EA - Saudi Arabia - The Sims - Adult content - Future problems?

[landess]

When money is involved - it's amazing what can be accomplished. One country can influence another country to take legal action for 'profit'.

 

I can imagine the eye rolls the content I choose to use concerning a game I bought from those granted the 'power of responsibility over' gets. While things like Paypal decided virtue signaling was more important than profit, people found other options willing to allow freedom in choice.

 

Now with EA in the pockets of Muslims, I wonder how deep those pockets go and how much they are willing to spend in order to put all users of their newly acquired 'toys' under their thumb?

 

For the most part I cannot be affected unless all mods I use now are made illegal and Microsoft spyware and other sites become able to flag me for said use since I am free of needing to be online with Origin to use The Sims 3. As long as I have electricity - I need nothing else from the world to enjoy it.

 

That doesn't help the future of the Sims series, it's user base, and sites that host mods that would get us beheaded in their world. So sitting here thinking I began to wonder just how this will play out. If Profit is the Saudi's only motivation, then things 'should' remain as they have been under an anti-consumer based corporation. When foreign interests involve themselves in something American - it's makes me more than simply cautious since they refuse to build for themselves and keep trying to take 'ours'.

 

I know this site well enough to realize we have a lot of individuals gifted with a variety of knowledge and look forward to getting a better range of input concerning things I don't know about.

[Rikerbabe]

I wasn't aware of this-Thank you for informing me. I DO NOT plan to stop using Sims 4 or the mods that are deemed "offensive" to Islam. They have enough Skeletons in their closets to worry about.  

[shrtjsrtj]

It's not just about money, they want the control too. The same people with the weird construction ideas are now in control of large parts of gaming, also doing weird things. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, a fighting game, has soccer star Ronaldo and a real life DJ named Salvatore Ganacci in it because some rich dude in SA wanted them in.

 

[パンとバラ]

2 hours ago, shrtjsrtj said:

It's not just about money, they want the control too. The same people with the weird construction ideas are now in control of large parts of gaming, also doing weird things. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, a fighting game, has soccer star Ronaldo and a real life DJ named Salvatore Ganacci in it because some rich dude in SA wanted them in.

 

I thought I was the only one who thought it was weird seeing both characters being in a fighting game! While we had some football players promoting games outside their usual scope like Xabi Alonso being a Sims Ambassador starting from the Sims 3 era & David De Gea being involved in a soundtrack alongside Edurne for the Sims 3 Solidarios Music album, I feel like the inclusion of CR7 was motivated to bring more publicity to the Saudi Pro League & promote Saudi Arabia. Not only that, but KSA had considerable influence even while having a minority stake at MiSK when King of Fighters XV introduced a Fighting Stage being based of Riyadh as DLC.

[RedHeadAngel]

I love it when I come to LL to get away from the bullshit in the world for a moment, just to see this crap.

[landess]

On 10/16/2025 at 12:37 AM, RedHeadAngel said:

I love it when I come to LL to get away from the bullshit in the world for a moment, just to see this crap.

 

Thanks for your in depth input.

[RedHeadAngel]

36 minutes ago, landess said:

 

Thanks for your in depth input.

You’re welcome.

[NotANinj44]

If they will try to take a legal action to the modding community of sims 4, all creators should move on and provide their work on another platform. Seems harsh, but giving them power of what we want to use in our free time (which is very limited to all of us) I will not further use any games from €A. 

 

 

[Zorai]

Throwing my two cents in. I fully believe that no government, regardless of who and what it is, should ever have ownership of anything other then actual government ran establishments. Postal service, Fire department, and the DMV? Yes. But Game companies, Movies, etc? Absolutely not. Certain regulations are one thing, but trying to enforce law and other actions, like censorship or propaganda, over things that are completely harmless is actual bullshit.

 

The Sims were always a series I liked, but never really cared to get into due to how expensive it is to even get with the DLC's. But it gives way for a slippery slope imo.

[Dark Spectre]

"Get those hijabs ready!"

 

But in all seriousness: this political stunt from EA can kill the modding scene not just for the Sims, but for their other games as well.  What a world we're living in. 😔

Edited October 18, 2025 by Dark Spectre
Added pic.

