During late September, Electronic Arts Inc. entered into a deal to be acquired by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners for $55 billion. On top of that, EA announced a partnership yesterday with Stability AI. All of this has led to some of the top The Sims 4 content creators, lovingly called “Simmers”, making public statements regarding this move.
Many of these prominent The Sims 4 creators are announcing that they’re removing themselves from the EA Creator Network. The EA Creator Network gives content creators early access to EA’s games, such as popular life sim The Sims 4, as well as invitations to special events, exclusive opportunities, and more. They make the creators into their specialized street team, of sorts, which means that’s a huge part of the now-Saudi-owned company’s marketing.
The simmers have spoken!
While not exhaustive, you can take a look at various statements from the major Simmers below, which include lilsimsie, James Turner, Vixella, CarynandConnieGaming, Plumbella, and Steph0sims. These posts were posted to each creator’s YouTube post feature as an update.
As I’m sure many of you have seen, it was recently announced that EA is going to be sold to private investors for $55 billion. This news has devastated me. The values represented by the people acquiring EA are fundamentally at odds with what I stand for and support. I’ve been losing sleep over it for weeks, and I’ve been deeply struggling with what to do moving forward.
I have so much love for The Sims. This game has completely shaped my entire life, and I care so deeply about The Sims and the community.
I have made the decision to remove myself from the EA Creator Network. It is my hope that pressure from creators and the community might encourage EA’s leadership to reconsider the long-term impact of this sale and to preserve the values that have made The Sims so beloved. This means that I will no longer receive early access to Sims packs, and I will not have a creator code. Under this new ownership I feel I cannot maintain a direct association to the company. I also truly believe that they benefit more from my early access content than I do, and I think that stepping away is the strongest action I can take against the sale.
This situation is a nightmare for our community. Nobody supports this sale, and it is putting creators in a very difficult position. They have built their entire career and livelihood over a game that they have no control over. I ask that you please not harass other Sims creators over their decisions regarding the game and the creator network. I am very fortunate to be in a position where I can make a choice like this, but not everyone has that ability. I don’t truly don’t believe there is a “right” answer here, and everyone is still trying to figure out their next steps.
I’ve always streamed lots of other cozy games on my Twitch channel and posted them on @moresimsie, and I plan to start incorporating some other games that I think you might like here on this channel. This isn’t the kind of change that can happen overnight, and I will still be posting videos playing The Sims. I’ve always been a little bit afraid of posting other content on this channel for fear of alienating my audience, but there are a lot of “Sims adjacent” games that I really enjoy and I would love to start introducing them here.
I’m working on a new Animal Crossing series right now, and I think that if you love building in The Sims you’ll also really like decorating in Animal Crossing. I am so grateful for your support on the Animal Crossing video I made a couple weeks ago, and I hope you’ll like my new ones. I used to post a lot of House Flipper content here a few years ago, and I intend to bring that back. I am also a huge fan of city building games, and I’m really looking forward to the release of Paralives in December. I’ve been (impatiently) waiting for that one for years!
And for the record, Sims was my name first! My real name is literally Kayla Sims, and “Simsie” is a childhood nickname. It’s unfortunate that my username seems so directly tied to the game, but I don’t have any plans to change it. It’s my name!
I’m really, really distraught over this sale and I know that many of you are as well. It’s scary, and it’s breaking my heart. I really appreciate your support as I try to navigate this.
Hey everyone,
This post is regarding the EA Buyout. If you’re unaware, a deal was announced that would take EA from a publicly traded company to being privately owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners and Silverlake.I made an initial comment and response when the news was announced 3 weeks ago. This response was on my Discord server and I relayed it in various YouTube comment replies. I understand not many people would have seen this and would like clarification on the plans for the channel, content and me personally.
I wanted to ensure I took my time to understand the situation and what the future will look like for the channel.
I’ve loved The Sims ever since I started playing back in 2000. I began making videos about it in 2006 and have been doing so consistently since 2012, that’s over 13 years of creating Sims content. I love what I do and have loved what I have been doing. That’s why I found it important to take my time to figure out the next steps that are right for me and for the channel.
With the news of the buyout and understanding who will be owning EA in the future, I plan on shifting our focus to including more variety. In addition to that I have decided to leave the EA Creator Network and have asked to remove my creator code.
Change takes time, the shift in content and new approach will gradually happen. So you can expect some more variety of content, though I won’t be playing games too dissimilar from The Sims on this channel. We have Paralives coming soon which I’m excited to finally get to check out!
If you want even more from me, I’ll be playing some more games that don’t quite fit on this channel. Those videos can be found on my other channels which I’ll start posting some more content on once again:
@MoreJamesTurner – this will have content more closely related to this channel such as Dreamlight Valley and I was doing a Minecraft series with DrGluon over there.
