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EA acquired for $55bn via an unholy alliance of Jared Kushner and the PIF
Roblox under fire from inclusivity groups for “sensitive issues” labels
Ghost of Yotei slices its way to the top of the week’s video game releases
Hello VGIM-ers,
Guess who’s back? Yes, it’s me.
I’m penning my first edition of VGIM since July, after spending the summer (and just a smidge of autumn) writing a book. Enormous thanks to George Young and Tom Regan for holding the fort in my absence.
Before we get into the big read, I have a few fun things to tell you about.
First, we’re welcoming a new face to Team VGIM until the end of 2025.
Anna Mahtani emailed me a couple of months ago to ask if she could do some unpaid VGIM work, shortly after completing a master’s in journalism at City University.
Naturally, I refused.
Instead, I offered her a paid internship to help her learn the trade, meet the industry, and put together VGIM. You’ll hear more from her soon.
Next, I’m off to Riga next week for a work trip. If you’re in Latvia and want to say hello on Tuesday evening, let me know.
And finally, I’m seeking two sponsors to help me host a drinks event in celebration of two years of VGIM in London in November. Get in touch if you’d like to help.
The big read - A Kushy Deal
The perfect question: What’s better than writing a book about video games becoming a channel for political influence that’s being masterfully manipulated by authoritarian regimes? When the first big news story on your return from book leave is all about that, of course.
Talking terms: Electronic Arts’s (EA) $55bn acquisition by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, and Silver Lake Capital has been the subject of some top business analysis from games industry bigwigs. You can read Joost van Dreunen’s thoughts here, if you fancy.
Biggest win: While it is a whopping business deal, it has to be viewed as a political power play, too. EA has long been the apple of Saudi Arabia’s eye, offering the perfect mix of major video game publishing experience, sports expertise, and globally recognised IP to power the country’s reputation-washing strategy.
All in the family: But with EA annoyingly based in democratic America, the Saudis couldn’t buy it without someone helping them over some pesky political barriers first. Fortunately for them, Donald Trump returned to power last year. And having used its friendship and its cash to cultivate a relationship with his son-in-law, the Saudis realised that his return to power meant they could finally do a grubby deal to get their company - snapping up a major American soft-power asset in the process.
Barriers to business
Relentless self-promotion: I’ve written about the ins and outs of the Saudi video game strategy in four non-consecutive VGIMs. But just in case you’ve forgotten, it plans to use the economic and cultural power of games to scrub the reputation of the country and its head of state to maintain the power of the House of Saud.
Top-line summary: By buying up game companies, putting on glitzy esports events, and enticing people towards Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) has sought to strengthen his hold on power by giving young Saudis a more fun future than living in an oil-backed Wahhabist theocracy. And if this happens to lead to positive perceptions of Saudi Arabia abroad and fewer questions about awkward topics like the time the country abducted a Prime Minister, ordered the assassination of a journalist, or executed hundreds of its own citizens? So be it.
Significant progress: The Saudi games strategy has been going well so far. The PIF has snapped up shares in companies such as Take-Two, Nintendo, and Capcom to bring them into the Saudi sphere of influence. Savvy Games Group, the PIF-backed publisher with $38bn to burn, snapped up mobile game giant Scopely, Pokemon Go makers Niantic, and smushed together two esports businesses to create ESL: FACE IT to build the ecosystem. The national games sector is thriving, with investment, advice, and expertise flowing into the country to help local developers. And the Esports World Cup has locked the competitive games ecosystem into Riyadh’s nation-building project, scoring the country its first Olympic Games in the process.
The missing piece: For all that success, Saudi Arabia’s video game-loving royalty have been missing a jewel in its video game crown. It has not had a global publisher of repute representing its industry. Its ecosystem lacks top-level experience in making, distributing, and supporting big-name console or PC titles. And even though it has the esports business firmly in its back pocket after spreading millions of dollars of prize money to hundreds of teams across the world, the Saudi portfolio has been missing a headline competitive game of its own to develop as it sees fit.
Perfect partner: So, the industry has known for a while that the Saudis have been on the hunt for a big name. And there has long been a hunch that EA was its dream target. It has global games publishing experience across platforms. It has deep ties to the world of sports and esports via its EA FC, Madden NFL, and College Football games. It has also been open to a sale for a while, allegedly chatting to the likes of Disney, Apple, and Amazon about the possibility of going private.