[demtrollz689]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. They used to have EA Middle East until they decided to ban the game here. I'm from Dubai, UAE. So they won't do anything to ban the game or change anything but I heard that they're trying to get The Sims movie to be available here since there was a discussion where that movie would be banned in the GCC. It's currently speculation, so chances are they're not going to do anything drastic. Everything will probably be the same and they would only allow the games to work in the Middle East. 

Steam works here with no issues and DIscord has had their services unblocked since the pandemic (first time in history here along with Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet - All other VOIP services such as Whatsapp Calls, Facetime are still blocked in the Middle East)

[landess]

15 hours ago, demtrollz689 said:

I'm from Dubai, UAE.

 

Thanks for the information from someone as I said - "input concerning things I don't know about".

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

This post was never meant to inflame but instead ponder as adults the reality of the situation.

 

I already have 2 Hijabs and the wonderfully created world for the Sims 3 'Al Medina', besides the 'Egyptian content' from World Adventures.

[FauxFurry]

So what? It shifts hands from one set of extremists over to people who may have religious beliefs but their love of the almighty dollar supersedes said faith just a tad. If anything, I have more faith in these guys than the previous stewards of the properties. 

[Miauzi]

Vor 17 Stunden sagte demtrollz689:

Ich würde mir darüber keine allzu großen Sorgen machen. Sie hatten früher EA Middle East, bis sie beschlossen, das Spiel hier zu verbieten. Ich komme aus Dubai, VAE. Sie werden also nichts unternehmen, um das Spiel zu verbieten oder etwas zu ändern, aber ich habe gehört, dass sie versuchen, den Sims-Film hier verfügbar zu machen, da es Diskussionen gab, ob dieser Film in den GCC-Ländern verboten werden könnte. Darüber gibt es derzeit nur Spekulationen, daher ist es wahrscheinlich, dass sie nichts drastisches unternehmen werden. Wahrscheinlich wird alles beim Alten bleiben und sie werden die Spiele nur im Nahen Osten zulassen. 

Steam funktioniert hier ohne Probleme und die Dienste von DIscord sind seit der Pandemie wieder freigeschaltet (zum ersten Mal überhaupt hier, zusammen mit Zoom, Microsoft Teams und Google Meet – alle anderen VOIP-Dienste wie WhatsApp-Anrufe und Facetime sind im Nahen Osten immer noch gesperrt).

 

Well, yes - over 90% of the population in the Emirate of Dubai are -> foreigners with a temporary work permit.

You CANNOT acquire citizenship as someone born "outside" the country... aka, there is no such thing as "immigrants."

 

Overall, Dubai is still one of the more "tolerant" emirates in the UAE.

You can see what Saudi Arabia's politics look like by looking at Dubai's northern neighbor.

These people had gambled a bit (or quite a bit) when it came to "oil" and the associated "financial boon"... they were looking for oil and were already spending the money they hoped to earn from the extracted oil... the only problem was - they didn't find any oil at all and ended up heavily in debt.

No - the Islamic brothers in the UAE didn't want to help - so Saudi Arabia stepped in... with just one "condition" -> a much stricter interpretation of Islam.

 

Even as a tourist, you notice this in everyday life – it becomes even clearer when you talk to the many "guest workers"!

 

So anyone who knows Dubai or even lives/works there (or was perhaps born there) should actually know how Saudi Arabia really ticks... even under the new "prince," nothing has changed in its moral and religious core.

[beefers]

every major corporation has blood on it's hands so it really doesn't matter.

[landess]

18 hours ago, beefers said:

every major corporation has blood on it's hands so it really doesn't matter.

 

No one spends millions of dollars because it doesn't matter.

[Count Chocula]

On the nerdy "Actually ..." front, my understanding of what a hijab is that it's a head covering. A burka is full body covering including a mesh over the eyes. I had to look this up, but I think what is shown in the image several posts above is closest to a niqab, which I gather is more or less, but probably not exactly, a burka without the eye-covering mesh.

 

 The fact that the image shows the woman's face covered is what keeps me from saying that she is wearing a hijab on her head. But I guess there are also hijabs with veils.

 

And I am not an expert on clothing Muslim women might wear.

Edited November 4, 2025 by Count Chocula

[Snoopy911]

I think you got it wrong. Why is steam removing adult games right now? Why are many AAA games not selling well anymore?
I can tell you one thing it's not because of Saudi Arabia, and yes there might be new issues but probably less than we have now.

