EA lays off 350 employees to 'refine' itself and 'meet the needs' of players

[Polycount]

Despite earning record revenues lately, AAA video game publishers are cutting costs as much as possible. Activision Blizzard laid off a significant portion of its workforce in February, and now Electronic Arts (EA) is following suit; for better or worse.

As reported by Kotaku's Jason Schreier, EA has opted to lay off a total of 350 employees -- about 4 percent of its workforce -- across marketing, publishing, and various other departments. Strangely, those are the same sorts of employees Activision Blizzard let go last month.

Whether this decision is being made to keep revenues and profits high for investors in the coming quarters is unknown, but EA claims this move is part of a larger attempt on the company's part to "better deliver" on its commitments, "refine" its organization, and "meet the needs" of its players.

It's not clear how letting its workers go will help EA accomplish those goals, but regardless of the specifics, the publisher's executives clearly view this debacle as a necessary evil.

"This is a difficult day. The changes we’re making today will impact about 350 roles in our 9,000-person company," a company spokesperson said in a statement to Kotaku. "These are important but very hard decisions, and we do not take them lightly. We are friends and colleagues at EA, we appreciate and value everyone’s contributions, and we are doing everything we can to ensure we are looking after our people to help them through this period to find their next opportunity."

EA says that terminated employees will receive full severance packages and "other" forms of assistance as they seek out alternate employment opportunities.

Apparently, this mass lay-off hasn't come completely out of left field for those in the know - the employees, to be specific. Kotaku claims that sources within the company have been expecting these firings after EA put "hiring and travel freezes" on the marketing department a few months ago.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/79373-ea-lays-off-350-employees-refine-organization-meet.html

 

[psycros]

They figured out that all that money is better spent buying off review sites and "influencers".

 

[Uncle Al]

OR they are playing that old game of turn over in hopes of getting some new, fresh idea's from employee's that they can steal and sell ......

 

[Nobina]

It must be so hard for them to fire these people. You can almost smell the bullshit over the internet.

 

[ghostf1re]

I'm sure this has nothing to do with the recent debacle that is Anthem...

 

[Evernessince]

It must be so hard for them to fire these people. You can almost smell the bullshit over the internet.

Would not be surprised if the CEO gets a raise soon.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

The CEO should be the one getting fired, for leading the company in dishonorable and unfaithful business practices, hurting the employees and customers.

Greed knows no bounds...

 

[Nobina]

Would not be surprised if the CEO gets a raise soon.

Like when Activision Blizzard fired people and then bragged to investors about record financial success.

 

[noel24]

The cancer that was eating that corpo - firing the devs they bought, now gets to the head. I would say, good ridance to the whole of EA, I hope You'll "refine" Yourself completely. You are a cancer on a whole industry, destroying electronic arts for all of the consumers.

 

[hahahanoobs]

They figured out that all that money is better spent buying off review sites and "influencers".

Not with BFV. YouTubers are more vocal than ever with their negativity with that title.

 

[texasrattler]

The cancer that was eating that corpo - firing the devs they bought, now gets to the head. I would say, good ridance to the whole of EA, I hope You'll "refine" Yourself completely. You are a cancer on a whole industry, destroying electronic arts for all of the consumers.

You must be talking about all the game publishers n a good chunk of devs cause they all do crap. There isnt one out there that dont do things to make money. Sure they do some shady stuff but they all do.
EA isnt going anywhere, they have Respawn and they have one of the hottest games going right now. That will likely last a year or 2. EA also has a ton of cash flow, they can buy several things 2-3x over. So again they arent going anywhere.
EA made 90 million on a freakin free game in one month.
People will always cry about this n that but anyone who makes a hit game will find success no matter who they are. All it takes is one hit to make things better. Maybe this is it for them. Time will tell.

 

[texasrattler]

Would not be surprised if the CEO gets a raise soon.

90 million made on a free game, probably so.
They have a hit game. Profits will be raking in for awhile.
While I dont like they used streamers and was not even needed at all, game has done well n will continue to do so for ahwile. The money could have been spent on the game imo rather to play a few streamers that didnt even make the game popular, the free part did. Respawn is a young but good company. Many forget they are the original IW team, granted they do have new talent these days.

