PIF, Silver Lake and Affinity Partner’s privately bought EA for $55 billion, as revealed in EA’s press release last week.
EA game consumers have raised concerns over this news, especially players of The Sims franchise (known as Simmers).
Simmers aren’t concerned about EA being privately bought as much as they are worried about the buyers.
The Private Investment Fund (PIF) is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia and have been the largest concern in this deal.
Sharia Law
Sharia law is Islam’s religious legal structure which is in many Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia. It is a legal structure based on the Quran, Islam’s holy book. Sharia is a code for Muslims to live by, and they seek guidance from it and religious scholars.
Unfortunately, this also means Saudi Arabia has anti-homosexual, queer, and transgender laws. This conflicts with EA’s Sims franchise which is very representative of their LGBTQ+ players.
The Saudi Arabian society is against LGBTQ+ people, with many queer/transgender individuals fleeing the country, facing prejudice and harm.
Turki, a gay man, told AFP in 2020 that he was “beaten” by his brothers and Father after revealing his sexual identity.
Last year, trans student Emma Alraabeah committed suicide. She had come to the UK at 16 in fears of being prosecuted in Saudi Arabia.
According to the BBC, Emma told her GP that she fled due to fears of being killed or prosecuted for changing her gender.
Emma is not the only transgender individual who fled from Saudi Arabia and committed suicide.
Eden Knight, a transgender woman, committed suicide after she returned to Saudi Arabia.
She told friends that a Saudi Arabian lawyer, Bader, was “de-transitioning” her. Eden returned to Saudi Arabia with a lawyer, in which her family took her passport and prevented her to leave the country.
Why this raises concerns for Simmers
For the last two decades The Sims franchise has been one of the world’s most diverse, and LGBTQ+ positive games.
With the release of their first game The Sims in 2000 by Maxis – a game that allowed characters to have same-sex relationships, sex, and marriage in a time where same-sex marriage hadn’t been legalised in the western world.
Sims 4, however, takes the lead. It added new features from the other games, allowing players to create transgender, nonbinary, and queer characters.
Players can also choose ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ clothing for whatever gender of sim they are playing with. The Sims team also added pronouns to the game three years ago.
Male sims can wear dresses and makeup, and female Sims can wear masculine clothes.
Now simmers are concerned all of this could change after EA’s recent deal with Saudi Arabia who has a history of editing and changing Sims titles. The Sims 2 game box was edited to remove all female sims in Saudi Arabia.
Kayla, known as Lilsimsie on YouTube, told the Tab in a statement that she is “deeply worried about the future of The Sims with EA now being owned by such a conservative group.”
EA revealed that 45% of their simmers identify with the LGBTQ+ and that a vast majority of their players are female. This creates problematic conflictions with Saudi Arabia now owning EA, and subsequently The Sims due to Sharia Law.
Featured image credit: Matias Islas via Unsplash
