Daily greetings from the job cuts: EA announced on Wednesday that it would be cutting “around five percent” of its workforce – affecting around 670 employees. The publisher is also distancing itself from “licensed brands.”
Instead of abating, the waves of layoffs in the gaming industry are increasing in frequency: on Tuesday, Sony announced that it was laying off 900 PlayStation employees. The next day, Electronic Arts (EA) followed suit, cutting around 670 jobs at the publisher. “Approximately five percent of the workforce” is the first estimate from the corresponding statement issued late Wednesday. EA had already let go of around 800 employees in March 2023.
This time, not all affected employees are to be fired. Some “team members” would be given the option to “find new roles and move to other projects”. However, where this is not possible, “support” will be provided. Primarily in the form of severance payments, which EA has already made known in a notification to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Compensation payments to licensors are also listed there, which is related to the most urgent reason for the job cuts: EA CEO Andrew Wilson states in the open letter that he wants to distance himself from the “development of future licensed brands that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry”. So what the video game giant doesn’t own outright will be put to the performance test.
The holy trinity in EA’s focus
Instead, the company wants to “focus on our greatest strengths”. By this, Wilson means “own brands, sports and huge online communities”. In order to bundle the company’s internal resources, the job cuts are therefore being carried out as a “rationalization of our operational business”. Thanks to the departing employees are included in the factual statement. Words of regret are rare.
The process has already begun and should be completed in April or early May. The measure contrasts with EA’s latest quarterly report, according to which operating revenues increased by 76 million US dollars compared to the same period last year.
According to “IGN”, the US studio Respawn is also affected by the job cuts. Among other things, the developers there were recently working on a new first person shooter (FPS) in the Star Wars universe, which is to fall victim to the reorientation at EA, the magazine reports.