Some huge news from EA dropped yesterday, and it seems many employees at the company have lost their jobs. The company announced a huge company wide shake-up, that is resulting in 5% of the company losing their jobs. This number equates to around 670 employees.
Following CEO Andrew Wilson’s announcement of the cuts today, EA Entertainment president Laura Miele shared a note with staff explaining in more detail what EA’s business priorities would be going forward. This includes her announcement that EA is shutting down an early development Star Wars FPS action game as a part of an ongoing focus on its own owned brands and supporting its existing games.
“It’s always hard to walk away from a project, and this decision is not a reflection of the team’s talent, tenacity, or passion they have for the game,” Miele wrote. “Giving fans the next installments of the iconic franchises they want is the definition of blockbuster storytelling and the right place to focus.”
Website IGN reports that the team that was working on the now cancelled Mandalorian project will be reassigned to other games including Iron Man, Black Panther, Apex Legends, and the third entry in the Star Wars Jedi saga.
It hasn’t been a good last couple of years for the video gaming industry. For the financial quarter ending in December of 2023, EA reported net bookings of $2.37 billion (up 7% year over year) and net revenue of $1.945 billion, largely driven by EA Sports FC and Madden. The company’s layoff of roughly 670 individuals is yet another instance of ongoing mass layoffs rocking the entire industry, impacting roughly 10,000 developers in 2023, and approaching 8,000 in just the first two months of 2024. EA itself already laid off 6% of its workforce almost a year ago, with Wilson at the time citing very similar motivations to this year’s. Despite those layoffs, the total headcount prior to today’s cuts is higher (13,400) than it was during the last mass layoff (12,900).
The company’s SEC filing states that the company will take on approximately $125 million to $165 million in costs in connection with these layoffs, including costs related to office space reductions, severance, and costs related to licensor commitments, likely related to the canceled Star Wars game.
It seems getting a video game completed and out to the public is becoming harder and harder. With this news, it also seems like my dreams of a third installment of Star Wars: Battlefront will never come to fruition.
With all of that said, hopefully these employees that were let go, will get back on their feet quickly with different companies working on successful games!
