EA's new owners, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) and its close business ally, Silver Lake Partners, are reportedly in talks to buy Unity Software, the company behind the video game engine of the same name. Working with some other investment firms, PIF and Silver Lake acquired EA in a massive $55 billion deal, and their reported offer for Unity could also reach billions.
Saudi Arabia is gradually expanding its influence over the global entertainment market. Through PIF, it has already acquired significant stakes in video game companies such as Scopely and Niantic, which are behind popular titles like Monopoly Go! and Pokemon GO. Now, Saudi investors appear to be looking to strengthen their influence over the video game industry by purchasing one of the most popular tools developers use to make games: Unity.
Given EA's new $18B debt, live‑service mandates, and several flawed dev cycles, the ending of a legendary studio like BioWare is hard to pin down.
A new report by Reuters says, "Gaming software provider Unity Software (U.N) has held recent talks to be acquired by a consortium of investors, including private equity firm Silver Lake Partners and Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund PIF." The renowned...
