CEO Andrew Wilson tells EA staff 5% of them will be laid off via empty and infuriating email
In Shakespeare's Anthony And Cleopatra, said famous woman says "Give to a gracious message an host of tongues, but let ill tidings tell themselves when they be felt." I.e., when you have good news you can go round the houses, but if you have bad news - like sending an all-hands email to the staff at EA to let them know that, less than a year after the last round of layoffs, a further 5% of them are getting booted - then you should just come out and say it as quickly and simply as possible.
This is, apparently, not a sentiment ever internalised by Andrew Wilson, EA's CEO. Yesterday, when he announced to everyone at EA that a bunch of them were losing their jobs (again), he first spent three paragraphs talking about how EA is doing great, leading the industry, getting increasing engagement from fans, optimising their global footprint and sunsetting games oh yep, there it is, that's the "you're about to be unemployed" language right there. The company is moving away from "the development of future licensed IP" and toward "our owned IP, sports, and massive online communities". Therefore: 670 ish devs (by Eurogamer's count) must go.
In another message, EA's president of EA entertainment and technology Laura Miele revealed that, related to this, they've cancelled the Star Wars FPS game Respawn were working on, though it sounds like a new Jedi game is in the works. They've also entirely shut down the Battlefield standalone single-player studio Ridgeline, after game director Marcus Lehto left (under his own steam).
It's sort of bleakly funny to announce you're focusing on online communties when everyone has just decided they have live service fatigue. I'm not sure that EA are in the best position vis. their own IP, either. A lot of the devs they jettisoned in 2023 were veterans at BioWare, meaning deep bites have been taken out of the knowledge base on some of EA's most famous franchises. I'm not best placed to talk about sports stuff, but I understand players of sports
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