Report: EA Lays Off More Than 200 Apex Legends Workers With No Warning
QA/QV workers for Apex Legends say they have been laid off months before their contract was set to end, being told the news this morning with no prior warning. Two of the affected workers tell TheGamer that the contract terminations will see more than 200 devs out of work, with seemingly no attempt to move them onto other games.
One of the workers tells us that they feel they have been "replaced" by a QA team in the UK that they had been training up, although they haven't been given a reason as to why EA needs to terminate so many contracts. Another, who lost their job just hours after their night shift ended, says it is due to EA seeking to hire "globally", seemingly supporting the idea that the British team they helped train will now take over their old jobs.
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The layoffs affect workers from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. While they may have been contractors, we're told they had worked with EA "for years" on multiple games, although had since been solely focused on Apex Legends.
"I’m on night shifts, so my shift ended at 1am," one worker tells TheGamer. "At 5am we received an email informing us the office was closed and there would be a mandatory zoom meeting at 8am.
"In the call we were told they were doing away with the Baton Rouge QV (Quality Verification) testing team, to move forward with a more diverse global testing team to better reflect the end user."
The same worker says they will receive 60 days of severance pay despite their contract ending in August of this year. This is in compliance with employment law in Louisiana, but leaves the team with little time to pick up new work after expecting to remain in their current positions for most of 2023.
According to staff,
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