Fifa was updated annually from 1993 to 2023, before EA lost the licence following a financial disagreement between it and the Fifa organication.<\/p>\n
The game, now called EA Sports FC, has largely retained its player base, becoming the best-selling game in Western Europe in 2023, the year the first renamed edition launched.<\/p>\n
The publisher\u2019s The Sims franchise allows players to create an avatar and develop characters and a city in a virtual world.<\/p>\n
Twenty-five years after its launch, The Sims continues to attract new fans. In May 2024, EA revealed that 85 million people were playing the latest version, The Sims 4.<\/p>\n
The California-based company is also counting on the release of the new version of its first-person shooter game Battlefield, called Battlefield 6, which will be its 13th installment in the series.<\/p>\n
After seeing its revenue soar in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic, the company founded by former Apple employee Trip Hawkins in 1982 has experienced a slowdown, in line with the sector as a whole.<\/p>\n
This major new deal in the video game world comes two years after Microsoft\u2019s US$75b acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which also left the stock market.<\/p>\n
On Wall Street, the shares of the remaining listed gamers were up on Monday (UST). Roblox rose 4.72%, while Take-Two Interactive gained 1.53%.<\/p>\n
The acquisition is expected to close in early fiscal 2027 and requires approval from EA shareholders and regulatory authorities.<\/p>\n
Saudi deals <\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which already holds a 9.9% stake in EA, will roll over its existing investment as part of the transaction.<\/p>\n
This announcement follows a tour of the Gulf region in May by Trump, the US President, which was marked by promises of huge investments.<\/p>\n
Trump signed a \u201cstrategic economic partnership\u201d agreement with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country\u2019s de facto leader, which, according to the White House, will see Riyadh invest US$600b in the United States.<\/p>\n
Video games are at the heart of the Crown Prince\u2019s ambitious \u201cVision 2030\u201d reform plan.<\/p>\n
The oil-rich monarchy is passionate about gaming and eSports: 70% of Saudis are under 35, and Mohammed bin Salman, aged 40, is himself known to be a fan of the game Call of Duty.<\/p>\n
The deal will be financed through approximately US$36b in equity from the consortium members and US$20b in debt committed by JPMorgan Chase. Upon completion, EA will be delisted from the Nasdaq stock exchange and remain headquartered in Redwood City, California, under Wilson\u2019s continued leadership.<\/p>\n
The agreement marks the PIF\u2019s latest major investment in the gaming sector as Saudi Arabia seeks to diversify its economy beyond oil revenues.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fifa was updated annually from 1993 to 2023, before EA lost the licence following a financial disagreement between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5921,44302,44303,696,44305,442,5195,8613,3241,138,3595,44301,36862,2082,295,5269,6489,13313,1426,33450,111,139,69,3109,38109,44300,20307,61,44304,416,1533],"class_list":["post-51353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-electronic","tag-684b","tag-acquired","tag-announced","tag-arabias","tag-arts","tag-be","tag-billion","tag-bought","tag-business","tag-by","tag-consortium","tag-fifa","tag-for","tag-fund","tag-game","tag-games","tag-giant","tag-investment","tag-known","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-public","tag-saudi","tag-saudiled","tag-sims","tag-to","tag-us55","tag-video","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}