EA reportedly lays off two thirds of Firemonkeys Studio
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EA-owned Firemonkeys Studios is reportedly the latest developer to suffer layoffs, with up to two thirds of its team at risk.
Kotaku Australia reports the redundancies are being made as Electronic Arts changes the studio's focus. In March, EA announced it was restructuring and would be laying off 6% of its global workforce.
Previously, Firemonkey handled live service operations for mobile titles Real Racing 3, Need for Speed: No Limits and The Sims Freeplay, but it will now focus solely on the latter. Operations for Real Racing and Need for Speed are expected to be moved to EA's India-based studio Slingshot.
The Firemonkeys team were reportedly told about these changes in April, with EA executives telling them the business was to become a "monotitle" studio.
Up to two thirds of the current Firemonkeys team will either be shifted to other projects or laid off. It's understood that the studio's general manager, Joe Donoghue, was already let go on April 28.
GamesIndustry.biz has reached out to Electronic Arts for confirmation and more detail.
EA has already made significant changes to Firemonkeys in the past. In 2019, the publisher laid off a substantial amount of staff as it refocused the studio on live services, reportedly cancelling development work on Real Racing 4.
The latest layoffs following a string of job cuts at various studios around the world, with teams affected including CD Projekt Red, Firaxis, Relic Entertainment, Brace Yourself Games and Deviation Studios.
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