The split between Electronic Arts and FIFA may have resulted in more than just the end of EA-published FIFA-branded soccer games: Now EA’s pushed through a round of layoffs.
Kotaku reports that as many as 100 workers have been laid off from EA’s Austin, Texas, branch, many of them involved with live ops on FIFA 22. According to a leaked internal email, EA told workers the layoffs were meant to “reduce complexity and increase our efficiency, flexibility and scalability” and suggested more layoffs could be on the way in the Ireland offices as well [Update: It looks as if the Ireland officers were indeed affected]. These roles will apparently be outsourced instead.
“The changes in our customer support function are not tied to any one gaming franchise, nor are they connected to our EA SPORTS FC announcement last week,” EA told Kotaku. “The customer support function support a wide range of player questions pertaining to our gaming titles, technology, including Origin or our EA Play subscription service.”
In other FIFA-related news – and a bit more in our wheelhouse – Nexon announced that FIFA Online 4 and its mobile counterpart, both of which continue to perform well overseas, will remain unaffected by the FIFA brand’s moves. “We don’t expect any change to the actual game,” Nexon told GIbiz. “Nexon’s agreement is with EA so all the players, stadiums and features will still be in the game.”
