The company is undergoing the second large restructuring it has conducted in as many years.
Electronic Arts (EA) recently announced that it is including itself in the recent trend among so many video game companies of late and is laying off about 5 percent of its global staff.
This will amount to about 670 people losing their jobs
EA CEO Andrew Wilson issued a letter to the entire company in which he explained that the video game company is undergoing a massive restructuring, and the layoffs are a part of that process. The restructuring has led to the elimination of certain positions and the cancellation of the continuation of certain ongoing projects.
This particularly impacted team members who were working on licensed IPs. According to Wilson’s letter, the company intends to place a greater focus on owned IPs as is moves ahead.
The video game company is fine tuning its future direction
“We are also sunsetting games and moving away from the development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry,” said Wilson in the letter. “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.”
The letter also announced that the company intends to close at least one of its studios as a component of the broader restructuring. This will involve Ridgeline Games, a studio based in Seattle that had been focused on the Battlefield single-player game. That studio’s closing was confirmed by co-founder Marcus Lehto, who confirmed the news on X (formerly Twitter), and who had already left the company shortly beforehand due to personal reasons.
The restructuring at EA is moving ahead quickly according to Wilson’s letter. The intention is to complete the changes by early in the second quarter of 2024.
The letter didn’t point to any specific titles in development that would be shutting down. That said, following Wilson’s letter, the company’s entertainment president Laura Miele confirmed that Respawn Entertainment’s first-person shooter video game in the Star Wars franchise was being canceled.
“This is the second major restructuring at EA in as many years,” explained Miele. “Last March, the company laid off 6% of its workforce, around 775 employees.”