Videogame giant Electronic Arts, in its first major move since going private this summer, is restructuring its studios business — which will result in layoffs of about 3% of global workforce. The updates to EA’s studios operations were outlined in a memo to EA employees Wednesday from Cam Weber, president and chief studios officer, and David Tinson, president and COO. The company will close BioWare’s Canadian office in Edmonton.
EA last reported 14,500 employees, meaning the layoffs affect around 400 staffers. In more upbeat news, Weber and Tinson touted first-person shooter “Battlefield 6” as “a great success, and we learned a lot from the launch and the live service.” Going forward, in addition to future “Battlefield” titles, the execs said “we’ll be bringing together our Respawn and DICE studios to collaborate on a future project.” While they did not identify the project, multiple sources confirmed that this is “Star Wars: Battlefront 3″ for Lucasfilm. EA also will continue to “invest heavily” in the “Apex Legends” franchise over the next few years, with plans to introduce new gameplay modes in multiplayer, along with other new experiences.
Elsewhere in the action-adventure segment, EA remains committed delivering on “our two huge launches coming up,” the execs said: “Marvel’s Iron Man” and the next “Star Wars Jedi” game. At EA Sports, there are two new projects in development that will be revealed over the next few months, including a new, “social-first open-world experience for our American Football team that we call ‘Project Gridiron,'” the execs said. The studio also is in pre-production to bring back fan-favorite boxing game “Fight Night” after a 15-year hiatus.
Finally, in the lifestyle category, “we’re focusing on the long-term potential” of “The Sims” and skateboarding title “Skate.”, the EA execs wrote. For “Skate.”, EA is “making changes to the studio to have a more focused, smaller team to deliver on a very clear roadmap for our community that we believe will build a healthier and more sustainable business,” the execs wrote. On Aug. 4, EA closed the announced private-equity deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners in an all-cash transaction valued at $55 billion.
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