Many fans of The Sims 4, as well as the overall franchise, are concerned about its future following the recent EA deal announcement. EA has confirmed its intended acquisition by an investor group of Silver Lake, Affinity Partners, and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund for a total of around $55 billion. Once closed, this investor group will own 100% of EA. This transaction is expected to be finalized in the first quarter of EA’s fiscal year 2027.
The EA Deal Will Have a Huge Impact on Studios and Games
By the nature of it, such a deal will have a colossal impact on the industry as is, even if said impact is impossible to currently determine. Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard was much bigger in money spent than EA’s deal, for example, and it inherently changed the structure and production of Activision-Blizzard products, likely playing some role in the various Microsoft layoffs that followed. For the EA deal, there is a general sentiment that the “sports and shooters” are safe, but some fans are worried about its wider portfolio, including games/IP like Mass Effect and The Sims 4. It should be noted that this is all speculation, given that such a massive deal has many moving parts, but there is a lot of pessimism within certain fandoms as to what this means for the future.
For example, Mass Effect fans are concerned that EA may sell off internal studios/IP after the acquisition, as part of this deal takes on a lot of debt as well. If so, this means that the release of Mass Effect 5, which is the studio’s current focus, is even less of a “for sure” thing than before. Many fans believe that anything from IPs to entire studios could be sold off, if not outright closed or something to that effect, if it doesn’t sell as much as other portions of the portfolio. Within that is concern around EA’s more diverse games, which are games like Mass Effect and The Sims.
The Sims Fans Are Upset And Worried
For example, the most upvoted comment under the initial EA announcement post on the Sims 4 subreddit echoes the goals of the Stop Killing Games movement: “Now is a great time to remember that, regardless of our money spent, we do not own the game. If you’ve bought all the packs and kits, and live in the US, you’ve spent thousands of dollars on a ‘license’ to play the game that can be revoked at basically any time… so… that’s fun. If they pull the game because it’s offensive to their sensibilities, we’re all out a ton of money.”
Other posts include highlighting the difference between The Sims 2’s standard cover versus the Saudi Arabian version, asking if it is possible to save The Sims, another calling for a boycott of future Sims packs, and more. In general, many fans are afraid of what this deal means for the games they’ve invested tons of time and money in, as well as possible censorship. For example, owning The Sims 4 and every DLC release afterward costs upward of a thousand dollars. Not every fan will have spent that much money, but some may have spent this money, and many others will have spent a lot (time and money) within their means as well.
Of course, it’s worth noting that nothing has been officially stated as to what the investor group intends to do with EA once the deal is finalized. It isn’t impossible that changes are made beforehand as well, but it isn’t likely that the investor group or EA confirms any more major intentions until the deal is done because of the various moving parts. Concerned fans and fans in general, as this could change many things beyond the scope of singular games/IP, can only keep their ears to the ground as further news develops.
For now, here is every game/IP that EA owns.
List of EA IP
- Battlefield
- Burnout
- College Football
- Command & Conquer
- Crysis
- Dead Space
- Dragon Age
- FIFA
- Madden NFL
- Mass Effect
- Medal of Honor
- Mirror’s Edge
- Need For Speed
- Peggle
- Plants Vs. Zombies
- SimCity
- The Sims
- Skate
- Star Wars: Battlefront
- Titanfall
- American McGee’s Alice
- Army of Two
- Bejeweled
- Cannon Fodder
- Colin McRae Rally/Dirt
- Deer Hunter
- Dungeon Keeper
- EA Sports NASCAR
- F1
- Fight Night
- Grid
- Hasbro Family Game Night
- Knock Out Kings
- LMFA Manager
- Mercenaries
- Micro Machines
- Monopoly
- MVP Baseball
- NBA Live/Street
- NCAA Basketball/NCAA Football
- NFL Blitz/Street
- NHL
- Operation Flashpoint
- Overlord
- PGA Tour
- Populous
- Project CARS
- Road Rash
- SSX
- Strike
- Syndicate
- System Shock
- TOCA
- Tony La Russa Baseball
- Ultima
- Unravel
- Wing Commander