The Players Alliance HQ Is Planning an EA Raid on May 11th in Protest of the EA Buyout in Redwood City, California.
The backlash against the leveraged buyout of Electronic Arts continues, with a new protest movement organised by Players Alliance HQ now calling on cosplayers and gamers to “raid” the Electronic Arts headquarters in opposition to the proposed Saudi-backed takeover deal.
Dubbed the “EA Raid”, the campaign follows the criticism of the reported $55 billion acquisition effort involving Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, among other investment groups. Attendants will arrive outside EA’s headquarters in Redwood City, California, and unravel a 50ft scroll with over 70,000 signatures from the recent petition.
The Players Alliance is raiding EA’s HQ in Redwood City, California
On May 11th, the Players Alliance will rally gamers from across the country to raid the HQ in spectacular fashion. We’ll be delivering our 70,000 petition signatures, yes, but we’ll do it in a way that they can’t ignore.
We’re fighting to block the $55 billion by the Saudi monarchy and private equity consortium led by Jared Kushner. We’ve already recruited help from Congress — hosting a Twitch stream with Rep. Maxwell Frost. This already caught EA’s attention, so now’s the time to bring more heat.
We want to get as many Bay Area gamers to join us as possible. The action will be in the morning, Can you join us?
Fill out the form and an organizer will be in touch.
Players Alliance HQ
Table of Contents
When And Where Is The “EA Raid” Taking Place?
The protest will be taking place on May 11th 2026, at the Electronic Arts Headquarters in Redwood City, California. The protest will begin at 11 AM with the unravelling of a 50ft scroll featuring the signatures from the recent buyout petition. The petition was recently promoted in a livestream by Lilsimsie, who was joined by US Representative Maxwell Frost, in which discussions were held about the potential impacts of the buyout. You can register your interest below:
What Concerns Are Held by Players About the EA Buyout?
A comment we often receive, and you may have seen across social media, is “why should we care?” The reported buyout would see Electronic Arts come under new ownership, with a majority held by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign fund of the Gulf nation. Alongside the PIF, the buyers also include Affinity Partners, headed by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, and Silver Lake. A buyout of this size would see EA go under several major changes, such as more aggressive monetisation to clear any debts, mass employee layoffs, wage suppression, and further expansion of AI tools that replace human jobs.
The background of the new owners should also give players pause for concern. The PIF is the personal investment fund of the Saudi Arabian crown, the same government known for extreme censorship, complicity in war and genocide, and human rights abuses. Saudi Arabia ranks 4th in the Global Slavery Index’s estimation of the number of people in modern slavery.
Have you pledged support for the EA Buyout petition yet? Let us know in the comments below, and stay tuned to Sims Community for all the latest on the EA Buyout.
This protest feels so performative honestly. Like how does less ownership with people directly affecting the minorities in the USA be a bad thing? Like this community was not like this when the minorities wanted the skintone update(with it only being pushed in recent years after they gave us the iconic Karen of the sims IP in the Cottage Living EP). If only this protest was for the focus on Africa for an EP petition, I might think it was more worth.
Are you genuinely saying that a random virtue signalling internet petition to include Africa in a virtual world is less performative than actually going outside and protesting IRL genocide and human rights abuses at a company headquarters?
Is EA paying you for the crack you’re smoking, “Jayce they/them”?
Also you say “how does less ownership with people directly affecting the minorities in the USA be a bad thing?” I can’t lmao. EA shills really pulling the most random delusional backwards shit out their ass and expecting us to believe it. I really hope you’re a bot because if a genuine human being believes this then we’re heading into Idiocracy.
Hey at the chance that youre not trolling and actually arent aware, the protest is to protest the new ownership which is engaging in murder, slavery, human rights violations and discrimination (specifically of queer people). its unbelievably bad. So if the buyout goes through, that bit force of for example the PIF will gain a lot more control and funds by now also controlling this market. You can imagine how that would lead to them causing even more harm, and on just a gamer level will deteriorate the game we love. Its way more a out the actual horrific background of whos trying to take over though. Im not sure if youve seen, but a congressman has even gotten involved and attested to how bad this is as well as other political figures. Anyone reading and thinking its just a surface level thing, i genuinely encourage you to look into this because it itsnt that simple. itll also affect workers and their families, the entire industry as a whole because it would set a prescedent. this isnt just protesting “boo i dont want ownership changes” its protesting Evil ass people from potentially clawing more power and position so they dont swallow us whole
I just wish Maxis could split from EA and go private again..that will never happen. It’s really sad to see Maxis go down with EA’s sinking ship after almost 30 years.
