The wave of layoffs in the video game industry continues: Electronic Arts announced the layoffs of around 670 people, or around 5% of its workforce.
This restructuring will involve the closure of certain offices and facilities, according to a regulatory document. The ax also fell on a first-person shooter set in the Star Wars universe. The title was developed early in its development by studio Respawn Entertainment, which signed the hit series Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi.
The company, based in Redwood City, California, had 13,400 employees worldwide as of March 31, 2023, according to this document.
Electronic Arts has six studios across Canada, including EA Sports in Vancouver and Motive in Montreal. This studio also developed the virtual reality game Star Wars: Squadrons, which was nominated for the Game Awards, considered the Oscars among video games.
The company contacted by Radio-Canada directed our journalist to two blog posts published on its website that do not specify whether Canadian studios will be affected by the announcement. A spokesman said no further information was available at this time.
“While not all teams will be affected, this is the most difficult part of these changes and we have carefully considered all possible options to try to limit the impact on our teams,” said Andrew Wilson, CEO of the company.
Our main goal is to give team members the opportunity to find new roles and find paths to other projects.
Most of those laid off will be notified at the beginning of the next quarter, Wilson said.
This is the second mass layoff announced by Electronic Arts in less than a year. In March 2023, Andrew Wilson announced that the company would be cutting 6% of its workforce, or nearly 800 employees.
Wave of layoffs
The announcement comes days after Sony cut 900 jobs in its PlayStation video game division, representing about 8% of its global workforce.
Sony justified this restructuring with the changes in the industry. However, the company did not respond to a request from Radio-Canada about whether its Montreal-based Haven studio would be affected by this announcement.
It was the first major announcement of layoffs after a brief two-week lull as the start of 2024 was particularly difficult for the tech industry.
Riot Games, a Tencent company, furloughed 11% of its employees in January.
Microsoft also announced last month that it would cut nearly 2,000 jobs in its video game division, which includes Xbox but also the Activision-Blizzard studios it recently owned. Montreal and Quebec-based Beenox Studios, which develops Call of Duty video games, was affected by this announcement and lost 42 jobs.
Montreal studio Behavior Interactive, which developed the horror game Dead by Daylight, ended two glorious years by announcing 40 job cuts in January. And Embracer Group, a Swedish video game giant, lost 97 people at its studio in Eidos-Montreal.
With information from Portal