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EA is about to gut itself in a bid to help settle its self-inflicted and eye-watering $18 billion debt.
The company took said debt on when it was bought up by a consortium consisting of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners. The buyout was officially completed yesterday.
As per the ever-informative Jason Schreier, the now privatised publisher will pay back most of the debt through its annual earnings, but it's also promised investors that it'll be cutting $700 million worth of costs.
$170 million of that will come from "organisational efficiencies", which basically means widespread restructuring. And that basically means a bloodbath in terms of layoffs and potential studio closures.
This has been the worry ever since the buyout was first announced. There's simply no way that a consortium buys up a far-reaching company like EA, removing it from public trading in the process, and doesn't attempt to streamline the entire business in a bid to recoup immediate costs.
EA obviously has some of the biggest gaming brands on the planet under its umbrella. The likes of EA Sports FC, Madden NFL, and Battlefield all quickly come to mind.
And so the expectation is that the publisher will now focus almost exclusively on its heaviest hitters, leaving either underperforming or lapsed properties to rot.
In particular, developers like BioWare will no doubt be under intense scrutiny. Sources from within the studio had already expressed a sense of dread when the buyout plans were revealed, as the outfit hasn't delivered a commercial hit in over a decade.
What do you think the future holds for EA? Prepare yourself for the inevitable in the comments section below.