OPINION: Prioritizing ethics over entertainment

There are a lot of big things in the news right now. From the government shutdown and all the issues that come with that to Hurricane Melissa obliterating the Caribbean, people’s news feeds are pretty full.

One thing that is 100% less important and life altering but still something I’ve been paying attention to is the sale of gaming company Electronic Arts to the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners for $55 Billion. EA is the gaming company that creates The Sims, Battlefield, FIFA and Apex Legends.

Since the announcement in late September, I’ve seen numerous Simmers, content creators who make their living by playing The Sims and posting videos or streams of it on the internet, officially break ties with EA and The Sims. Why would people whose entire career and livelihood is based on this game decide to break ties? Once you look at the new owners, it isn’t hard to see.

The least controversial of the three new owners is Silver Lake. Though not perfect, the only thing I could find about this equity firm was an almost $30 million lawsuit regarding collusion in a company buyout about a decade ago. No one in the Sims community is too worried about Silver Lake. However, then there’s the other two.

Affinity Partners was founded by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump. Much of Affinity Partners’ controversy stems from its connection and support of PIF. PIF is chaired by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. The crown prince and Saudi Arabia have been consistently accused of violating human rights.

Kushner, who previously served as a senior advisor to the President, was a staunch defender of the crown prince while he was at the White House and involved in numerous discussions on U.S.-Saudi relations. In 2024, Kushner was under Senate investigation due to possible foreign influence from Saudi Arabia due to using his role in the White House to financially influence Affinity Partners.

OK, that’s a lot of talk to say Kushner seems far too buddy-buddy with Saudi Arabia, and now a group known for violating human rights owns The Sims.

Upon hearing this news, professional Simmers from around the world left the official creator network and announced their plans to start focusing on other gaming content instead.

Australian content creator James Turner told fans that while he had a deep history and love with The Sims, he would have to shift his content focus.

“With the news of the buyout and understanding who will be owning EA in the future, I plan on shifting our focus to including more variety. In addition to that I have decided to leave the EA Creator Network and have asked to remove my creator code,” Turner posted on YouTube. “I’m excited about what the future holds for the channel and the content, it will be a new chapter. I’ve been on this platform creating videos for nearly two decades and in that time we’ve seen change, we’ve adapted, and this will give us that opportunity once again.”

American content creator lilsimsie, also known as Kayla Sims, has made numerous posts about this topic.

“This news is extremely scary to me, and it makes me deeply worried about the future of The Sims with EA now being owned by such a conservative group. The Sims has been a very inclusive game for a long time, and it horrifies me to think of them rolling back any of that progress or somehow censoring the game,” Sims said in a social media post. She later announced her official break with the EA Creator Network.

While these and many other creators in the same situation have said they will start decreasing the amount of Sims content they post, there will still be some. Many creators are starting new series and videos with similar games, such as Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Rollercoaster Tycoon.

While this is all good and well for the professionals, what does this situation mean for the average gamer? While everyone has to make decisions that feels right to them, I think it’s important to hold ethics above entertainment.

While I haven’t had much time recently to enjoy my cozy games, I do own The Sims and have spent money on expansion packs. Due to the new ownership, I no longer feel comfortable giving EA and The Sims more money. I’ll continue to play with the content I have, but I won’t buy anything more. I’ll go out of my way to support the content creators who are switching away from Sims content, people who are putting their ethics above profit. Luckily, there are a lot of great games out there - I’m just sad that the Sims community has been so torn apart.