 

[texasrattler]

Not with BFV. YouTubers are more vocal than ever with their negativity with that title.

BFV isnt as bad as some say. We'll see how their BR mode, firestorm fares. If it does well, so far it looks interesting, maybe itll help the game.

 

[Evernessince]

90 million made on a free game, probably so.
They have a hit game. Profits will be raking in for awhile.
While I dont like they used streamers and was not even needed at all, game has done well n will continue to do so for ahwile. The money could have been spent on the game imo rather to play a few streamers that didnt even make the game popular, the free part did. Respawn is a young but good company. Many forget they are the original IW team, granted they do have new talent these days.

Apex was good, yes but a CEO's pay is not based on a single studio's performance. Other then Apex, their performance has been terrible. Anthem has been a massive flop.

The Respawn team deserves raises for making a good game. The EA CEO does not. I miss the days when employees were rewarded for their effort and when CEOs weren't businessmen but in fact veterans from the industry.

 

[texasrattler]

The CEO should be the one getting fired, for leading the company in dishonorable and unfaithful business practices, hurting the employees and customers.

Greed knows no bounds...

Find one CEO in this world that dont do that. Oh wait, there isnt any. All corporations hurt employees n piss off customers. Its just the business there in. Sure things should change n maybe they will but it doesnt happen overnight.

 

[texasrattler]

Apex was good, yes but a CEO's pay is not based on a single studio's performance. Other then Apex, their performance has been terrible. Anthem has been a massive flop.

The Respawn team deserves raises for making a good game. The EA CEO does not. I miss the days when employees were rewarded for their effort and when CEOs weren't businessmen but in fact veterans from the industry.

True its not based on a single event but no CEO will ever get things right, most of the time they dont. Some do get fired but also a lot get credit n get raises for something going right under there watch. Its just how the business is done. Not right but it is what it is.
Respawn will get paid, Vince will make damn sure of that. His teams were paid well since the original CoD, Modern warfare n the sequel.

Anthem isnt on EA. EA gave Bioware an extra year n they still messed it up. The issues with the game or lack of popularity is because of the dev not publisher.
I have the game, yes there are some issues some more serious than others but I think its a good game n may even have more promise once its all fixed up.
Fallout 76 is running into the same problems. Some are now saying its starting to look n feel better. Yes it may go down as a failure but the game overall as it is, is much much better than 6 months ago.

 

[Bubbajim]

EA says that terminated employees will receive full severance packages and "other" forms of assistance as they seek out alternate employment opportunities.

"Alongside full severance, we're offering our ex-colleagues a sense of pride and accomplishment. Plus some limited edition lootboxes, keys for which will be sold separately."

(jk)

 

[ShObiT]

Most of them From "Publicity and Marketing".... I guess someone is getting the axe due to the bad marketing and the "Woke" push in latest games...

 

[ShObiT]

Apex was good, yes but a CEO's pay is not based on a single studio's performance. Other then Apex, their performance has been terrible. Anthem has been a massive flop.

The Respawn team deserves raises for making a good game. The EA CEO does not. I miss the days when employees were rewarded for their effort and when CEOs weren't businessmen but in fact veterans from the industry.

True its not based on a single event but no CEO will ever get things right, most of the time they dont. Some do get fired but also a lot get credit n get raises for something going right under there watch. Its just how the business is done. Not right but it is what it is.
Respawn will get paid, Vince will make damn sure of that. His teams were paid well since the original CoD, Modern warfare n the sequel.

Anthem isnt on EA. EA gave Bioware an extra year n they still messed it up. The issues with the game or lack of popularity is because of the dev not publisher.
I have the game, yes there are some issues some more serious than others but I think its a good game n may even have more promise once its all fixed up.
Fallout 76 is running into the same problems. Some are now saying its starting to look n feel better. Yes it may go down as a failure but the game overall as it is, is much much better than 6 months ago.

Anthem demise is not only because of the Devs, its because the expectations was set too high after all the controversies that EA and Bioware had before the game came out.