Fans of several of EA’s franchises are worried about what might happen to their favorite games and series now that the publisher and all its subsidiaries are being acquired by some of the worst people and forces you could possibly imagine. The Saudi Arabian government and Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are buying out the company behind games like The Sims, BioWare’s catalog, and Apex Legends, all of which are known and celebrated for their queer characters and storylines. Fans are so worried about what might happen to these games and their inclusive design moving forward that Sims content creators have opted out of the series’ creator program over the acquisition. With so much uncertainty lingering over the company right now, fans can’t help but wonder what franchises like The Sims might look like after all the papers are signed. One of the original leads on the game says that if The Sims were to abandon the queer community, it would lose the heart and soul of what has made the life sim series so popular since its debut in 2000.
In an interview with FRVR, original Sims and Sims 2 artist and director Charles London explained that representing same-sex relationships is “incredibly important” to the spirit of the franchise.
“It’s everything,” London told FRVR, “and I think it’s existential for the business, right? It is certainly for society. I think it’s incredibly important for there to be a mainstream, beloved brand that says ‘love is love and people are people’ and all the things that I certainly personally believe in, but also I believe it is existential to that business because it is what allows it to be universally appealing, right? Young, old, male, female, gay, straight, other, right? American, Iranian, whatever.
“Its appeal and its recognition of the fundamental truths of our humanity is what creates the empathetic and emotional connection to that game that makes it so powerful,” he continued. “It’s not that there’s so many pants you can dress them in. Don’t get me wrong, that’s an important part of the business, right? That’s also existential… but it’s very connected to evergreen toys like Barbie.”
Elsewhere in the interview, London says that the choice to put same-sex relationships in those early games wasn’t even meant to be the act of a “band of fearless social revolutionaries,” but was merely seen as a reflection of the human experience the team sought to emulate in The Sims, without which the game would have been telling a “lie.”
“I think it goes beyond the sexual,” London said. “The answer I gave actually is applicable to, I think, as many of the decisions we could have possibly made in The Sims where we are agnostic and where we leave room for player choice. The Sims must remain [agnostic] for it to be successful, it must remain a faithful canvas on which the player is free to project the story that, to them, is important and emotionally impactful.
“And that includes not just sexuality, it includes body image, it includes race, and it includes the choice of clothing. It includes the choice of architecture, the choice of job, structure, all the magnificent diversity of actual human life, and this is something that the team, I think, deeply understands.”
At the moment, EA asserts that its “values and [its] commitment to players and fans around the world remain unchanged,” but given the pending new ownership, fans are skeptical. The Saudi Arabian government has made several attempts to latch onto the video game industry in an attempt at “sportswashing” the dire state of its human rights laws, which include the criminalization of same-sex acts, marriage, and cross-dressing. If someone in a position of power at EA says that developers are no longer allowed to implement queer characters and storylines, there’s no guarantee that Mass Effect 5 or a future Sims project will include them in the future. Hopefully, someone at EA hears what London is saying and fights back against any such regulation. It would be a real fucking shame if these series with storied queer history weren’t allowed to maintain it in the future.
