unlikely that the new resulting structure is going to be eager to suddenly revive a bunch of those IPs. One option might be to sell the whole lot of them for $100 million if you could get it, because $100 million can come off the debt.
Darrah also mentioned that companies like BioWare, where he worked for 24 years, could suffer at the hands of the ‘new owners’ because they tend to censor or prohibit certain messages and themes in media, such as the progressive concepts found in games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
I’m of course referring to Saudi Arabia’s PIF, formerly a 10% shareholder in Electronic Arts and now a pivotal part of the buyout consortium
The groups working on the Marvel games and, of course, BioWare are, I think, going to be in a different position. It’s hard to imagine that you have BioWare pivot from having very progressive messaging to having the reverse, because it’s what the government wants. It’s hard to imagine that the public perception of a game that comes out of BioWare, even if you do that, isn’t apocalyptically bad.
Perhaps EA Entertainment could be split apart, but EA Sports is the core moneymaker, and the leadership team will likely want that to remain stalwart at the heart of the business.
Do you think Electronic Arts should sell off studios and brands to recoup losses heading into this transaction? Let me know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that a Kingdom Come upgrade might come next year
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
To who Microsoft? These woketards are insane it’s come to bite them now so just shut up. BioWare hasn’t made a good game in over a decade no one wants them and it wouldn’t cover the debt they are not even worth billion with IP like how dumb are these people. Then again Hasan Piker logic.
The entitlement by these 40 year old adult children is insane these people need mental help. BioWare is not worth a billion and also why split they want Battlefield and Respawn the cope and entitlemt of these college grads is crazy they need serious mental help.
This guy is an idiot and why he’s not in charge. BioWare will get dumped, they actually might revive games but if they don’t and stick to Battlefield and sports titles then why sell anything? BioWare is the only odd one out. Mobile studios will also remain. So more than likely BioWare will finally close which they should have closed after Anthem it’s a shocker it took this long! Motive is the only other non sports studio under EA I can think of not making a Battlefield game and if they can’t make new games or remakes they’ll just be support for Battlefield and Respawn isn’t being sold either. This guy is just typical entitled millennial Canadian political idiot talking head they don’t know business just mad they can’t brainwash anymore honestly put him on a watchlist.
That’s not true they probably will revive other IP the Saudi’s did it with SNK. But these tards want to play politics and unlike before the current owners have connections at Endeavor and with the money they have games like Def Jam could come back and they probably will bring it back even if it’s not called Def Jam. NBA Street could come back be something different to 2K. UFC games could be made good again. SSX could come back even Skate with a non live service game could happen. BioWare however makes trash and no one would pay billions to buy them the studio hasn’t had a hit since 2012 and that’s debatable. The studio should have been closed after Anthem, then Andromeda, and it’s a shocker EA didn’t shut them down after Dragon Age. Funny all these people who ignored and hate EA all of a sudden care these activists. Just mad business is back and they have no say. Move to Venezuela!