Wall Street Raced To Sell Junk Bond Debt For EA Buyout Before U.S. Potentially Invades Iran

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EA’s CEO convinces investors that AI will help the Battlefield maker, not hurt it. No, Call of Duty does not make players who are worse than you deal more damage to compensate. Yes, Bungie is promising to support Marathon for the long haul. This is Morning Checkpoint for March 30, 2026. Two more days to go in the fiscal quarter. I hope no other gaming companies are planning mass layoffs.

In brighter news, someone apparently just revolutionized web publishing with responsive text that adjusts to really cool on-page animations. I have no idea how the UI engineering all works but I welcome any and all ways to make the internet a weirder and less algorithmically-fueled mess.

finally the web has become interesting again https://t.co/kHOIhVivAp pic.twitter.com/c7kBvpi0nV

— Nucleus☕️ (@EsotericCofe) March 29, 2026

What’s it like selling EA’s junk debt as the U.S. plunges the Middle East into war?

A recent Bloomberg report details JPMorgan’s “high wire” act concerning the debt that’s financing EA’s leveraged buyout by Saudi Arabia and others. It had a cool video game-style codename—”Project Eagle”—and everything. The Wall Street bankers had to unload $6.4 billion in bonds and deliver $8.125 billion in leveraged loans to potential buyers or the EA sale would fall apart. Most of this entailed being glued to Trump’s personal social media accounts, watching and waiting for him to back off of bombing Iran which, in addition to the human carnage, has fueled “uncertainty” in the markets that could have completely derailed the deal.

The project also included EA CEO Andrew Wilson and CFO Stuart Canfield meeting potential investors in Miami Beach to convince them that AI would be good for the company. “Would-be buyers of the debt wanted to know how EA was different, and the pair explained that AI was conjuring projects that could actually accelerate the video game maker’s growth, people familiar with the discussions said,” write’s Bloomberg‘s Aaron Weinman. “Coding video games with AI assistance is a boon for a company that spends hundreds of millions on research and development for games.”

The bank managed to sell all of the debt, and not a moment too soon. President Trump has been amassing forces around Iran for weeks and is reportedly weighing an actual invasion of the country. Those military plans include a potential assault on Kharg Island, where Iran processes much of its petroleum. That real-world location was the basis for a fictional multiplayer map in Battlefield 3, which was published by EA.

inZOI studio head thinks he knows the secret to The Sims‘ success

“The Sims 3 was open-world, and The Sims 4 moved to a more loading-based [approach],” said Hyungjun “Kjun” Kim, the head of Krafton’s effort to muscle in on the market for realistic life sims, during a recent Q&A via IGN. “I understand why they did that. It’s really hard. There may not be any other team that attempts to make an open-world life-sim game.”

inZOI has been shedding Steam players since its Early Access launch, which Kim admits under-delivered. He proceeded to get pretty philosophical about the whole thing. “Do I really have to make a lot of money?” Kim asked. “Isn’t that how a company is? It seems to have diverse futures. Even if some people make a lot of money, others might be presenting possibilities regarding the future of games. Who knows, maybe later on, the future of the entire game industry?”

Maybe the real key to successful games is just doing one thing really well

“For a long time, many games have been focused on creating these infinitely replayable, high-retention, forever experiences,” Night Signal Entertainment director Nick Lives told Edge magazine (via PC Gamer). He continued, “Either their magic works on you and you actually play them forever until you die, or else the spell wears off and your last impression is getting burned out. I think a bunch of players are gradually warming up to the idea of self-contained, satisfying one-off experiences that can leave you on a high note.”

Call of Duty lead shuts down skill-based damage conspiracy

Sony filed a patent back in 2025 for tech that would modify a multiplayer game as its being played to compensate for skill differences. In theory, if one player was much worse than another, they could have their damage output buffed in real-time to compensate. Some people who think they are better at multiplayer games than they really are might be convinced this is already happening and that’s why they get unfairly killed in a match.

Treyarch design director Matt Scronce said that’s ridiculous. “I can promise you, there’s nothing behind the scenes modifying any of our damage values,” he wrote on X over the weekend.

Bungie planning support for Marathon for “many years”

That’s according to a PC performance guide buried on the company’s website. Some fans are taking that as evidence that both Bungie and Sony are investing in the extraction shooter for the long haul. I remain less optimistic.

The Crimson Desert turnaround continues

Pearl Abyss keeps rolling out new patches. The Steam concurrent numbers keep peaking. And user and critic review score averages are slowly going up. I still don’t know if I’m actually enjoying it but I feel compelled to keep playing anyway.

Sony cancels memory card deliveries

It’s getting real bad out there, folks. “Due to the global shortage of semiconductors (memory) and other factors, it is anticipated that supply will not meet demand for CFexpress memory cards and SD memory cards for the foreseeable future,” the company announced in an apology to suppliers. “Therefore, we have decided to temporarily suspend the acceptance of orders from our authorized dealers and from customers at the Sony Store from March 27, 2026.”

Nacon races to sell Spiders

The publisher and studio, which recently shipped Greedfall 2, are both facing bankruptcy. Nacon reportedly has just a couple of weeks to try to sell Spiders for what I’m sure is a bargain.