Saudi Arabian fund is reportedly considering merging Electronic Arts with Savvy

It’s always great news to learn that massive companies are combining into one ultra-conglomerate. Just in case that sarcasm wasn’t obvious, the news coming out of the Saudi Arabia government’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) should be cause for concern, as it’s reportedly looking to combine Electronic Arts with its Savvy Games group.

According to sources from Bloomberg, executives of the PIF are weighing putting together the recently acquired EA with the already immense Savvy Games “to ensure better coordination between its assets.” The decision, we should note, isn’t finalized, as the PIF is apparently waiting on the completion of a $6B acquisition of the Chinese mobile gaming business Moonton.

Should this merger go through, it effectively gives the PIF a primary method to acquire companies and develop games, and could boost EA’s attempt to dig in to mobile gaming. The move does face some regulatory scrutiny, but considering the amount of money that’s already been allowed to trade hands in the games industry, one could be forgiven for believing those to be mere bumps in the road.

We’ve already mentioned in prior reporting about the reach of Savvy Games, specifically in Niantic’s sale of its games to Savvy’s Scopely last year, and as mentioned in this story, the PIF was one of the main leaders in the $55B buyout of EA. We also remind readers about how a botched deal between Savvy and Embracer Group had long-lasting ripple effects across multiple MMOs, so clearly one immense company being capable of having this much affect on gaming is a disturbing trend.

source: Bloomberg via Kotaku and GamesIndustry