On September 29, Electronic Arts, the company behind massively popular series like Madden, Fifa, and The Sims, confirmed a report first broken by the Wall Street Journal: EA has agreed to be acquired for $55 billion by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lakes, and Affinity Partners, an investment group run by President Trump’s son-in law Jared Kushner. Saudi Arabia’s PIF already owned 10% of EA, which will roll over under the new ownership structure. The deal is expected to close in Q1 of 2027.

While the announcement has sent shockwaves through the video game space — which is still feeling the effects of similar consolidation moves following Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard in October 2023 and the mass layoffs since then — communities around the Sims have especially been thrown into turmoil. 

Chatting with Sims players and community moderators, popping into The Sims Discord, and visiting Reddit communities such as r/Sims4, r/Sims3,  r/thesims, and r/LifeSimulators that have posts like “EA and The Sims Franchise Sold: What Does This Mean for Us?”, “Cover of the Sims 2 VS the cover in Saudi Arabia,” and “Will this affect the Sims 3?”, reveals serious concerns about The Sim’s future.

“The news of EA’s acquisition by Saudi Arabia’s PIF, Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners was, to say the least, a shock to the community,” shared the creator of r/LifeSimulator, Gonzalo, with Exalclaw. Gonzalo said that he’s seen two types of life sim fans over the years: optimists, who “are happy that The Sims has the place it has on gaming, and are happy that there are more games on the horizon”, and pessimists, who “have lost all hope in the franchise and doubt that any other game can rival the behemoth that is The Sims to the genre.” He’s seeing a similar trend in reactions to EA’s acquisition.

“The most common opinions I’ve read can be grouped in these two groups, with the optimistic outlook suggesting that nothing might change, or that even if they do, the change won’t be too bad; and the pessimists, who are ready to call it quits. This is based on early reactions though, and as the news continues to develop, I would expect opinions to also change,” Gonzalo stated. 

The dirty laundry of EA’s potential owners plays a significant part in why there’s such a range of reactions. In particular, Saudi Arabia has a dismal human rights record, one that includes severe abuses against critics, political dissenters, women, and the LGBTQ+ community to name a few. In recent years, the country has embarked on a sportswashing and esportswashing campaign to clean up its image. The latter could even be extrapolated to games generally considering, outside of the EA deal that folds in not just the Sims but also developer studio Bioware’s catalog of critically-acclaimed roleplaying games, Saudi Arabia’s PIF subsidiary Savvy Games Group scooped up Pokémon Go following its purchase of Niantic’s gaming division. 

Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners and its associations shouldn’t be ignored either. Outside of Kushner potentially being positioned to help with legal troubles EA’s deal could run into, his father-in-law’s current administration has made targeting queer people a cornerstone of its policies since before entering the Oval Office. Trump’s second administration has included expanding parental rights so parents can restrict kids’ exposure to LGBTQ-inclusive books, erasing trans and bisexual people from the Stonewall National Monument, firing an FBI agent in training for displaying a pride flag, attempting to ban federally funded gender-affirming care for trans people, and blaming “trans ideology” for recent high-profile political violence.  Women’s safety and rights have also been threatened during Trump’s second term, as they’ve seen their access to contraceptives and healthcare jeopardized, watched the President spread false claims about one of the safest painkillers for pregnant people, and dealt with the effects of the often violent manosphere (that helped Trump win a second term) bleed into public life.

While the Sims has been enjoyed by people of all demographics, women and LGBTQ+ people make up a significant amount of the fanbase. In particular for the latter, as accessibility consultant and critic Laura Kate Dale noted in her Slate piece “I’m a Trans Gamer. EA’s Sale to Saudi Arabia and Jared Kushner Terrifies Me.,” the series’ history has been inseparable from LGBTQ+ representation ever since the first Sims made waves for allowing same-sex relationships (despite initially not planning to). 

