{"id":742937,"date":"2026-08-19T12:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/742937\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T12:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:32:12","slug":"after-25-years-im-breaking-up-with-the-sims-heres-why-you-should-too-jordan-erica-webber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/742937\/","title":{"rendered":"After 25 years, I\u2019m breaking up with The Sims. Here\u2019s why you should, too | Jordan Erica Webber"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes it feels as though horrific world events and the malicious entities behind them are reaching into every aspect of our lives, from heatwaves that keep me shut away indoors, to generative AI that makes it increasingly difficult to trust what I read online. I can no longer even retreat into my favourite video game without funding human rights abuses across the world.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been playing The Sims series of life-simulation games since its first release at the turn of the millennium, when I sat with my sister in the corner of the sitting room using money cheats to build mansions for our digital dolls. Over the years, these games have helped me make friends: from the schoolmate who taught me to play more efficiently with hot keys, to the local fan who watched me stream The Sims 4 online and now meets me for lunch every week. In the last quarter of a century I\u2019ve sunk thousands of hours into these games.<\/p>\n

But all of that stopped, with the sudden snap of a clean break, when it was revealed<\/a> last year that a group of private investors planned to acquire Electronic Arts (EA), the publisher of some of the world\u2019s most popular video game series: FC (previously Fifa<\/a>), Battlefield, Dragon Age, and many more \u2013 including my beloved The Sims. There are several reasons why I \u2013 and many others \u2013 object to this deal, which was completed<\/a> after regulatory approval this month, but it mostly comes down to the who, why and how.<\/p>\n

The purchasers taking EA out of public trading are: the Saudi Public Investment Fund (chaired by the country\u2019s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman), Silver Lake (which has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into AI infrastructure in the US) and Affinity Partners (owned by Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner).<\/p>\n

Kushner, of course, is on his father-in-law\u2019s so-called Board of Peace<\/a>, planning to rebuild Gaza (first step: a new military base<\/a>) after the atrocities<\/a> ordered by his family friend<\/a>, Israel\u2019s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Saudi Arabia is known for bombing Yemeni civilians<\/a> (with weapons from the UK), allegedly assassinating journalist Jamal Khashoggi<\/a>, abusing migrant workers<\/a> and generally violating human rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is enough not to want to line these particular pockets. But hypothesise the motivations behind this deal: the people leading these companies understand the soft power of video games. Those around Trump capitalised on the men swept up in the hate campaign known as \u201cGamergate\u201d<\/a>, and have recently used video game memes<\/a> to promote the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). Saudi Arabia has been accused of \u201csportswashing\u201d<\/a>, spending on popular sports to distract from its more objectionable behaviour, and seems to be attempting the same with video games.<\/p>\n

This is particularly noxious because The Sims has long been known for welcoming people of all races, gender identities and sexualities<\/a>; its developers have often responded to player feedback with free updates that add requested content to the game: more diverse hairstyles, sexual orientation, pronouns. Whether its new conservative owners use the platform\u2019s existing popularity to lure in unwary fans or whether they assert creative control to insert their own propaganda, we \u2013 the players \u2013 lose.<\/p>\n

Even if that all feels irrelevant or \u2013 depressingly \u2013 unavoidable to you, consider the method. This historic $55bn (\u00a341bn) deal is a leveraged buyout, meaning a large portion of the cost was paid for with debt (in this case $22bn<\/a> from leading fossil fuel financier<\/a> JP Morgan<\/a>) that EA now owes. How will it make that extra money? Soulless generative AI<\/a>? Predatory microtransactions<\/a>? More life-ruining layoffs<\/a>?<\/p>\n

These concerns are shared by popular Sims content creators such as lilsimsie<\/a> (real name Kayla Sims), who is one of several now seeking to divest themselves<\/a> from the game. She even worked with her local representative, Congressman Maxwell Frost, to inform players on how they might try to block the sale. \u201cIt\u2019s all about cutting corners to rip off consumers instead of making games,\u201d she said in a short video<\/a> posted after the deal was finalised, while Frost promised to use congressional oversight to demand answers from EA and protect workers and players.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s good to know there are people in power who realise the potential consequences of this deal and are willing to act against them however they can. But unless The Sims is sold off to a less objectionable owner, I no longer feel comfortable playing my lifelong favourite game. Maybe I\u2019ll pin my hopes on new competitor Paralives<\/a>, or dig out my old (already paid for, offline only) physical copies of the original The Sims. In the meantime, at least there are plenty of other interesting games<\/a> to play instead.<\/p>\n

Jordan Erica Webber is a freelance writer and presenter specialising in video games and digital culture<\/p>\n

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section, please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometimes it feels as though horrific world events and the malicious entities behind them are reaching into every…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-742937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}