EA has confirmed that it is purchased by an investor consortium for $ 55 billion. One of the investors that constitutes the consortium is the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is run by Saudi Arab ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Another is Affinity Partners, which is owned by Donald Trump's son -in -law, Jared Kushner.
Given Saudi Arabia's criminalization of identities of the same sex and sexual activity, as well as Donald Trump's attacks on LGBTQ+ rights and protection, many fear that PIF and Affinity's support will affect the many studios under the EA umbrella. This feels most in the communities around Mass Effect, Dragon Age and The Sims 4, as these games have long appealed to Queer players, often made by developers who strive to represent LGBTQ+ identities.
Fans of Sims and Bioware games are worried that EA's new owners will censor their games
“Dragon Age and Mass Effect have never been perfect, but they have always been at the forefront when it comes to the progress of representation in video games. From queer romans, queer characters to transidentities and explore gender and identity,” says content creator Kala Elizabeth. “Surprisingly we have to worry about this changing.”
Youtuber Kayla Sims is also afraid of what this will mean for the swimmers ahead. “Sims has been a very inclusive game for a long time, and it scares me to think about them to roll back one of these progress or somehow censoring the game,” she says. “Making such a change would promote the entire player base for the swimmers, and I think it would be an extremely stupid and short -term move from the new investors who would regain strongly.
“I'm not exactly an expert on this, but I wanted to talk out some of my worries and hopefully echo something of what you know. I think the Sims team probably feels as scared as we are right now, and I know they will advocate for us as much as they can.”
It is not only fans who feel that these new owners will affect how EA's studies are handled. Former main author at Bioware, Trick Weekes, suggested that the studio may have met redundancy because EA's management was cozy to conservative investors.
EA's CEO, Andrew Wilson, has tried to insure fans that its “values” will “remain unchanged” when the company is handed over. However, this statement includes no specific insurance in addition, so it remains to be seen if mass effect, dragon age, swimmers and more are free from censorship in the future.
- Date founded
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May 27, 1982
- CEO
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Andrew Wilson
- Head office
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Redwood City, California, USA
