🌍 Global Industry
EA's $55B take-private acquisition set to close August 4. Electronic Arts' buyout by a consortium led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, alongside Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, has cleared all regulatory approvals and is expected to finalize next week, making EA a privately held company. (source)
Sony confirms PS5 physical disc production will end by January 2028. PlayStation reaffirmed its timeline for phasing out physical media, acknowledging mixed player reaction while maintaining a cautious transition. (source)
PlayStation Q1 FY2026 results: 95.3M PS5 units sold to date, 82% of software sales now digital. Sony reported stable quarterly performance as the platform continues its shift to digital distribution. (source)
Xbox Series X/S prices increased again across US, UK, and European markets. Microsoft implemented another round of console price hikes; separately, an insider suggested Xbox could eventually exit the Steam platform, though this remains unconfirmed speculation. (source, source)
🇵🇰 Pakistan Industry
No Pakistan-specific gaming-industry items could be confirmed as newly published in the last 48 hours. CEGA Events, Ignite Newsbites, TechDestination, and GameSource.pk were all checked, but none of these pages expose reliable publish timestamps, so freshness could not be verified against anything gaming-relevant. Ignite's Instagram (@ignite.ntf) posted on August 1 about a government AI-training workshop with a partner ministry — not gaming-related, so it is omitted here.
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