On the 30th September 2025, news broke out like an acne attack, the SIMS 4 had been sold. The cozy roleplaying game which had been beloved since its first edition was by June 2025 to be in the ownership of a Saudi company and Donald Trump? This is everything you need to know about the deal, including who bought the SIMS 4, what they plan to do with it and what this means for future gameplay and development. Skip below to the recap if you don’t want the juicy details, but you’ll be missing out on telenovella level drama.
Who Owned the Sims 4 Before?
The Sims 1 was released in the 2000s , designed by Maxis and published by a company known as Electronic Arts. An American video game company that headquarters reside in California. The company was founded by Trip Hawkins, a former Apple employee. The company launched many games, including Plants vs Zombies and Dragon Age. Trip eventually stepped down as CEO as was succeeded by Larry Probst, and Probst was succeeded by John Riccitiello. On the 6th November 2008, Riccitiello led the merging of their SIMS 4 label and their Hasbro Partnership in an attempt to maximize their marketing goals with their vision of casual gaming. Andrew Wilson became the new CEO in September 2013.
(Original Electronic Arts Logo)
The Moola Phase
Wilson announced in the first month of his promotion that Electronic Arts would be retrenching (aka firing) a whopping 10% of their workforce. They also combined their marketing campaigns, which had been distributed between their labels under a singular president. They began developing games for Star Wars and Disney. In April 2015, Electronic Arts shut down several free-to-play games including FIFA World. Slowly their skillset was shifting from making good games to making good money, as proven when in July 2015 the company reached their highest stock value to that date.
(Electronic Arts headquarters)
When Did the Saudi’s Enter?
In 2021, The Public Investment of Saudi Arabia bought 7.4 million shares of Electronic Arts. The Public Investment Fund is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. Its purpose is making educated investments on behalf of the Saudi government. Its one of the largest investment funds in the world and the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is its chairman. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is also the ruler of Saudi Arabia. So in 2021, essentially, the Saudi government bought shares of a video game company, the same company that made the Sims 4. The story only gets wilder.
(The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia)
Was Electronic Arts Having Money Problems?
Trigger warning: lay-offs. In 2023 Electronic Arts stopped development on Apex Legends mobile, laid off 200 quality assurance testers and laid off 6% of their workforce. Leading to circa 700 employees having their contracts terminated. Wilson reorganized Electronic Arts Sports and Electronic Arts Entertainment, ensuring both sectors reported directly to him. Following that, BioWare, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts laid off 50 employees, with seven members claiming the severance packages offered were inadequate and that they were terminated without cause. In February 2024, they laid off another 670 employees, of whom made up 5% of their workforce. In January 2025, Electronic Arts announced they were lowering their revenue estimations and downsizing BioWare, essentially halving the subsidiary’s workforce. In April 2025, Electronic Arts was still downsizing, announcing another mass termination of 300 employees.
Who Bought Electronic Arts and the Sims 4?
On the 29th of September 2025, the Electronic Arts team finally announced a 55 billion deal with a group of investors. These investors include The Saudi Arabian Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Jared Kusher’s Affinity Parners. The deal will lead to the company becoming private and will be finalized around June 2026. Silver Lake Technology Management is an American private equity firm that handles investments on a global scale. It focuses on the technological sphere.
(AI-generated by Prome AI)
Did You Say Trump Bought The Sims4 ?
A Trump, but not the King of America Trump, instead his son-in-law did. Jared Kushner, business man, investor and husband of Ivanka Trump. He served as Donald Trump (aka daddy-in-law)’s senior advisor in his first administration and was the director of the Office of American Innovation. He took over Kushner companies when his father was convicted for 18 criminal charges including witness tampering and tax evasion. Charles Kushner was a close friend of Donald Trump and sententeced to two years imprisonment before being pardoned by Donald Trump. Governor Christie referred to the Kushner case as “…one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted …”
(Jared Kushner and Donald Trump; taken from Northeastern University College of Social Scienes and Humanities)
Who is Jared Kusher, aka Ivanka Trump’s Husband?
Jared began his career in real estate investment. Once appointed in Trump’s campaign, he had accusations of nepotism thrown at him. He married Ivanka in 2009. He led the effort to pass the ‘First Step Act’, a federal law to increase the minimum jail time of certain drug related cases, the act also focused on prison conditions. Perhaps his interest was born from his father’s escapade with the law. In 2021, Jared created Affinity Partners, an investment firm based in Miami. The company’s main focus was investment in Israeli products and expansion. Kushner’s firm dedicated 3 billion to Israeli companies and their growth in India, Africa, the Middle East and other parts of Asia. The Affinity Partners main funder is supposedly the Saudi Public Investment Fund (aka the Saudi Government), but sources provide no evidence and also mention Qatar and the UAE.
(Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, taken from People.com)
Let’s Recap this Saudi + Trump madness
The Sims 4, owned since its birth as the Sims 1 was owned by a company known as electronic arts or EA. Recently they’ve announced a record-breaking 55 billion deal (some sources say 52 billion). They’ve sold or privatized their company with two main investors. The Saudi governments investment fund and Donald Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Jared deals in making laws regarding prisons and investing in Israeli business. Jared’s business Affinity Partners is montarily funded by none other that the Saudi Investment Firm. Needless to say, its a strange development with players unknown to the rather uncontroversial and unproblematic SIMS 4 community. Can nothing exist uninfluenced by global politics? Must they even take over our cosy gaming time? What does the community have to say about this shift…
The Community’s Response
The Sims 4 community has been undergoing a rough ride. Since the release of the Life and Death pack, it seems that originality in the Sims 4 development is dying out. The Fairy pack, which news brought much excitement felt like a plant and wing pack, regurgitating skills like herbalism and leaving the fans grateful but still hungry for more interesting gameplay. Then the activities pack dropped, which resembled a base game update that was bear themed more than anything. And now their cozy evening might be taken over by Trump propaganda. Needless to say, they’re not looking forward to any tanning bed and tax evasion additions to their gameplay. lilsimsie, a Sims 4 content creator and youtuber addressed the news in a video that can be found here, in it she describes the situation as ‘distressing’ and explains how the game will become focused on using their fanbase as cash cows (rather than cowplants). This is very concerning as many people have already invested so much into the game. The cost of all the packs currently rest at over 1300 dollars (22 000 South African Rand/964 Sterling Pound). Many people are concerned with whether the new owners will try to shift gameplay to a more conservative design, such as eliminating gender options and getting rid of lgbtq+ items. While others have decided to stop financially supporting the game.
(Taken from the SIMS 4 Reddit Discussion)
Naturally this is an ever evolving situation and contains a lot more intricate details and reasoning than I can fit in an article, but this should provide you with a concise grasp of the situation. If you’d like future articles to cover certain points, feel the need to vent, or simply would like to correct any points mentioned, please leave a comment below. Thank you for reading and for any Sims 4 players that tuned in, steadfast my friends and remember, say no to tanning bed gameplay.
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