Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson announced today that the company is “advancing the way we work and evolving our business,” meaning it will lay off approximately 5% of its workforce.
Wilson's News begins with a triumphant note about how EA is “entertaining, inspiring and connecting more people with more content and deeper experiences than ever before.” He goes on to say that previous restructuring efforts at EA, particularly the leadership changes announced in 2023, “have enabled us to create bigger, bolder experiences for hundreds of millions of players and fans around the world.”
Then he really gets going: “As a company full of creators and storytellers, we believe in the value of teams innovating together, and we continue to learn and adopt new ways of working together to grow and serve our global communities.” That’s what it sounds like good, right? Well, it's not that.
After noting that EA “continues to optimize our global real estate footprint to best support our business,” and will discontinue unspecified games and “steer away from developing future licensed IP that we do not believe will be in will be successful in our changing industry,” he finally gets to the heart of the matter.
“We are streamlining our business operations to deliver deeper, more connected experiences to fans around the world that build community, shape culture and grow fan bases,” said Wilson. “During this time of change, we expect these decisions will impact approximately 5 percent of our workforce.”
The number of employees laid off was not specified, but was stated in March 2023 SEC filing It is estimated that EA's global workforce is around 13,400, meaning around 670 people could be affected. That number isn't final: Wilson said EA will try to find “new roles” for employees where possible and “communicate those impacts,” which I think is C-suite speak for telling people they no longer have a job will not be completed until sometime in the company's next fiscal quarter.
Electronic Arts has focused heavily on licensed games in recent years, particularly Disney-owned games like Star Wars and Marvel. It's unclear whether Wilson's reference to moving away from licensed games includes projects currently in the works, but a representative confirmed it with gaming industry that the previously announced Iron Man and Black Panther games are still in the works.
The announcement of layoffs at Electronic Arts comes just hours after Deck Nine Games said it would cut 20% of its staff, continuing a year that has been nothing short of disastrous for the industry's workforce. 2023 was a terrible year and 2024 is already on track to surpass it: Sony yesterday announced plans to lay off 900 employees, while esports company ESL Faceit Group announced it would cut 15% of its workforce, and on the day previously Supermassive announced it would lay off around 90 of its employees. Blackbird Interactive, Twitch, Riot, Behavior Interactive and Microsoft have also made significant staff cuts this year.
