Electronic Arts announces layoffs and cancellation of Star Wars

Another day, another round of mass layoffs in the gaming industry. Electronic Arts (EA) has announced that it will do so Cutting about five percent of its staffWhich resulted in nearly 700 people being fired from their jobs. Games are also being canceled and at least one development studio has closed.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson announced the layoffs in an email to employees, which was later posted on the company’s blog on Wednesday.

“[W]“We are streamlining our company operations to deliver deeper, more connected experiences to audiences everywhere that build community, shape culture and grow fandom,” said Wilson. “In this time of change, we expect these decisions to impact approximately 5 percent of our workforce.”

according to EA Annual Report 2023The company employed approximately 13,400 people as of the end of March last year. Five percent of that is 670 people.

“[W]“We will support and work with each colleague with the utmost attention, care and respect,” Wilson wrote — a euphemism for their layoffs.

Avoiding explicit terms like “layoffs,” “cuts,” and “headcount reductions,” Wilson stated that EA would try to move employees into new projects or roles before letting them go. Conversations with affected employees have already begun and are expected to conclude around April. However, many people will likely find themselves without a job.

This is the second mass layoffs announced by EA in less than a year. In a similar post last MarchWilson revealed that the company will cut six percent of its workforce at that time, which amounts to Nearly 800 people.

Mashable has reached out to EA for comment.

EA is moving away from licensed IPs

Staff cuts aren’t the only cuts at EA. In addition to “continuing to optimize our global real estate footprint” AKA reducing its office space, the company is eliminating or discontinuing some of its development studio addresses. Notably, this includes shifting focus away from games based on licensed intellectual property (IP), as EA seems to see little future for them.

“We are also winding down gaming and moving away from developing future licensed intellectual property that we don’t believe will be successful in our changing industry,” Wilson said.

According to the CEO, this change will allow EA to focus on “its biggest opportunities – including [they company’s] Owned Intellectual Property, Sports, and Huge Online Communities.”

This does not mean that the company is canceling everything EA Studios Games based on external licensed IP. Cliffhanger gamesBlack panther title and Motivation StudioIron Man game It is said to remain in development For now, though, developers may not feel too reassured by Wilson’s statements.

However, EA canceled it star Wars A first-person shooter game developed by Respawn Entertainment. Respawn is the studio behind Apex Legends And the star wars jedi Series and franchises are now once again geared towards it.

“When we’ve looked at Respawn’s portfolio over the past few months, it’s clear that the games our players are most excited about are serious And Respawn’s rich library of owned brands.” said EA President of Entertainment and Technology Laura Milley. “Knowing this, we have decided to step away from early Star Wars FPS Action development to focus our efforts on new projects based on our owned brands while providing support for existing games.”

EA’s decision to avoid licensed IP also extends to its mobile games, where the company previously announced it would discontinue gaming Hollywood Kim Kardashian, The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth, MLB Press Baseball SportsAnd F1 Mobile.

“These games have entertained so many people over the years, and this is the right time to focus our time on the games remaining in our portfolio that we believe can grow,” Mele said. “We have some great titles, and I’m optimistic about where we can take our large library of proprietary intellectual property.”

Unfortunately, even working on company-owned intellectual property does not guarantee safety from layoffs, as not all EA studios survived the cull. American developer Ridgeline Studio It will be completely closed, with the studio head and aura The content was actually co-created by Marcus Lehto Make a personal decision to leave. Starting It will be unveiled in September 2022Ridgeline focused on creating a new story set in a world battlefield being. Now this responsibility has been transferred to Benchmark gameswhile the Ridgeline will shut down without charging any game at all.

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News of EA’s layoffs comes just one day after PlayStation announced it would lay off about 900 of its employees, including employees at well-known development studios like Naughty Dog, Insomniac Games, and Guerrilla Games. Running tally by Kotaku It is estimated that more than 8,000 people have been laid off in the gaming industry in just the past two months. This represents a discount of only 1,000 from estimates of the number of gaming industry workers who will be cut throughout the entirety of 2023 – A year already defined by mass layoffs at games.