Now the ink’s starting to dry on the Saudi Arabian government and Jared Kushner-backed takeover of EA, which has seen the company go private, staff are getting to grips with what the ownership change might mean for them going forwards. Fears of layoffs and teams or game series being sold off following the leveraged buyout hang in the air alongside unease about the effect the Saudi state’s values might have on what gets the green light in future, with staff suggesting EA haven’t done a very good job of alleviating such concerns.
That’s according to a report from Game Developer, who spoke to several anonymous EA staff now the deal’s gone through. The report paints a picture of workers who feel very uneasy about their new owners, regardless of EA’s previous assertions that it won’t change from a creative standpoint as a result of the takeover, but are also compelled to cling onto their jobs regardless given how ridiculously tough it is to find decently paying work at the moment. “If EA had a culture that had any semblance of a moral backbone, it wouldn’t get into bed with a prince who’s disgusted by many of its current employees’ sexualities and ethnicities,” said one staffer who declared that they’d “love to leave, but the jobs aren’t there”.
One staffer suggested such creative meddling feels inevitable, even if it takes on a more passive form. “The [crown] prince is not going to get on to a town hall and say ‘we are no longer doing these things’ but instead projects just won’t get signed because they don’t align explicitly with what the Saudi government wants or implicitly because [EA will think] ‘oh, we’re going to try and cater these things [to our owners] because if we pitch something else the government may not like or approve of it,” they said.
The report also cited an EA worker as saying layoffs are seen as now being a threat “at all times”, with “some amount of cynicism in that we expect they won’t be enacted as mass layoffs anymore but rather as waves of small layoffs in order to bypass WARN notices”. Based on how leveraged buyouts like the EA deal typically work, loading up the acquired company with debt which it must then pay out of the money it makes, one EA staffer said that “it’s hard to see how teams or games that underperform wouldn’t be dissolved or sold off”.
According to the staff, EA’s replies to the voicing of such concerns about the buyout have been “mostly just vague reassurances”. Some staff also alluded to unnamed EA execs’ responses and comments around town hall meetings during which the deal was discussed as having left them feeling those above them are out of touch. An alleged example cited is a hot mic incident which reportedly saw one exec mutter “little babies” at the end of a call which had seen concerned workers ask about how the deal might impact EA’s culture and their job security.
In the short term, as part of efforts to get workers on-side about the deal, EA are claimed to have been trumpeting about a payout staff who own vested shares in the company could be in line for based on the takeover upping EA’s stock price.
I’ve asked EA for comment.
The overall sentiment of the report’s pretty well summed up by one staffer making clear they don’t blame any colleagues with such shares for currently being focused on seeing how much they can get from the prospective windfall. “At this point, all you can do is get that bag today, because you’ll likely be unemployed tomorrow,” they said.
For more reaction to the EA Saudi deal from folks making games under the publishers, take a look at Edwin’s recent interview with Star Wars: Zero Company devs Bit Reactor, whose publishing deal with EA was signed long before the takeover went through.
