Protesters deliver 70,000-signature petition against EA Saudi takeover

Protest against Electronic Arts’ Saudi-backed buyout moved from feeds to pavement this week, as Players Alliance HQ brought more than 70,000 petition signatures to EA’s Redwood City campus and tried to hand them directly to leadership. The message was clear: this is no longer just a boardroom transaction valued at about $55 billion, but a fight over who gets to control one of gaming’s biggest publishers and what that control could mean for players, studios and workers.

The demonstration centered on EA’s Madden field, a symbolic choice that made the company’s most recognizable sports brand part of the protest’s visual language. Organizers framed the action as a coordinated raid in MMO terms, a bit of gamer shorthand that fit the scene: a small group of roughly a dozen protesters, a livestream pushing the moment far beyond the sidewalk, and a petition scroll or sheet stretched out to show the scale of the backlash. Some participants dressed as Sims characters, turning one of EA’s best-known franchises into protest cosplay and making the campus visit feel like a live event rather than a routine rally.

The campaign is aimed at the definitive agreement EA announced on September 29, 2025, to be acquired by an investor consortium made up of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners. EA said shareholders would receive $210 per share, with the deal structured as about $36 billion in equity and $20 billion in debt financing. Andrew Wilson was set to remain CEO after the announcement, and EA pitched the take-private as a way to accelerate innovation and growth. Critics have read it differently, arguing that a debt-heavy ownership change could intensify pressure on series like Madden, The Sims, Battlefield and EA Sports FC to extract more money.

That pressure is exactly what the petitioners and their allies have been pointing to. Organizers have warned about sharper monetization, layoffs, AI replacing developers and higher prices. EA workers represented by the Communications Workers of America also publicly opposed the sale in October 2025, and Democratic members of Congress later urged the Federal Trade Commission to scrutinize the transaction. The deal is also expected to face review from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States because of PIF’s role.

EA declined to comment on the Monday protest, but the optics already did plenty of talking. A buyout that once looked like a distant finance story is now being treated like a legitimacy fight, with 70,000 signatures, a Madden field and a handful of costumed protesters forcing the argument into the open.