Unionised EA workers and senators have spoken out against the Battlefield 6 publisher’s recently announced acquisition by US and Saudi-backed investors, which (assuming it’s approved by regulators) will leave the resulting privately-owned EA with a $20 billion debt. The two sets of complainants appear equally cheesed-off, but for mostly different reasons.
In a statement shared with RPS and other sites, the United Videogame Workers-CWA – a direct-join union that spans the whole US and Canadian games industry – criticised company management for neglecting to consult EA workers and risking future mass layoffs as the new owners scrape to pay off the bank.
They note that EA was prosperous prior to the acquisition, previous rounds of job cuts notwithstanding, and conclude that “if jobs are lost or studios are closed due to this deal, that would be a choice, not a necessity, made to pad investors’ pockets”.
“EA is not a struggling company,” the statement reads. “With annual revenues reaching $7.5 billion and $1 billion in profit each year, EA is one of the largest video game developers and publishers in the world. EA’s success has been entirely driven by tens of thousands of EA workers whose creativity, skill, and innovation made EA worth buying in the first place. Yet we, the very people who will be jeopardized as a result of this deal, were not represented at all when this buyout was negotiated or discussed.
“We are particularly worried about the future of our studios that are arbitrarily deemed ‘less profitable’ but whose contributions to the video game industry define EA’s reputation,” the union statement adds. This could be an allusion to studios like BioWare, who have an outsized cultural influence but have struggled to meet EA’s financial hopes – a former Dragon Age executive has suggested that BioWare could be gutted, sold off or even closed by the acquiring consortium.
“Every time private equity or billionaire investors take a studio private, workers lose visibility, transparency, and power,” the statement continues. “Decisions that shape our jobs, our art, and our futures are made behind closed doors by executives who have never written a line of code, built worlds, or supported live services. We are calling on regulators and elected officials to scrutinize this deal and ensure that any path forward protects jobs, preserves creative freedom, and keeps decision-making accountable to the workers who make EA successful.”
tldr: Gondor cries for aid. And Rohan will answer! Though more because they’re worried about Saudi Arabia’s rulers having their fingers in another pie, than because they’re concerned about potential job losses. In public letters to US treasury secretary Scott Bessent and Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson earlier this week, US senators Richard Blumenthal and Elizabeth Warren called for a public investigation of “the foreign influence and national security risks” of flogging a major US games publisher to a group that includes Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Warren and Blumenthal offer the familiar argument that the PIF’s investment – which will give it a majority stake in the firm, according to the Financial Times – is about improving Saudi Arabia’s repressive and authoritarian public image and extending its influence overseas.
The senators suggest that Saudi Arabia might use access to EA consumer data for surveillance and propaganda purposes, and are concerned about what the country’s rulers might do with EA’s proprietary generative AI technologies (which have reportedly been deemed crucial to paying off that staggering loan). They allege that Affinity Partners founder Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, is only involved with the transaction to ensure that it gets past the US regulators.
Finally, they note that as a private company, EA would no longer be obliged to report their financial status and plans to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Warren and Blumenthal fear this will allow the new bosses to get up to all kinds of anti-American shenanigans behind the scenes.
“The PIF’s control over EA’s operations could extend to influencing or directing the company’s design, features, and product decisions to advance the Saudi government’s specific and long-term objectives,” the senators write. “PIF would be well positioned to dictate or veto what stories are told to Americans through the popular medium of video games, controlling narratives about U.S. history and culture. In short, the Saudi government’s ability to exert its influence through EA would offer the authoritarian regime an effective tool to project power worldwide.”
I can see the argument that Saudi Arabia’s investments in videogames are designed to deflect criticism of its terrible human rights record and clean up its profile overseas. It’s also hard to deny the proposed sneaky logic behind Kushner’s involvement. I have to say, though, the alarm over Saudi Arabia potentially “controlling narratives about U.S. history and culture” makes my eyes roll back into my head. The US entertainment industry has global reach, and examples of powerful American media publishers creating slanted representations of other cultures aren’t exactly rare.
EA’s own Battlefield 6, for example, explicitly lumps together thinly referenced geopolitical aggressors into one all-purpose US-hating bogeyman, washing its hands of their distinctions. Admittedly, the story does portray said bogeyman as a monster of the USA’s cultivation, but that’s a cheap and belated piece of self-reflexivity that is never seriously explored. Read all about it in my swivel-eyed Battlefield 6 review.
The letter from Warren and Blumenthal doesn’t touch on any of the concerns shared by the unionised games industry workers in their own appeal for greater scrutiny of the deal. Being a mucky old Limey, I’m not particularly familiar with the political background here, but both senators appear to be pro-union – perhaps they and the United Videogame Workers-CWA should get in touch.