Political problems: But while there was the cash and the willingness to do a deal, there’s been an obvious barrier to it happening: geopolitics. Saudi Arabia is a rich, independent nation. It is also one that has long depended on a strategic partnership with America to secure its borders militarily, boost its expertise as an oil state, and benefit from access to a wealthy gas-guzzling market. Trying to buy up the US-headquartered games business responsible for making the American Football game would almost certainly attract regulatory and political heat in the States in normal circumstances. This would likely have collapsed any potential deal and caused blowback against the Saudi state.
In the pocket: However, American democracy isn’t what it once was. The shining jewel of liberty has been tarnished by the rise of kleptocratic populism over the past decade. And with Trump returning to the White House in 2024, the political calculus changed in the Saudis’ favour. They no longer needed to worry about how America viewed a deal; they just needed an in with the administration to cut a deal directly. And fortunately for them, they had spent the best part of a decade cultivating a relationship with one person who could cut a deal to buy EA while clearing annoying regulatory barriers at the same time: Jared Kushner.
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Easily influenced
Man on the ground: Back in the good (read: bad) old days of Trump’s first term in office, Kushner became the main point of contact between the Saudi regime and the new US political order.
Besties 4eva: In Justin Hope and Bradley Scheck’s disturbingly good Blood and Oil, Kushner emerged as the Saudi’s favourite member of the Trump family. He helped pitch Riyadh as Trump’s first international visit, delivering the President to MbS in May 2017. He became WhatsApp buddies with the Crown Prince, chatting directly with each other about topics like the steady liberalisation of Saudi social rights. Kushner proved to be such a good friend to the Crown Prince that he also allegedly coached him on how to deal with the fallout of the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. A friend indeed.
It’s the voters who are wrong: Democracies, though, have a pesky habit of kicking out leaders in a way that authoritarian regimes aren’t too hot about. With Trump booted from power following the 2020 election, Kushner was out in the cold. This was a potentially deeply unhelpful development for the Crown Prince.
Cashing in: The Saudis, however, didn’t forget his friendship. In an act of generosity that makes me feel cheap for only putting a tenner in my niece’s birthday card, the PIF invested $2bn into Affinity Partners to get it off the ground in 2021. This was voted through by the PIF board despite its own advisory panel voting against the investment, warning that Kushner’s inexperience and weirdly high management fee were reasons to tread carefully.
Foreign influence: So, Kushner got to work investing that cash effectively to prove the PIF’s advisors wrong, right? Well, not quite. In September 2024, the US Senate’s finance committee found that Kushner’s firm had paid itself $157m in management fees despite not paying anything to its investment partners. This led to an accusation from Ron Wyden, the Democrat chairing the committee, that Affinity Partners was “likely part of a compensation scheme involving US political figures designed to circumvent the Foreign Agents Registration Act”, which sought to “funnel foreign government money to members of President Trump’s family.”
Changing of the guard: In response to the accusations, Affinity Partners claimed that the accusation was partisan political campaigning. But two months later, the accusations didn’t matter any more. Trump was re-elected after winning the 2024 Presidential election decisively. The Democrats were squashed. And Kushner was back at the heart of power, with his voice, once again, capable of swaying the American political and regulatory order towards Saudi Arabian interests.
Leaping the barriers: And within less than a year, Kushner was able to prove his value by brokering the EA deal. The Financial Times reported that Kushner was able to reassure the PIF and its other partners that he could remove the regulatory barriers that would have previously prevented the deal from going through. In doing so, he enabled the sell-off of one of America’s biggest games businesses and soft-power assets to the Saudis - allegedly pocketing 5% of the firm for Affinity Partners as a thank you.
Democracy loses
It’s in the power game: So, who wins from this deal? Well, the Saudis certainly do. They have got everything they ever dreamed of: a global publisher that’ll support the development of their ecosystem; ownership of globally known franchises such as EA FC, Madden NFL, The Sims, and Battlefield; direct access to several games that are perfect for growing an esports audience; and ownership of a games business in perfect alignment with the country’s sports and tourism strategy.
Money talks: There are some other winners, too. EA’s execs will be high-fiving each other over how much cash they’ve made, before working out their exit plans so they don’t have to spend their time flying back and forth to Saudi Arabia from 2027 onwards. Jared Kushner will be pleased, transforming a personal friendship with MbS into millions of dollars of cash and demonstrable political influence he can monetise further. I might sell a few more copies of the book off the back of this, once I’ve quickly rewritten a chapter *grumbles*.
