Electronic Arts has announced that it will cut 5% of its jobs, which corresponds to 670 employees. In addition to the layoffs, the company intends to reduce the number of offices and decrease the number of games from licensed franchises. The news came in the same week that Sony revealed that it will lay off about 900 workers, 8% of its workforce.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson wrote that the company is “aligning its operations to deliver deeper, more connected experiences to fans.” To do this, it will focus on its “big opportunities”, with its own franchises, sports and large online communities.
Wilson had already touched on the subject at an investor conference in January. At the time, he mentioned Apex Legends, Battlefield, EA Sports FC (formerly FIFA), Madden NFL, and The Sims as examples of franchises with large online audiences.
By focusing on proprietary intellectual property, EA will shut down some games and avoid developing new licensed property titles that the company doesn’t believe will be successful. IGN notes that the company has several Star Wars and Marvel titles confirmed. In addition, Formula 1 and baseball games for mobile phones have been canceled.
Another aspect of the cut is that EA intends to “optimize the global real estate presence to better support the business.” In other words, the company wants to reduce the number of offices to save money. the company said the cuts would support “strategic priorities and growth initiatives.”
In addition to EA, Sony and Microsoft have laid off
EA’s plans were revealed a day after Sony announced that it will lay off about 900 employees, which represents 8% of the company’s workforce. The cuts will involve workers around the world and will mainly affect studios involved in virtual reality. The company’s London studio, which worked exclusively on this, will be closed.
Who is also going to make a big layoff is Microsoft. In January, it announced a cut of 1,900 employees from Xbox and Activision Blizzard. That’s 8% of the gaming division’s workforce. Among gaming companies, Riot Games, Twitch, Discord, and Unity have also laid off staff.
