If your friends decided to jump off a bridge lay off hundreds of the very workers who made their products, would you do it too? Apparently EA would, as it’s adding to the ongoing games industry carnage by laying off 5% of its workforce – 670 employees.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson characterizes the layoffs as part of a movement to streamline company ops, even as he admits it will result in more sunsetted games. It’s a bizarre message that practically sounds AI-scripted and meaningless in the context of the other layoff letters so far in 2024; as RPS put it, it’s a bit hard to swallow the “our business is doing better than ever, which is why we’re getting rid of nearly 700 people” line in any year, but especially this one.
“Given how and where we are working, we are continuing to optimize our global real estate footprint to best support our business. We are also sunsetting games and moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry. This greater focus allows us to drive creativity, accelerate innovation, and double down on our biggest opportunities — including our owned IP, sports, and massive online communities — to deliver the entertainment players want today and tomorrow. Lastly, we are streamlining our company operations to deliver deeper, more connected experiences for fans everywhere that build community, shape culture, and grow fandom. In this time of change, we expect these decisions to impact approximately 5 percent of our workforce.”
Thus far, we know one of those canceled games will be Respawn’s in-development Star Wars FPS, as well as two mobile titles. Ridgeline Game is also apparently being closed, which was working on a solo Battlefield campaign.
