After the acquisition of Electronic Arts by mainly Saudi Arabia, former and current employees now fear noticeable changes for the worse. The current situation in the industry exacerbates the situation.
What is the current status? In early August, the acquisition of Electronic Arts by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) from Saudi Arabia (93.4 percent of the shares) and other investors went through. The fun cost 55 billion US dollars. There is only one other deal in gaming history that was larger: the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft for nearly 70 billion US dollars.
The good news: EA has thereby left the stock market, is a private company and no longer has to justify itself to shareholders. The bad news: They now de facto belong to a repressive regime that suppresses human rights, is linked to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi (via bbc.com) and severely restricts inclusion and diversity.
The very likely next hit for EA – the new EA FC:
“Sportswashing,” only with games
How do the employees view this? In many cases with great concern and discomfort. Current reports from gamedeveloper.com or pcgamer.com, which have spoken with former or current EA employees about the acquisition, show this.
Trick Weekes, a former lead writer at BioWare, fears a clear censorship by the new leadership in the future, as soon as it is not about “weapons and soccer.” An anonymous EA employee fears this as well, but not through a clearly communicated anti-inclusive agenda.
“Projects simply won’t get approved because they don’t explicitly align with the desires of the Saudi government.” Or they won’t even be proposed by the leads at EA to avoid potential conflicts with the new owner.
Employees are also uncomfortable because everyone is aware of what Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to achieve with this investment: They want to distract from what is happening in their own country through positive headlines in other areas, gradually improving their reputation in the West.
For a long time, Saudi Arabia has primarily invested in popular sports such as soccer or motorsports. This led to the term “sportswashing”; they want to wash away their actions through great sports successes. The Crown Prince even openly admits to this in an interview with Fox News from 2023: “If sportswashing increases my GDP by one percent, I will continue to engage in sportswashing” – via pcgamer.com.
Some employees criticize the EA leadership clearly (but anonymously): “If EA had a culture with even the slightest hint of moral backbone, they wouldn’t get into bed with a prince who is disgusted by the sexual orientation and ethnic background of many of their current employees.”
Why stay at EA anyway? Current employees also talk about this. Many would immediately look for a new job in the gaming industry if there were open positions. Currently, however, firings are more common than hiring everywhere. One person says: “I get sick just thinking about it, but there is nowhere else to go. I would love to leave, but there are no jobs and I have to pay bills.”
At least some employees with stock shares in EA have received a nice windfall due to the size of the deal. However, this only applies to a small part of the workforce. In addition, everyone currently fears a massive wave of layoffs and the cessation of various projects and games to significantly reduce the company’s costs.
What do you think: How will the acquisition by Saudi Arabia impact EA? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!
The mood among the EA teams is said to be – not surprisingly – similarly gloomy to that of developers under Xbox. Because there, too, extensive layoffs are still on the horizon in the coming months. You can find out more about this here: Blizzard developers have to live in fear for a year
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