Last year, EA was acquired by a consortium for $55 billion, giving Saudi Arabia’s PIF, headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, almost sole ownership over the company. Concerns were immediately raised by players that some of EA’s most inclusive and diverse games, such as Dragon Age and The Sims, would have their messaging stifled, and while CEO Andrew Wilson stressed that the acquisition would not imapct its values, veteran BioWare writer Trick Weekes (who was unfortunately laid off in 2025) and former executive Mark Darrah were among the many who cast doubt on this promise.
In protest of the buyout, several Sims creators quit the EA Creator Network, taking a stance against the new leadership as concern bubbled in the community, but EA remains adamant that its values will go unchanged. As reported by Eurogamer, in a recent blog about the future of the series, The Sims team claimed that it will continue to champion diversity in its games, even under the PIF’s de facto ownership.
The Sims Team Will Still Champion The “Colorful Spectrum Of Identity”, But Players Are Concerned About Where Their Money Is Going
“Our Sim’s team’s creative control, guided by our values of inclusivity, choice, creativity, community, and play, has not changed,” the blog post reads. “These values inspire the decisions we make each and every day as we plan for today, tomorrow, and the future. The Sims will always be about life, your way.”
Its values were laid out in five key bullet points:
- Creativity.
- Play.
- Choice.
- Inclusivity.
- Community.
“We reflect the wide, colorful spectrum of identity and self-expression so every player feels seen and celebrated,” the team writes. “We build features that let all players create the Sims they feel connected to, and explore their identities, without judgement. This work never ends; we continue learning, growing, and finding new ways to make every player feel seen.”
However, even with these assurances, there are concerns among players that any money spent on The Sims 4 will now “go to the kinds of people who’d like ‘inclusive’ kind of people dead,” making it nigh impossible to celebrate the diversity on display in future expansion packs. For context, homosexuality is prohibited in Saudi Arabia, with the most severe punishment being the death penalty, and trans people likewise face prosecution and conversion therapy for nonconformant gender expression. So, even if values remain unchanged, many in the community argue that it “Doesn’t matter how many Pride flag items they make, money will still be going to people that I do not want to support.”
- Released
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September 2, 2014
- ESRB
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T for Teen: Crude Humor, Sexual Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Maxis
- Engine
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Proprietary Engine
- Cross-Platform Play
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Xbox, PlayStation, and computer versions of Sims 4 are all separate games incompatible with each other
- Cross Save
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no