I know its about the new owners, aka it being owned less by Republicans.
Evil Ass people have owned EA for years. Most of the previous owners prior to the Buyout were republican companies that did all that evil. The relative to the annoying orange will own less than the various companies prior.
This is performative af and is giving the same energy as the “no kings protest” aka lets do nothing helpful.
I have looked into this and as a minority who is not from usa but apart of the minority groups ya’ll are using as a shield here so you can do weak peaceful protests now instead of back when ya’ll learned all the previous companies that owned EA shares did shitty stuff with their money.
Tencent still owns more of the gaming market than PIF. Most of the issues ya’ll really have here is more racism than anything. All ya’ll would rather have a bunch of white men who are actively doing evil than have North Afrcans/Arabs own most of the shares all because 1 shitty white man will have minority power.
There are actual bad things happening in this world but we want to instead focus our efforts on protesting video games??? Something we might actually be better off without even having. The ignorance of the people putting this together is astounding. I hope they get any trouble this asks for
So do you do anything about the “bad things happening in this world?” or are you just going to sit on your ass and bitch about anyone trying to make a difference in the world on simscommunity.info?
In case you missed it, the companies that will own EA are responsible for war, genocide and various human rights abuses including literally killing gay people and taking away womens rights.
To me, that seems like a “bad thing happening in this world”
If you buy the new Bridgerton Netflix slop kits and whatever else you are directly supporting genocide, like it or not.
Before I get “there is no ethical consumption’d” –
There are ways to get this content for free and video games are not an essential item such as food, water, housing and perhaps even modern technology.
I’m convinced EA has some sort of buyout psy-op on the comments on this website and other sims related places lately, because the amount of braindead pro-EA corporate bootlicking I’ve seen lately is astounding and far more than usual.
And there’s only so many times you can laugh at the shills and morons before it gets tiring and repetitive.
I’m going back to my swamp.
hey, i think you havent properly looked at why these protests are happening, and unfortunately youre the ignorant one right now. (being genuine). yes its a video game but the huge issue about this is that ea is selling out to the for example the PIF that is known for literally killing people, journalists,human rights violations etc, discrimination slavery and more. if they gain stakes in gaming like this, their power will grow exponentially and allow them to be able to do even more harm than they already are. Thats exactly why this is blowing up so much, it isnt just about the sims but a reallllly bad shift in the gaming industry which SHOULD just be video games!
Oof…. if you’re not a bot, please try to understand:
If this deal passes regulatory approval, it would be the largest leveraged buyout in history. It would grant the Saudi government insane power over American politicians (it’s essentially a massive bribe). This is a protest of the buyout, not “protesting video games”. Most countries have regulations and legislation against this, and they won those safeguards BY PROTESTING FOR THEM.
Your comment is literally the definition of ignorance here: completely unaware and uninformed.
Maybe it seems off to some, but to simmers who have spent a great deal of money on the sims it’s a big deal. As one of those simmers, i dont want to see the wrong people with their hands in the game. It stands to change a great deal of content and the inclusivity that we have al fought so hard for.
Exactly! This game is an investment for many long time players and when your investment starts to crumble you gotta make a huge grumble and stand up for the money and time invested in the game.
it is not just the video game, it is the rights in the game, i hear from people that the wedding stories pack was banned it the counties that want to do the buy out just for the cover. That is due to religion and it wrong not to let the makes express the views. If the buy out happens what will happen to what we have in the game now.
Nothing.
Holding onto money in your wallet as a form of protest nobody wants…
“There are more things in the toolbox, guys”
Some people are allergic to the word boycott, it seems
Please tell, me these people are not actually planning to tresspassed the building.That is illegal and you will get arrested for.I just check you can be arrested for being on property.
They have “raid” in quotations marks and then clearly say it will be a normal protest where they will unravel the 50ft scroll featuring the 70 000 petition signatures…
Hopefully nobody gets injured.