EA exec calls employees ‘little babies’ for being worried about losing their jobs

As staff at EA fear they could be out of a job following the recent buyout, execs have been just as empathetic and thoughtful as you’d expect.

In case you missed it, EA’s plans to become a private company went through earlier this month, meaning it officially has new owners in the form of a group of investors that includes the Saudi Arabian government’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and US president Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

This new arrangement stands only to benefit EA’s top brass, and the new owners, rather than its customers. It certainly won’t help its employees, since the company is expected to start laying people off almost immediately, to help manage the $20 billion debt it’s suddenly been saddled with.

As such, morale within EA is reportedly at an all time low and there doesn’t seem to be any sympathy from up top, especially as one executive has been accused of describing concerned employees as ‘little babies.’

This is according to a report from Game Developer, who spoke with multiple anonymous EA employees who are understandably worried about the impact of the buyout.

EA set up Q&A sessions to assuage concerns, but it sounds like they’ve only offered typical PR non-answers. One source said, ‘Responses are mostly just vague reassurances. It hasn’t done enough to quell a lot of the fears over job security or creative influences with Saudi owners.’

This was the case even before the acquisition was finalised. During an autumn 2025 meeting, many employees shared their worries about job security post-buyout.

According to two corroborating sources, when the meeting ended, one of the directors of EA’s lifestyle pillar failed to turn their microphone off and was overheard calling employees ‘little babies.’

In a separate meeting, one executive commented on needing to buy their kid a new horse, which some employees feel was simply meant to be a joke, but still one made in poor taste and further proof at how out of touch EA’s executives are.

‘Some of us have trouble making ends meet. Some of us lost our jobs with no prospect of finding a new one. I bet most of us don’t even have one pony,’ says one employee.

This isn’t even getting into whether being under the ownership of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman will significantly impact EA’s work culture or the content of its games.

Saudi Arabia has a less than progressive stance towards the LGBTQ community, which means there are fears that franchises known for depicting LGBTQ characters, like The Sims and Mass Effect, will have those elements toned down or stripped out entirely.

Last year, CEO Andrew Wilson insisted that ‘Our values and our commitment to players and fans around the world remain unchanged.’ But you should never take a CEO’s comments at face value… especially one who made a sizable amount of money off the success of Battlefield 6 while laying off portions of its development team.

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