Protesters 'raid' EA to oppose Saudi Arabia acquisition

A small group of protesters opposed to the Saudi Arabia-led takeover of Electronic Arts staged a "raid"—in the metaphorical MMO sense of players teaming up to confront a powerful boss—at EA headquarters yesterday, demonstrating in front of the Madden field at the center of the company's campus before attempting to present a petition signed by more than 70,000 people to EA leadership. Unfortunately, the delivery failed: While the protest went off with only one minor hitch, the attempt to serve EA the petition directly was stymied by security guards.

The "hitch" in question was EA's decision to place barricades around Madden field ahead of the protest, along with a small sign saying the field was closed for a "private function." Players Alliance, the group responsible for the protest, said it had not been in contact with EA over the matter, but that it believed the barricades were erected specifically to keep protesters off the field.

The protest did occur, directly in front of the barricades, and while it was small—as far as I could see on the livestream that ran yesterday, only about a dozen people were involved—it was enthusiastic and focused.

"Gamers raided EA’s HQ because we’re no longer willing to sit back while private equity firms and corporate executives turn gaming into another industry built on ripping off consumers," Twitch streamer and Players Alliance HQ member Zefrine said in a statement. "EA placed barricades around the Madden field precisely because the company is afraid of the growing public pressure against this buyout while regulators are still deciding whether to approve the deal.

"The pressure is working, and over 70,000 gamers stand with the Players Alliance to fight back against corporate greed and finally hold these corporations to account."

EA declined to allow the protesters to deliver those 70,000+ signatures directly, however. A Players Alliance representative said security refused to grant them access to the building, but told them that he would take the petition and "give it to the right people."

The group also emailed the petition to EA CEO Andrew Wilson and the US government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

The EA buyout is controversial for a couple reasons, beyond the usual concerns about media concentration. First, the leveraged buyout—the biggest in private equity history—will leave the company burdened with $20 billion in debt, which could result in layoffs, studio closures, and cancellations as the company seeks to cut costs wherever it can.

There are also worries that the Saudi-led ownership could impose content restrictions on games: EA said not long after the acquisition was announced that it "will continue to be guided by our cultural values," but its failure to say what exactly those values are was notable.

The acquisition has also drawn the attention of game developers and US lawmakers, some of whom expressed "profound concern about the foreign influence and national security risks" attached to the deal, although they're generally calling for greater 'scrutiny' and promises rather than a halt to the whole thing—which, as we learned from Microsoft's buyout of Activision, doesn't add up to much.

But the great likelihood is that those protests and concerns, while entirely valid, will ultimately go nowhere anyway. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia and head of the country's Public Investment Fund, is a close associate of US president Donald Trump, and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is also set to benefit from the deal through his Affinity Partners firm—which the PIF invested $2 billion into not long after Kushner left his White House senior advisor role during the first Trump administration. In 2025, Trump interfered in Netflix's planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which eventually went to Paramount Skydance in a deal backed by Kushern's Affinity Partners.