Layoffs at EA affect various sectors amid billion-dollar sale

The portal Kotaku has uncovered a new wave of backstage layoffs at Electronic Arts Inc., corroborated by public reports from a dozen terminated professionals. The axe fell on positions related to personnel recruitment, customer support, digital security, information technology, and community support. The restructuring affected remote employees based in the United States and teams located at the Hyderabad office in India, including veteran developers with over a decade at the company. Letting go of experienced professionals who carry practical knowledge of the internal structure highlights how the current leadership prioritizes financial spreadsheets over human capital.

An internal message obtained by the report revealed department heads attempting to justify layoffs under the pretext of adapting operational flows to meet the changing demands of players, transferring tasks to external service providers and other locations. The publisher chose to avoid providing official explanations to the press regarding the real extent of the cuts. This strategic silence occurs precisely as the corporation is tying up the bureaucratic details of its $55 billion sale to an investor group comprising the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners.

The transaction contemplates the purchase of 100% of the assets in cash, offering an inflated amount of $210 per share to current shareholders of the Redwood City, California giant. JPMorgan Chase Bank has secured alone the commitment to finance $20 billion in debt to support the operation.

Curiously, in a document sent to the securities regulatory commission, the publisher's leadership had explicitly assured workers that the corporate daily routine would not undergo drastic changes due to financial negotiations. Blatantly lying to calm employees while preparing mass layoff letters behind the scenes is deplorable behavior, showcasing the level of cynicism in the upper echelons of the gaming industry. The buyers' plan is to keep operational leadership in the hands of Andrew Wilson as CEO after the business conclusion.

The deal's approval now depends on the analysis of competitive authorities in Europe, which have set a deadline of July 22, 2026, to decide whether to approve the acquisition process or open a detailed investigation based on foreign subsidy rules.

This corporate game of musical chairs unfolds alongside the dismissal of workers in other divisions of the publisher over this cycle of months. The Vancouver studio Full Circle confirmed the dismissal of professionals involved in the development of the skateboarding game known tentatively as skate., which has been in early access since last September. The company also reduced teams linked to the Battlefield brand at the beginning of March, making cuts in well-established branches such as Criterion, DICE, Ripple Effect, and Motive.

The irony of this wave of layoffs in the first-person shooter teams becomes even more embarrassing when we analyze the operational numbers of the publisher disclosed in May. The recent Battlefield 6 broke historical revenue records and established itself as the franchise's best financial performance title in a single fiscal year. The company closed the annual balance sheet celebrating a record net revenue of $7.531 billion and net bookings around $8.026 billion. Dismissing its own developers who have just delivered the greatest financial success in a brand's history proves that astronomical profits do not guarantee job stability in today's industry.

This bleak scenario at the distributor reflects the current gloomy moment of the global gaming market, which has been hit by systematic layoffs in various competing companies. The studio responsible for Luna Abyss was wiped out in less than a month after placing the game on digital shelves, Ubisoft San Francisco began the process of laying off up to a hundred employees, and the console division of Xbox continues to be involved in persistent rumors about the closure of more studios. The market seems to have entered a vicious cycle where the artistic and commercial success of a product has lost its relevance to headquarters, which prefer to reduce technical staff to artificially inflate their stock market value in the eyes of the financial market.