Last month, leftists erupted when it was announced that former gaming titan Electronic Arts (EA) had been sold to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a firm owned by Jared Kushner. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund joined Kushner’s Affinity Partners to acquire the studio behind the “Madden,” “Battlefield,” and “Sims” franchises in a $55 billion deal.
EA had long been gamers’ preferred corporate villain. A pivot to live-service models in contrast to well-crafted single-player narratives alienated core fans, ballooning budgets meant that the company had to squeeze every penny out of consumers through predatory practices like loot boxes, and activist influencers within the company began poisoning content with their woke ideology. By the time the Saudis and Kushner appeared, shareholders were desperate to ditch a dying company.
