{"id":308683,"date":"2026-06-16T01:54:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T01:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/308683\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T01:54:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T01:54:24","slug":"ea-funeral-buyout-protest-staged-outside-of-ea-orlando-office-press-release-and-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/308683\/","title":{"rendered":"EA Funeral Buyout Protest Staged Outside of EA Orlando Office: Press Release and Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"222\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CONVERSATION-2-300x222.png\" alt=\"CONVERSATION 2\" class=\"wp-image-120486\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.3513513513513513;width:210px;height:auto\" title=\"EA Funeral Buyout Protest Staged Outside of EA Orlando Office: Press Release and Photos 2\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Press Release from Players Alliance HQ<\/p>\n<p>In Orlando, Gamers Stage Funeral for EA Denouncing $55 Billion Buyout<\/p>\n<p>Orlando, FL \u2014 Outside of Electronic Arts\u2019 (EA) Orlando office, Members of the Players Alliance HQ staged a funeral-themed rally opposing the proposed $55 billion buyout of the company by Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Jared Kushner\u2019s Affinity Partners, and Silver Lake.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" data-id=\"211203\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/playerallihq2-300x200.jpeg\" alt=\"playerallihq2\" class=\"wp-image-211203\" title=\"EA Funeral Buyout Protest Staged Outside of EA Orlando Office: Press Release and Photos 3\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" data-id=\"211204\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/playerallihq1-300x200.jpeg\" alt=\"playerallihq1\" class=\"wp-image-211204\" title=\"EA Funeral Buyout Protest Staged Outside of EA Orlando Office: Press Release and Photos 4\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Dressed in funeral attire and carrying a casket, gravestones, flowers, and a 50-foot petition scroll signed by more than 70,000 gamers, participants mourned what they say would be the consequences of the deal, including studio closures, rising costs, AI-driven layoffs, and threats to creative freedom in gaming.\u00a0 Gamers pointed to EA\u2019s history of studio closures, rising prices and the growing unaffordability of gaming, the increased use of AI to cut developer jobs, and concerns that the Saudi Public Investment Fund\u2019s proposed 93.4% ownership stake could give it unprecedented influence over creative decisions at one of the U.S.\u2019s largest gaming studios, including games like The Sims which have long been recognized for inclusive storytelling and representation.<\/p>\n<p>At the rally, gamers called on federal regulators to block the buyout, warning that saddling EA with $20 billion in private equity debt would accelerate the industry\u2019s shift toward anti-consumer practices and exploitative monetization.<\/p>\n<p>Background on the Campaign to Block the EA Deal<\/p>\n<p>Players Alliance HQ launched its campaign to block the proposed EA buyout in 2025, and has since recruited more than 2,500 Discord members, collected over 70,000 petition signatures, and hosted a Twitch stream featuring Rep. Maxwell Frost and prominent streamer, lilsimsie. The campaign has organized actions in Washington, DC, Redwood City, and Orlando, with additional cities planned, and inspired a new UK spinoff campaign, Block the EA Deal UK. See coverage on the campaign by The LA Times and PC Gamer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Press Release from Players Alliance HQ In Orlando, Gamers Stage Funeral for EA Denouncing $55 Billion Buyout Orlando,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-308683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}