@Flabaliki – has existed as long as this channel but has been much slower in recent years. I am excited to post some more videos there on games such as Cities: Skylines, Transport Fever 3 and some more Planet Coaster 2Finally, I want to say thank you to my channel members, your support really helps out so much.
And thank you all so much for watching and supporting me and the channel. I’m excited about what the future holds for the channel and the content, it will be a new chapter. I’ve been on this platform creating videos for nearly 2 decades and in that time we’ve seen change, we’ve adapted, and this will give us that opportunity once again.Thank you all,
James
Regarding the situation with EA & The Sims right now,
Due to the recent EA buyout and their partnerships with AI, I have decided to step down from the EA Creator Network.
I will continue to play The Sims on my channel for all the people who have found comfort and peace in my content over the last twelve years with this franchise but I just can’t see myself associating with the Creator Network seeing the direction that EA is taking at this current time.
I feel very fortunate that I am able to make this choice, I know not everyone is in the same position to do this and that’s completely okay too. I don’t think there is a “correct” way to go about this and I please ask that you don’t harass other content creators for the choices they make during this time.
At the end of the day creators like myself truly just hope that The Sims gets a different and better owner in the future and that things won’t change within the game.
While I’ll still be uploading regular Sims videos, I am definitely open to trying different games & videos as I try to navigate this whole situation. I only do variety content on Twitch so that won’t be changing. As for Youtube, changes will be slow but I am currently (and have been for awhile) thinking about what other types of content I can make for the channel that is not always Sims related. I am always open to suggestions if you’d like to tell me your ideas too!
This is without a doubt an extremely difficult time for all Sims Creators (myself included) because ultimately what EA is doing is out of our control.
Thank you all for understanding.
hey all
we wanted to make sure y’all know that we have left the EA Creator Network as this buyout and future ownership does not align with our beliefs or values. we know we’ve already said this, but just wanna put it here too that we have not purchased any sims packs since the buyout was announced, nor have we made a video with them. it is our biggest hope that EA reevaluates this decision, and the impact it has on people as well as the community that has supported The Sims for so long.
this is a personal decision from us, we do not judge other creators on their decisions as it is all around so hard to navigate this horrible situation.
we were gonna bring this up when our next video was posted, but honestly its been very hard for us to create content right now in a positive mindset, so we are not even sure when the next video will happen. as you can tell from our latest video, we are branching out into other content, and we appreciate the support we have gotten from y’all on it. thank you so much for being here with us as we try to figure out whats next ❤️❤️
Due to the recent sale, I have asked to leave the EA Creator Network and I will not buy or make content around any future release.
I think taking this stand is the right choice for me personally, but I’m not going to judge anybody on their decision. I’m in a privileged position to be able to say I’m leaving so easily.
I hope that the sale falls through, and if it doesn’t, I hope that those that stay put pressure on EA to maintain the level of inclusiveness that The Sims has always been about.
Hi guys,
I’ve made the decision to step away from the EA creator network and all EA related partnerships and sponsorships. For those who don’t know- EA recently privately sold to Saudi Arabia’s Public investment firm and Jared Kushner.
The Sims has always been a place of comfort for me. I’ve always supported its values and progressiveness but I cannot continue to support a company that directly opposes all those beliefs. Although the sale will not be finalised until late 2026 and there is a chance it may fall through, I believe now is the right time to take action, apply pressure and speak out against it.
This decision has been extremely hard and I would really appreciate your patience whilst I figure out the right path going forward. As of right now sims will still be apart of my channel (and some other games) but I will not be making content on new sims releases going forward aside from one last video about the fairies pack as this was already finished prior to the announcement.
This has really not been easy- I’ve been working with the sims since I was 17, friends of mine are employees working on the game and it’s my career. But unfortunately the sims cannot be separated from its new owners and I cannot align myself or financially support something that is in complete contradiction to my values.
Steph
The Sims 4 responds to the creators on social media
As mentioned, this is just some of the top The Sims 4 content creators. While some are still going to create The Sims 4 content for the time being, many are already looking into other cozy games for future content, such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons, House Flipper, and Dreamlight Valley.
After the deluge of exiting content creators, The Sims 4 put out an official statement on their social media channels earlier this afternoon. While it doesn’t address the content creators directly, it’s pointedly in reference to the situation, while seemingly trying to move past it.
While the future of EA and The Sims 4 remains to be seen, the creators have spoken. And it may have rattled a few chains. We do highly recommend you head to each linked account above, follow them, and support the creators mentioned here. We are big fans of content creators who stand on business and fight for an inclusive world.