Worrying times: But pretty much everyone else loses. EA employees are bracing themselves for an almighty round of lay-offs as the business prepares to take on an eye-wincing $20bn of debt. Respect for equality and inclusion for the LGBTQ+ community is already waning at EA, with evasive execs already apparently wheedling out of references to diversity and inclusion in internal memos referencing the deal. Players of EA’s sports games will likely feel a subtle drag towards Riyadh, partly through content (e.g. adding the Saudi Pro League to EA FC) but more likely through the subtle promotion of Saudi Arabia through esports events, influencer campaigns, and other activations.
Autocracy Inc.: However, the biggest loser from all of this is, unfortunately, democracy. In Autocracy Inc., author Anne Applebaum persuasively argues that democracy is threatened by a thriving network of autocrats who wash cash to each other, share resources, and back each other’s states up to enhance their power (and, ultimately, keep rivals in check).
Democracy threatened: And there is no way to sugar coat it: this deal absolutely reeks of this. EA has been acquired by Saudi Arabia as a result of a tawdry, blood-stained bargain between two unelected, unaccountable people whose worldview is authoritarian. It is a stark reminder of how weak our democracy is, how easily it is being carved up by venal self-interested leaders, and how video games - whether we like it or not - are being used to shape the increasingly illiberal world we live in.
News in brief
Sensitive issues: Roblox’s new ‘sensitive issues’ label has been criticised by industry advocacy groups, who describe it as a backward step “for both creative expression and social justice.” Out Making Games, Women in Games, and BAME in Games have co-signed a public letter suggesting that the company’s new policy descriptor that warns players when experiences contain issues like *gasps* marriage equality, reproductive rights, and racial profiling leads to ‘false neutrality’ that suppresses free speech. Roblox has since responded by claiming the label is used in a limited number of experiences to help families choose what to play.
Slide away: Avalanche Studios has announced that it plans to shutter its Liverpool office, laying off all staff. The announcement comes less than a week after Ukie, the industry trade association, had been telling Labour Party bigwigs that the games biz is capable of supporting jobs across the country…at its conference in Liverpool. Ah.
Against the odds: In a development more surprising than pulling Erling Haaland from an Ultimate Team pack, Brazil has passed a new online safety law banning the sale of loot boxes to under-18s. The country’s ECA Digital Law had initially been watered down to remove the ban, following behind-the-scenes lobbying. But according to Human Rights Watch, the text was amended just before it passed after one of the bill’s co-sponsors went on the warpath. The law comes into effect in March 2026.
Bringing down the Hauser: Red Dead Redemption 2 was the pinnacle of Dan Hauser’s work at Rockstar. In an interview with IGN, Hauser claimed that the game represented the ultimate fusion of his vision for cinematic single-player storytelling and open-world adventure. He also claimed that the middle section of Grand Theft Auto V was some of his business’s smoothest work.
One Special Day: And finally, a reminder that the UK games industry’s annual fundraising drive for charity Special Effect takes place tomorrow. Companies from across the industry will once again be donating one day of revenue generated in the UK to support its invaluable work. There’s also a charity walk taking place that you can donate to, which is included in the link above.
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Moving on
Callum Ridgewell is the newly minted Content Creator Lead at Electronic Arts…Tom Stone is heading up the newly formed studio Second Star Games…Stephen Hey is now the Head of Publishing & Partnerships at Radical Forge…And of course, Anna Mahtani is a part of the Video Games Industry Memo team until the end of the year…
Jobs ahoy
The BBC is recruiting a Senior Producer (Gaming)...Meta is still on the hunt for a Client Partner, Gaming, EMEA…Major League Baseball wants to hire a Senior Director, Digital Innovation with games in the brief…Behaviour Interactive has reposted its advert for a Senior Influencer Management Director in Canada…And Netflix is hiring for the most fun job imaginable: Director of Party Games…
Events and conferences
Nexus Games Summit, Dublin - 1st-2nd October
Games Connect Asia Pacific, Melbourne - 6th-8th October
Brazil Games Show, São Paulo - 9th-12th October
Game Republic New Horizons, Middlesbrough - 16th October
Twitchcon, San Diego - 17th-19th October
Games of the week
Ghost of Yotei - Highly anticipated follow-up to Ghost of Tsushima arrives on PlayStation 5.
Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 - It’s two for the price of one on great Nintendo platformers in the big Switch 2 release of the week.
The Sims 4 Adventure Awaits - Latest DLC for the soon-to-be Saudi-owned Sim-sensation drops across platforms.
Before you go…
It’s been 30 years since the PlayStation launched in the UK and the US.
And that means it is three decades since one of the best soundtracks in video game history landed: WipeOut’s.
Stuart Burnside from the BFI gives the lowdown on the tracks behind the tracks, showing how it thrived in the slipstream of the country’s rave music movement.
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