Electronic Arts Cuts 5% Of Workforce, Closes Studio And Cancels Games

The game industry layoffs continue with third-party publisher and developer Electronic Arts today revealing it’s laying off 5% of its staff, which reportedly equates to about 670 employees.

In a message to the team, Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson cited this as a response to the “accelerating industry transformation”. As a result, the company is “sunsetting games and moving away from development of future licensed IP” which it believes may not be successful.

Going forward, it will now have a “greater focus” on its “owned IP, sports, and massive online communities”. As part of this, it’s streamlining company operations to deliver “deeper, more connected experiences for fans” which help “build community, shape culture and grow fandom”.

Here’s part of what Wilson had to say about the layoffs:

“In this time of change, we expect these decisions to impact approximately 5 percent of our workforce. I understand this will create uncertainty and be challenging for many who have worked with such dedication and passion and have made important contributions to our company. While not every team will be impacted, this is the hardest part of these changes, and we have deeply considered every option to try and limit impacts to our teams. Our primary goal is to provide team members with opportunities to find new roles and paths to transition onto other projects. Where that’s not possible, we will support and work with each colleague with the utmost attention, care, and respect.”

These changes will be “largely completed by early next quarter”. As part of this, the reported Star Wars first-person game by Respawn Entertainment (Apex Legends) which was in early development has been cancelled. The Battlefield single-player studio Ridgeline Games has also been shutdown and EA is sunsetting multiple mobile projects including a Lord of the Rings title that is less than a year old.

This follows on from multiple other industry layoffs already this year. PlayStation yesterday axed 900 jobs, which removed 8% of its workforce, and other companies like Microsoft and Riot Games have also restructured.