After some internal nudging, EA has previously shown support for women and LGBTQ+ people in 2022, explicitly stating “As a company, we are united that Trans Rights are Human Rights. Women’s Rights are Human Rights. Our support is unwavering for our people, our players, and our LGBTQ+ communities.” Considering how both Saudi Arabia and the Trump administration treat these groups, there’s good reason to wonder if EA will still hold the same stance in new hands.

Freelance journalist and Twitch streamer Amy Eastland has several concerns about EA’s and The Sims’ future. “They are already known for being a money grabbing company, especially when it comes to The Sims,” she shared with Exalclaw. “With this, I fear that the prices will rise, and there will be less content than we already get.”  A r/TheSims moderator, Mason, also known as macmoosie, commented on the potential impact on pricing too, stating that “there are two main points of discussion that I have observed within the community regarding the sale and how it may affect the future of The Sims franchise. First would be the debt situation and how the leveraged buyout and the debt (to the tune of $20 billion USD) may result in several anti-consumer practices in an attempt to increase profit.”

“That massive debt could result in further aggressive sales tactics and microtransactions as well as cost-cutting measures such as layoffs and a previously emphasized interest in implementing AI to speed up development and cut operating costs. The community already feels nickel-and-dimed with The Sims 4 as it is, with over 90 different paid add-ons ranging from $39.99 expansion packs to $4.99 kits, with the current full retail price of admission clocking in at over $1,200. It could get much, much worse,” Mason shared.

Despite the Sims 4 base game becoming free in 2022, getting all the stuff that makes the game significantly more enjoyable — not including mods created by the community — comes at a steep price. In July 2024, TheGamer calculated the total cost of Sims 4 DLC to be at $1,194.23 USD. Factor in the other expansion packs that have come out since then like Life & Death, Business & Hobbies, Enchanted By Nature, and the recently-launched Adventure Awaits — all of which are listed at $39.99 at the time of writing this — and the number clears $1,300 USD before accounting inflation from 2024 to 2025.

In addition to pricing, both Mason and Eastland brought up worries around LGBTQ+ inclusion and representation. “The main concern, as a female LGBTQ player, is that the representation will disappear. Fans of the sims have fought and protested online for more representation, [and] thus far this is the best version we have. There is a huge possibility, depending on how much of a part Saudi Arabia play, that all of that representation could be gone within seconds,” shared Eastland.

Mason said, “The Sims franchise has long been a figurehead for expression and diversity within gaming and with this acquisition bringing the franchise into the ownership of far-right leaning Conservative individuals, community members are rightfully concerned about the future of LGBTQ+ and gender-equal content.”

Gonzalo expressed similar worries, “A concern that I believe to be valid and founded is how The Sims will handle diversity from now on. For BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ players, The Sims is one of very few spaces in gaming where they get representation they can control and that isn’t stereotyped or determined by people who don’t belong to their communities,” he shared. “If this were to change, it would surely be a deal breaker for a big chunk of the game’s player base, and I would expect them to react accordingly.”

Exalclaw reached out to the moderators of r/Sims4 for comment. They declined, instead pointing Exalclaw to the subreddit’s megathread on the topic to get a sense of how the fanbase was reacting on Reddit. One of the thread’s top comments goes far with a worst-case scenario. The user Independent_Suit_408 reminds players that they’ve never actually owned the game (“If you’ve bought all the packs and kits, and live in the US, you’ve spent thousands of dollars on a ‘license’ to play the game that can be revoked at basically any time”) and that if the Sims 4 is pulled for offending any sensibilities, “we’re all out a ton of money.” Other top comments share similarly pessimistic sentiments. 

Currently, EA has not said anything about changing The Sims. Additionally, in a memo sent to employees, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said “our values and our commitment to players and fans around the world remain unchanged.” The near future will reveal how much Wilson’s statement holds up, but one thing is already clear: Sims fans understand EA’s acquisition has massive potential to change the series’ trajectory — and if things do change, few expect for the better.