As The Sims content material creators depart over EA’s $55 billion Saudi-backed buyout, the dev workforce guarantees the sport ‘will all the time be an area the place you’ll be able to categorical your genuine self’

The Sims improvement workforce has posted a message on X reassuring followers that its “mission, values, and dedication stay the identical,” and that “The Sims will all the time be an area the place you’ll be able to categorical your genuine self.” The message comes someday after three of The Sims 4’s largest content material creators eliminated themselves from EA’s creator community over the corporate’s looming acquisition by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund and personal fairness corporations, a transfer that was subsequently adopted by quite a few others, together with Vixella and Syd Mac.

“We’re regularly impressed by our unbelievable gamers and creators; by your creativeness, creativity, and the enjoyment you deliver to The Sims day-after-day,” the message states. “We deeply respect that everybody experiences The Sims in their very own means and can make selections which are proper for them. Nevertheless you select to play, create, or share, we’re grateful to be a part of your journey.

“Our mission, values, and dedication stay the identical. The Sims will all the time be an area the place you’ll be able to categorical your genuine self.”

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It is a very anodyne message, besides within the very particular context that The Sims neighborhood finds itself in. The Sims has a well-established popularity as a progressive recreation, established by way of its recognition of queer identities and relationships, a stance backed by motion: Reasonably than eradicating same-sex relationships within the My Marriage ceremony Tales growth in 2022, for example, EA opted to easily not launch it in nations with anti-LGBTQ+ legal guidelines.

That angle could also be in danger as soon as EA is introduced underneath the management of the PIF. Saudi Arabia is dominated by a notoriously oppressive regime the place LGBTQ+ rights are non-existent and same-sex relationships are unlawful. Former BioWare lead author Trick Weekes predicted in September that “homosexual stuff” is not going to have a house on the firm as soon as it falls underneath PIF management, and albeit it’s exhausting to sq. the nation’s high-profile intolerance of the queer neighborhood with, say, The Sims 4’s trans and disability-inclusive replace launched in 2023.

It is potential that EA’s new overlords will flip a blind eye to the entire thing: The Sims nonetheless boasts an enormous neighborhood that is not shy about spending cash, and on the finish of the day that is what it is all about. However that will not matter for some, as a result of additionally on the finish of the day, as soon as this deal is closed EA will probably be part-owned by a nation that denies and punishes the existence of queer folks. Irrespective of how the sport proceeds from right here, that is the real-world consequence, and it is a indisputable fact that some folks—very probably lots of people—take severely.

The Sims workforce concluded its message by teasing “thrilling issues we’ve coming in 2026 and past.” Extra particulars on that will probably be shared on October 27, “the primary of ongoing updates that tackle the issues that matter most to you.”