EA is laying off over 650 employees

Online game firm Digital Arts will lay off 5 precent of its workforce in response to a report it filed with the Securities and Trade Fee on Wednesday. Greater than 650 EA staff will lose their jobs on account of the transfer, a part of a broader limiting that may see the corporate slicing again on workplace house and ending work on some video video games.

EA’s cuts are the most recent in a protracted line of layoffs which have rocked the online game trade since final 12 months. In 2023, greater than 10,500 online game staff misplaced their jobs, and greater than 6,000 individuals within the trade had been reduce in January 2024 alone. The online game corporations which have laid off staff to this point embody Microsoft, Riot Video games, and Unity amongst many others. On Tuesday, Sony announced that it was shedding 900 individuals from its PlayStation division, roughly 8 % of its headcount.

In a memo despatched to EA staff, CEO Andrew Wilson wrote that the corporate is “streamlining our firm operations to ship deeper, extra linked experiences for followers all over the place.” EA expects to complete making the cuts by early subsequent quarter, the memo says. The cuts, Wilson provides, will let EA focus extra on its “largest alternatives — together with our owned IP, sports activities, and large on-line communities.”

One of many video games that the transfer will straight influence is a Star Wars first-person shooter being labored upon by Respawn, a recreation improvement studio that EA acquired in 2017, according to IGN. “It is at all times laborious to stroll away from a mission, and this choice is just not a mirrored image of the crew’s expertise, tenacity, or ardour they’ve for the sport,” EA Leisure president Laura Miele reportedly advised workers in a notice. “Giving followers the following installments of the long-lasting franchises they need is the definition of blockbuster storytelling and the appropriate place to focus.”

Replace, February 28 2024, 5:45 PM ET: This story has been up to date with extra particulars of the canceled Star Wars recreation.