One can hope their primary concern is making money and if it is they just might have saved gaming. 

 

[SticksStackStuck]

I don't think the Saudis bought EA for the Sims, I am fairly certain they wanted the company for the sports games. They know oil won't last them forever, and they are desperately working to diversify their economy. Gaming might seem like a decent investment, but I don't think they are really after that either. Their main focus seems to be tourism.

 

The problem with tourism is that anyone who aren't ready for the Saudi brand of Islam and political despotism will stay away. Their answer has been to "sportswash" their heinous regime, particularly with football (the international kind, not what Americans call football). In EA, they're more likely after FIFA (EA Sports), so there's probably where you'll see the greatest impact.

My guess is we'll see FIFA having Saudi additions, meant to make the country look more appealing. The Sims is really small fry here. They might even decide to sell it, not being particularly interesting in the game or not finding any way they can use it to polish their image.

[djahdjah]

In the next FIFA game, we may have an option for the emir to go onto the pitch to put pressure on the referee.  😁

[Brisbane Australia]

You dig a hole in your backyard and oil comes up, sell it to the American's sell it to the west, get dollars.  Doesn't take too much brains.

 

One minor problem.. the oil is running out.

 

So now what to do?

 

Now they are like the rest of us.  Sitting there with their money but have no real idea what to actually do, turns out those brains were actually quite useful.

 

So they take the shotgun approach and buy whatever they can hoping something anything will pay off, golf, sports, tourism and here in Australia they are buying agriculture.

 

I would be very surprised to see heavy censorship across EA's games if the target market is the American player where the big dollars are.  And if you're a fund manager in Saudi who's just spent $50bn I don't think your priority will be saving the Americans from seeing a pair of tit's in The Sims.

 

 

 

On a side note we have a similar issue here in Australia, there are very few successful Australian companies who aren't foreign owned, many famous Australian products are foreign owned too and it isn't because people want a piece of Aussie culture to enjoy in their own country, they want the bucks $ and don't care what's in the Vegemite or that it looks and tastes like shit.

 

 

 

 

[GenocidalPenguin420]

i have yet to see any finalized deals on the playing field, nothing but talks, possible deals, and talks.
the fact remains that if this does go thru we could be facing a gut job.
i did a bit of research into their dealings of all investment companies and..... it is quite disturbing for sure.

#1 work ethics are forgotten.
#2 (like here in american but worse) environmental hazardous waste
#3 human rights violations (which DO include murder)
#4 underhanded dealings (though only one or two convicted others were merely "dismissed" *gives the shrek shifty eyed look"
#5 making contributions to political parties.  ( frankly i dont care about politics like some do but if they are bad people. i give a one finger salute)

the fact they can kill off a whole tribe of people simply because they, "want un dat land riht th`ur" is insane.


but more to the point of their beliefs, as you may (or may not) know their religion is quite strict when it comes to morals or what they consider morals.
not everyone has these same beliefs but i feel people will fear they will be targeted for such a thing, the old "believe in what i do or be destroyed under my boot" or a modern day The Crusade to which is a valid reason for concern.
if morals and what we do here goes against their teachings then we could very well may see more changes for the worst. blocking and maybe even legal action pressed onto the content creators for," Indemnification Clauses","User Conduct and Content Restrictions violations" for example. 

these types of things can always be twisted into something that it is not but they are underhanded, ruthless, and brain smart savvy guys that i would not want to cross.


TLDR: they bad men. not good for sims. go away bad people!

[DrSeptimus]

On 10/16/2025 at 12:30 AM, landess said:

That doesn't help the future of the Sims series, it's user base, and sites that host mods that would get us beheaded in their world. So sitting here thinking I began to wonder just how this will play out. If Profit is the Saudi's only motivation, then things 'should' remain as they have been under an anti-consumer based corporation. When foreign interests involve themselves in something American - it's makes me more than simply cautious since they refuse to build for themselves and keep trying to take 'ours'.

 

Odds are the adult mod would be block and unavailable at their region but those outside are free to use as they please. 

 

Just like how OF literally work at where I am. You are free to use it but you cannot distribute obscene material or you goes into prison.

 

[james664]

I hope they don't ban modding

[GenocidalPenguin420]

23 minutes ago, james664 said:

I hope they don't ban modding

if they do what fallout 4 did then ima play offline forever