As abortion access and transgender rights are gutted across the United States, many businesses are stepping up to make public statements supporting their employees’ right to bodily autonomy, but you won’t find video game studio Electronic Arts on that list.
According to a Kotaku report, the company’s chief people officer Mala Singh told employees during a town hall earlier this week that EA would only publicly decry abortion bans and anti-trans bills if they could determine such statements would “actually have a positive impact” and that the opinion was a “consistent perspective” among all of the company’s 13,000 employees.
Singh reportedly emphasized that “the thing that unites us is that we’re all here to make amazing games […] and that is how we have the most positive impact on the world,” adding that “sometimes we [as a company] won’t speak, and that will be upsetting and I understand that.”
Those comments sound strikingly similar to Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s initial stance that including LGBTQ+ characters in its stories (i.e. allowing lesbians in The Owl House) was reason enough for the company to maintain its silence in the face of Florida’s disastrous “Don’t Say Gay” law.
In lieu of any public support, Singh reportedly told employees that a “benefits update” was on its way to offer relief to affected workers, but did not specify what form the new benefits would take.
Other companies, including Starbucks and game developer Certain Affinity, have announced they will offer employees new benefits such as coverage for travel costs to obtain reproductive health care, and reimbursement for relocation expenses, but how such benefits will be implemented and delivered is still unclear.
As Kotaku notes, EA made no attempt to strike such a politically neutral tone after the murder of George Floyd by police in 2020, signing on to an industry letter in support of the Black Lives Matter movement (which was itself noncommittal about changing the status quo, or even naming police violence specifically). Singh also made her comments the same week EA announced its new update for The Sims 4 rolling out long-awaited customizable pronouns for English-language players, raising sharp questions about performative allyship on the part of senior EA staff.
Also eyebrow-raising is the report that Singh urged those listening to make use of the additional “healing circles” the company would offer through the therapy app Modern Health, as though this were a problem that telemedicine could solve.
Of course, EA is no stranger to controversy over its reported treatment of employees. The developer has been synonymous with the word “crunch” among fans since at least 2004, given reports of long hours and poor working conditions, and was the only company to win Consumerist magazine’s Worst Company in America award two years running. Just add this latest chapter to the pile of evidence proving corporations aren’t your friends, even when lives are literally on the line.
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